How to stop receiving spam emails

A spam email, also known as junk email, is an unsolicited message sent out in bulk, typically for advertising products and services to you.

Not only are they annoying, but they can also contain various threats, such as fraudulent offers, phishing scams, or dangerous attachments that attempt to spread malware onto your device, hijack your account, or steal your login credentials.

Thankfully, there’s a lot you can do to stop spam emails. Here we’ve outlined 10 ways of getting rid of spam emails, as well as the reasons you’re getting them, the common types of spam emails to watch out for, and more.

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1. Block the sender’s email address
2. Mark the email as spam
3. Unsubscribe from the mailing list
4. Keep your email address private
5. Train your spam filter
6. Use a third-party spam filter
7. Change your email address
8. Keep Your Email Address Hidden
9. Don’t interact with spam emails
10. Read apps and websites’ terms and conditions

10 ways to stop getting spam emails

Most email service providers should already have a built-in spam filter in place, helping you identify suspicious emails and dump them into the spam folder. However, some always manage to sneak their way into your inbox. Thankfully, there are many ways to prevent spam emails from reaching you.

1. Block the sender’s email address

An easy way to stop getting spam emails is to block the sender’s email address. Although this won’t stop the sender from sending you emails, they’ll be automatically moved to the spam folder and kept away from your inbox.

How to block spam emails in Gmail

1. On your computer, go to Gmail.
2. Open the email.
3. At the top-right, click the three-dot icon.
4. Click Block [sender].

How to block spam emails in Yahoo Mail:

1. On your computer, go to Yahoo Mail.
2. Open the email.
3. At the bottom, click the three-dot icon.
4. Click Block sender.
5. Adjust the options if needed. Click OK.

How to block spam emails in Microsoft Outlook:

1. On your computer, open Microsoft Outlook.
2. Select the message or the sender you want to block.
3. From the toolbar, click Junk > Block.
4. Click OK.

How to block spam emails in Apple Mail:

1. On your Apple computer, open Mail.
2. Select the message you want to block.
3. Click the downward arrow next to the sender’s name.
4. Click Block Contact.

2. Mark the email as spam

When you mark an email as spam, emails coming from the same sender will automatically move to the spam folder. This also helps your email service provider to identify similar messages as spam in the future and keep them away from you as well as other users.

How to mark an email as spam in Gmail:

1. On your computer, open Gmail.
2. Select the spam email.
3. Click Report spam.

How to mark an email as spam in Yahoo Mail:

1. On your computer, open Yahoo Mail.
2. Select the spam email.
3. At the top, click Spam > Report Spam.

How to mark an email spam in Microsoft Outlook:

1. On your computer, open Microsoft Outlook.
2. On the left, click Junk Email.
3. Select the spam email.
4. At the top, click Junk > Junk.

How to mark an email as spam in Apple Mail:

1. On your Apple computer, open Mail.
2. Select the spam message.
3. From the toolbar, click Message > Move to Junk.

3. Unsubscribe from the mailing list

When you unsubscribe from a mailing list, you are telling the sender that you no longer want to receive emails from them. Almost all email marketing platforms have strict no-spam policies. This means when you unsubscribe from a mailing list, senders will likely be unable to send any emails to you unless you re-subscribe.

How to unsubscribe from individual emails

There are two ways to unsubscribe from individual emails. You can click the “unsubscribe” button that is normally included at an email footer, or click the “unsubscribe” option appearing next to the sender email address at the top.

How to unsubscribe from multiple emails

If you have a lot of emails you want to unsubscribe from, it can be easier for you to use a third-party service to unsubscribe from multiple service providers at a time. After signing up with the service, it’ll display a list of your subscriptions and allow you to easily opt out of each with a single click. Needless to say, you’ll need to give the service permission to view and manage your emails and contacts.

Unsubscribing from emails vs. filtering unwanted emails

Although they have the same objective, unsubscribing from emails and filtering unwanted emails serve different needs.

