We're all tired of Nigerian scams, fake sexy invitations, and click-to-get-malware buttons. To save you the trouble, there's no way to completely get rid of spam other than staying off the internet. So the best thing you can do is filter out most of it.
Your email client (the local program or cloud-based service you use to access and send email) almost certainly filters out junk mail and moves suspicious messages to a separate folder. But not everything is perfect. Some of it fools the filters and ends up in your inbox. At the same time, some “normal” messages, called false positives, end up in the junk mail folder.
Although we can't completely get rid of these mistakes, we can definitely reduce them. Let's see how:
Train your filter
When you find spam in your inbox, don't just delete it. Select it and tell mail client that this particular message is spam. How you do this depends on the client. For example, if you're using the Gmail website, click the "Report spam" button in the toolbar (the icon that looks like an exclamation point inside a stop sign).
Additionally, you should also educate the client about false positives . Once a day, go to your Spam folder and look for messages that don’t belong there. When you find one, select it and let the client know that they were wrong. In Gmail, you click the “Not spam” button.
If your mail client is at least decent, it will learn from these mistakes… but only if you train it!
Never reply to spam
If you recognize an email as spam before you open it, DO NOT open it. If you open it and then realize it is spam, close it. Do not click on any links or buttons, or download any files, from an email that looks remotely suspicious.
If you opened an unwanted messagebecause it appeared to come from a friend or colleague, contact them immediately and let them know that their account has been compromised.
Hide your email address
The more people who have your email address, the more spam you're going to receive. So keep your address as "secret" as possible.
Don't post it onlineunless absolutely necessary. And if you must, use a different address for that purpose.
Use disposable email addresses when you're not sure whether to give out your real one. A good option is Blur, a free Chrome and Firefox extension, for this purpose. Other useful options are spamex and mailshell.
Use a third-party anti-spam filter
Most major security suites come with an anti-spam filter that can help with the one already in client , but only if the client is local. In other words, it may work with Office's Outlook program, but not Outlook.com.
In April, AV-Comparatives published an Anti-Spam Test to see how well these tools perform. ESET Smart Security 9 received the highest score for spam detection and for its integration with Outlook.
Change your email address
This is a very drastic solution, if you have responded to spam in the past or have not hidden your address and therefore have been inundated with unwanted messages. This is also your best option.
Of course, you'll need to notify your trusted contacts about the change, and you'll probably have to keep both addresses for a few months. But once you get rid of your old address, your spam count will plummet. So don't waste a minute!
