Email bull crap

[The emperor has no clothes]

This may seem like a stupid and trivial question. But keep in mind I am just a lowly butcher who knows little of the Internet thingy. My wife and I share an email address. Which I've come to understand is unusual to begin with. But that is another story. My question is is there a simpler way to cut down on the amount of emails ? We get stuff from places that range from herbal supplements to everything under the sun. My method has been to unsubscribe from each individual place. Sometimes it works for a while, but they always seem to migrate back. I've noticed in doing so most of them seem to be connected in some way. Their unsubscribe apparatus seems to be identical in groups. Is their a way to deny the entire groups ? My theory (for what it's worth) is that I am missing 1 or 2 in the group and they propagate back. I'm sure most of the ones that I want to rid are sites that my wife looked at or heaven forbid bought something on. So I'm sure this is a self induced thing.

[Serk]

If these are from places you never actually subscribed to or did business with, using the unsubscribe option just confirms that they've got a real live e-mail address on their hands...

ONLY use the unsubscribe option for lists that you've subscribed to or companies you've done business with.

[Valkorado]

I've heard that unsubscribing emails from some unscrupulous companies will trigger their bots to share your address with other companies, exacerbating the problem.

[hubcapsc]

I read my email at gmail.com (google mail). hubcap@clemson.edu, my email
address for the last 30+ years, goes there. I must get TONS of spam. I mostly
don't see any of it, and I mostly don't find any desirable mails in the spam
box, which I rarely look in. There's a button to press to mark emails as spam
for those that get through. I'd never unsubscribe to any of these things, that
lets them know "hey. we've got a live one! We'll add it to the list of known
good email addresses that we sell to other spammers..."

-Mike "perhaps I'll get some more spam since I included my email in this message"

[The emperor has no clothes]

Damn  I wish I'd have asked somebody this years ago. Thanks guys  If you guys ever have any questions on the highest margins for cutting a Short Loin, I'm your man. 

[The emperor has no clothes]

I read my email at gmail.com (google mail). hubcap@clemson.edu, my email
address for the last 30+ years, goes there. I must get TONS of spam. I mostly
don't see any of it, and I mostly don't find any desirable mails in the spam
box, which I rarely look in. There's a button to press to mark emails as spam
for those that get through. I'd never unsubscribe to any of these things, that
lets them know "hey. we've got a live one! We'll add it to the list of known
good email addresses that we sell to other spammers..."

-Mike "perhaps I'll get some more spam since I included my email in this message"

Sorry about that  Prepare yourself for some Carbona Gambicha supplement email. (Or something like that) 

[Wizzard]

I use Thunderbird client for my email. Its free and it has a spam blocker built in that works really well.

[indybobm]

A lot of email programs will let you 'Block' the email from that person. Next time you get one, it goes in the Deleted or Trash folder.

[Jess Tolbirt]

mailwasher.com

[Alpha Dog]

Man  0  Man MH I had the same problem and bad same as you with old embarq account ( bought out by Century LInk )  Crap just kept coming.  I would spend an hour unsubscribing and week or so in it comes again from places I would never think of.   Now I know why. Thanks folks for the explanation.  I switched to gmail with my google plus account 6 months ago and now I  get none, only my  business clients and family which is the way I want it.

Huge plus to this motorcycle website is someone(s) always knows the answer and the cure.  

[sheets]

This is a good topic. I've been experiencing the same for the past few months. Non-stop junk. I did the UN-subscribe thing as mentioned with no net change. My email provider has a option in Tools/email Options to block email at their server level. I have 200 email addys listed there. Interestingly enough, many from the same vendor (?) keep finding their way back under a slightly different variation of the previously blocked addy. The invasion rate is down to a trickle so I know I've made some measure of progress in getting rid of them. Just don't know how they find me to begin with. Wife and me have individual emails. She does all the shopping and rarely gets spam. I do all the travel arrangements and a few vendors. Seems like once I start booking lodging online is when I get bombarded with junk. Process of elimination for the most part but seems as though when I book motels through the actual motel website and avoid the sites that offer up all the best deals I don't trigger the onslaught of junk mail from places with bizarre names and addys. Thanks for posing this question!      

[signart]

I use Thunderbird client for my email. Its free and it has a spam blocker built in that works really well.

T-Bird user and find it works well also.

[Jess Tolbirt]

I use Thunderbird client for my email. Its free and it has a spam blocker built in that works really well.

T-Bird user and find it works well also.

T-bird user and i didnt know about this...hmmmmmm

[Gryphon Rider]

I read my email at gmail.com (google mail). hxxxp@cxxxxxn.edu, my email
address for the last 30+ years, goes there. I must get TONS of spam. I mostly
don't see any of it, and I mostly don't find any desirable mails in the spam
box, which I rarely look in. There's a button to press to mark emails as spam
for those that get through. I'd never unsubscribe to any of these things, that
lets them know "hey. we've got a live one! We'll add it to the list of known
good email addresses that we sell to other spammers..."

-Mike "perhaps I'll get some more spam since I included my email in this message"

Well, edit your message to omit your email already.  Seriously.

[jim@98valkyrie.com]

Also, if after setting your spam, you still get emails that get through (it's not a perfect system), you can usually set up "rules" that will look at the email before you see it and put it in a tidy little folder-usually SPAM or TRASH.

[vanagon40]

I agree with the recommendations for gmail. The account is free and the spam filter is very good.