When you unsubscribe from emails, it’s mostly for email regarding services or goods you’re no longer interested in. Unsubscribing tends to be the easier option out of the two.

In the cases where the “unsubscribe” option isn’t available, such as when a private sender swamps you with emails, you can create a filter for them. Once filtered, you can either archive or delete the email.

4. Keep your email address private

For starters, keep your email address private by using a strong password and staying secure when using public Wi-Fi. In addition, some email service providers come with privacy settings you can adjust to give you an extra layer of cover.

Google’s privacy settings

There are multiple settings you can check to ensure your email privacy.

To access the settings:

1. Go to the Gmail interface.
2. At the top-right, click the gear icon > See all settings.

When you’re in there, click the following tabs:

• Accounts and Imports: Make sure the email addresses listed next to “send mail as” are known to you. Also, check “grant access to your account” and see if you’re unknowingly granting your account access to unknown users.
• Forwarding and POP/IMAP: Ensure you’re not forwarding your emails to unknown receipts next to “Forwarding.”

Yahoo Mail’s privacy settings

Yahoo Mail’s settings don’t really offer much in the privacy context, but it’s still worth it to go through each of them for necessary adjustments. To access the settings:

1. Go to the Yahoo Mail interface.
2. At the top-right, click Settings > More Settings.
3. On the left, check and adjust each setting if needed.

Microsoft Outlook’s privacy settings

Similar to Yahoo Mail, Microsoft Outlook’s settings aren’t particularly geared towards privacy. You can still check out the settings and see which ones to adjust for yourself. To access the settings:

1. Go to the Microsoft Outlook interface.
2. At the top, click Settings > Options.
3. Click Settings.

Apple Mail’s privacy settings

Apple Mail offers the Mail Privacy Protection feature which hides your IP address from senders and blocks all remote content, which lets trackers keep a tracker of your mail activity. To set it up:

1. On your Apple computer, open Mail.
2. From the toolbar, click Mail > Preferences…
3. Click Privacy.
4. Check Protect Mail Activity.

5. Train your spam filter

You can train your spam filter when you regularly mark unwanted emails as spam and move any false-reported emails back to your inbox—so that it’d recognize which email addresses to trust or not. To mark an email as spam, simply follow the steps we’ve outlined above. To mark false-reported emails, read on.

Move emails back from spam folder to inbox

For emails that are incorrectly treated as spam, make a habit of moving them back to your inbox.

How to move an email out of the spam folder in Gmail:

1. On your computer, open Gmail.
2. On the left, click Spam.
3. Select the email that’s incorrectly treated as spam.
4. At the top, click Not spam.

How to move an email out of the spam folder in Yahoo Mail:

1. On your computer, open Yahoo Mail.
2. On the left, click Spam.
3. Select the email that’s correctly treated as spam.
4. At the top, click Not Spam.

How to move an email out of the spam folder in Microsoft Outlook:

1. On your computer, open Microsoft Outlook.
2. On the left, click Junk Email.
3. Select the email that’s incorrectly treated as spam.
4. At the top, click Not junk.

How to move an email out of the spam folder in Apple Mail:

1. On your Apple computer, open Mail.
2. On the left, click Junk.
3. From the toolbar, click Message > Move to Inbox.

6. Use a third-party spam filter

A spam filter protects you from junk emails, blocking phishing attacks, malware, and viruses. Many email service providers like Google or Yahoo Mail already have a filter in place, sending junk emails directly to the spam folder.

But if junk emails are constantly slipping through the cracks, it’s time to invest in a third-party spam filter. They work by analyzing the email address, subject line, content, attachments, and other elements before assigning a spam score, which will determine whether an email is a spam or not. You can often download them on your device as software.

7. Change your email address

Sometimes it’s good to start with a clean slate and open a new email address. While most email service providers don’t let you change your email address, you can still create a new email address and forward some of the emails sent to your original email address to your new one.