Some additional tips.

Email accounts are free. Open a new account to use when making purchases online. I have multiple accounts for different uses. Use different passwords for the accounts.

As previously suggested, often unsubscribing simply confirms a real address. In gmail, you can “report” the email as spam and it will eventually be filtered.

You can also use alterations of your gmail address to filter garbage (or determine who is selling your address). If your gmail address is johnsmith@gmail.com, you can put a period anywhere in the address and gmail will ignore it. So if you use john.smith@gmail.com to make a purchase, and you start getting spam to john.smith@gmail.com, you know who sold your address. You can also add a plus sign and any word before the @ sign. If you use johnsmith+rbc@gmail.com when you purchase checks from RBC Checks, you will again be able to filter the emails and know when RBC Checks has sold your address. Check out this article.

Good luck.

[3fan4life]

I agree with the recommendations for gmail. The account is free and the spam filter is very good.

Some additional tips.

Email accounts are free. Open a new account to use when making purchases online. I have multiple accounts for different uses. Use different passwords for the accounts.

As previously suggested, often unsubscribing simply confirms a real address. In gmail, you can “report” the email as spam and it will eventually be filtered.

You can also use alterations of your gmail address to filter garbage (or determine who is selling your address). If your gmail address is johnsmith@gmail.com, you can put a period anywhere in the address and gmail will ignore it. So if you use john.smith@gmail.com to make a purchase, and you start getting spam to john.smith@gmail.com, you know who sold your address. You can also add a plus sign and any word before the @ sign. If you use johnsmith+rbc@gmail.com when you purchase checks from RBC Checks, you will again be able to filter the emails and know when RBC Checks has sold your address. Check out this article.

Good luck.

VERY INTERESTING

I have used gmail for years and did not know this, I'll have to give it a try.

For the most part Gmail's spam filter works very well, I rarely EVER get an email in my inbox that is truly spam.

[Jess Tolbirt]

sort of like gmail, i have my own domain as do others on here, and you can put anything you want before the @ sign to @jess2.com and I will get it, so if you send an email to buttnugget@jess2.com it will come to me

[Pete]

Thunderbird has two additional options you may use.
You can set up email filters using keywords, etc  to take care of junk emails.
You can also set a switch to check you current email address book against incoming emails and eliminate junk mail and other emails that way.

Gmail being Google mail is owned and controlled by Google, do you really trust them with you personal info? Same with Yahoo, AOL or any other web marketeer. I would only use those email boxes for general non personal info.

Gmail, Yahoo, AOL and others often use webmail (browser access to emails) where the mail is stored and maintained on the providers server. I prefer an email client like Thunderbird where the email can be maintained and stored on my PC and can be deleted from the provider as soon as it is downloaded to my PC.

[F6Dave]

Just set up two accounts.  One for your friends and important stuff like your bank and credit card company, etc.  Give out the other to all those places that want an email address when you buy something.  Most of the junk will end up there and be easy to delete.

[F6Dave]

I'll add that you should never click a link in an email, unless you are CERTAIN it was sent by someone you trust.  With spammers spoofing legitimate email addresses, emails can often be disguised to look like they came from someone you know.

Clicking the 'Unsubscribe' link in a spam email could take you to a website that might download bad things to your computer, like 'ransomware'.

[3fan4life]

sort of like gmail, i have my own domain as do others on here, and you can put anything you want before the @ sign to @jess2.com and I will get it, so if you send an email to buttnugget@jess2.com it will come to me

Interesting choice of words:



I don't think that I'll be sending an email to buttnugget anything. Talk about something that might generate some interesting SPAM.

[Serk]

Another option is to run your own Linux server and have your own domain(s), you can set up an e-mail alias for every site going to your main address, so if you start getting spammed too much from one you just turn off that alias, for instance vrcc@mydomain.com for here, and amazon@mydomain.com for your amazon account etc.
Once you've got that up and running, in addition to using Thunderbird as your e-mail client, you can set up SpamAssassin to filter your incoming mail as well, it's pretty good about figuring out what's spam and what's not.
Then you have your spam set aside in it's own folder, and feed all of it into SpamCop, which is a service that processes your spam and automatically send complaints to the upstream ISP's that it originated from.

Feels good having spammers Internet connections turned off!

[Gryphon Rider]

I also have my own domain name for email. Any time I want I can set up new addresses, or set up phantom addresses that redirect to an actual email. E.g. if I'm organizing an event, I create a phantom email, eventname@mydomain.com, which is redirected to myname@mydomain.com; when the event is finished, I delete the phantom address.

[Paxton]

IMHO, SPAM is better with eggs and potatoes. 

[Valker]

I've had the same Hotmail account formany years. Hotmail gives me ten filters that I can set. Works great!

[BnB Tom]

Another option is to run your own Linux server and have your own domain ...

  Isn't that what Hillary did?  

[Serk]

Another option is to run your own Linux server and have your own domain ...

  Isn't that what Hillary did?  

No, her private mail server was running Windows Server 2008, IIS 7.5 and Exchange 2010... If it was running Linux, it might have stayed secure...

[saddlesore]

I got Kaspersky sceurity with a package deal a couple of months ago.   I was having the same problem that kept getting worse.  I ran a complete scan with Kaspersky and it found some adware.  I had it removed and it stopped all the ads.
I also block the sender from future e-mails.