8. Keep Your Email Address Hidden

These days, many email service providers provide ways to hide your email address and keep it private. It is usually done by adding an alias to your original email address and using it to send or receive emails. When needed, you can also create disposable email addresses to forward emails to your original email address.

9. Don’t interact with spam emails

This one seems to go without saying, but some spam emails can trick us by looking incredibly legitimate with their offers or content. The bottom line is, whenever you see a spam email, never open any link or attachment in it, or respond to it. Some spam emails will disguise themselves as legitimate organizations such as your bank or your company. These are called phishing attacks. To detect them, carefully double-check the sender information.

10. Read apps and websites’ terms and conditions

When reading a company’s terms and conditions, pay attention to what it says about handling your personal data with third-party companies. While it’s rare for companies to directly say that they sell your email address to third parties, it can be implied.

How to delete spam emails

A good first step to removing spam emails from your life is to declutter your spam folder. There can be cases where some emails are incorrectly marked as spam, and if that’s the case, move them back to your inbox.

How to delete spam emails in Gmail:

1. On your computer, open Gmail.
2. On the left, click More > Spam.
3. Select all the spam emails.
4. Click Delete forever.

How to delete spam emails in Yahoo Mail:

1. On your computer, open Yahoo Mail.
2. On the left, click Spam.
3. Select all the spam emails.
4. Click Delete > OK.

How to delete spam emails in Microsoft Outlook:

1. On your computer, open Microsoft Outlook.
2. On the left, right-click Junk Email.
3. Click Empty Folder > Yes.

How to delete spam emails in Apple Mail:

1. On your Apple computer, open Mail.
2. On the left, click Junk.
3. At the top, click Edit > Select All.
4. Click the bin icon > Delete.

Why am I suddenly getting a lot of spam emails?

It’s likely your email address has ended up in a mailing list that spammers use to send unsolicited emails your way. This happens when you give out your email address to a seemingly harmless service without reading their terms and conditions. In other cases, you might have given your email address to a company asking for it in return for a freebie they’re offering you.

Many of these services gather your email address and sell them in lists to third-party companies for a profit. These companies specialize in sending you spam, from promoting products or services to spreading malware onto your device. There are also cases of data breaches where your email address is leaked and ends up in the hands of spammers.

Common types of spam emails

Trojan horses

Taking its name from the ancient Greek tale, a trojan horse refers to a malware disguised as something friendly, luring you to drop your guard and allow its entry to your device. In the context of spam emails, the trojan horse can be hidden in an email attachment or an URL that’s seemingless harmless to open. But as soon as you open it, the trojan horse can harm you in different ways. Trojans can crash your device, steal your data, hold your data up for ransom, and spy on you with methods like keystroke logging.

Zombies

If zombies are people back from the dead, zombie emails are long-closed conversations that resurface out of the blue. That is, you get a reply to a dormant email conversation one day, and only this time it’s an attacker behind this. They have taken control of the account of the person you corresponded with. Similar to other spam emails, zombie emails often contain a phishing link or malicious attachment designed to steal your personal information. They remain popular as they play on your trust in someone you know and a past conversation that actually took place.

Phishing

Phishing is a type of social engineering designed to manipulate you into giving up sensitive personal information like your passwords, credit card, or bank details, or installing malicious software on your device. It can take the form of emails pretending to be from someone you trust, such as a company whose services you use. Learn the telltale signs of a phishing email.

Lottery scams and fake offers

“If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.” This mantra is still current, especially in the case of emails claiming you just won a lottery. These lottery scams offer an unexpected fortune upon providing your full details, including your name, phone number, and home address. Needless to say, this is another phishing scam used to get you to give in your credentials for malicious purposes.

Fake offer emails will offer you something free or irresistible from the start. They can lure you into clicking on the malicious links or making a payment upfront in the promise of huge fortunes. One rising trend is scam emails offering fake job opportunities, only to trick you into giving in your credentials and exploiting them for money laundering.