One of the worst forms that spam comes in is that of email spam which floods your email inbox. Having a spam-inundated email inbox can really make life unbearable. Luckily, it is possible to be protected from spam. This doesn’t mean you’ll never get it again but it doesn’t have to rule you anymore.
Protected from spam – the general idea
The first step to keep your inbox protected from spam is to identify it (the spam). Personally, I break it down into three categories:
- Automated unwanted emails from a known source – You know where the email is coming from and you probably even signed up for it at one time.
- Automated unwanted emails from an unknown source – You may get the occasional random spam message such as someone from a foreign country looking for you to wire them money or even the occasional Cialis ad.
- Forwarded emails – these are the dreaded messages from friends, family and acquaintances. It may be something funny or it may be a warning about some super computer virus worm but either way your look at it, if you don’t want it, call it spam.
To be completely protected from spam, you’ll need to review your email inbox and categorise the different spammy emails that you receive. Then go through the following steps to either get rid of or block them from ever entering your inbox again. There are also a couple of guidelines to keep you protected from spam (or getting more of it!) which you should follow.
Be protected from spam – dealing with automated unwanted emails from a known source
The first category is fairly simple to deal with and avoid in order to keep your inbox protected from spam. Simply unsubscribe. Somewhere in one of the email messages is a link to unsubscribe (or at least there should be). Before doing this, make sure this is an email you recognize. Otherwise, jump to the next category of spam emails.
Be protected from spam – dealing with automated unwanted emails from an unknown source
The second category is one that you need to be careful of. Dealing with unwanted emails from an unknown source in a wrong way can either win you an enormous amount of even more spam messages or perhaps a virus.
The key here is not to open email messages you don’t recognize. Here are a few reasons.
- You can be verifying that your randomly chosen email address is legit just by opening it. A small image file could be embedded someplace and if you open a message, the file will be downloaded tipping off the spammer that they have a real email address. This will of course, bring on the flood of more spam. Avoid this by not opening the message to begin with, and having a setting in your email provider set to not automatically load images upon opening messages.
- You may be asking to get a virus. If you don’t know the sender, you’re better off just deleting it.
Be protected from spam – dealing with forwarded emails
The third category is more of an interpersonal situation that you must either deal with or not deal with it at all by filtering out the messages.
You can filter out any message with FWD or FW in the subject line and most of these will be sent to a folder of your choosing, bypassing the inbox altogether so you’ll never have to look at them.
Keeping your inbox protected from spam by filtering keywords
A good way of dealing with existing spam that managed to crawl into your inbox is to have a keyword filter that segregates “spammy” emails into a different folder where you can either review or delete them. They might not necessary be spam, just irritating emails but either way, are an unpleasant clutter in your inbox.
Go through your email inbox and seek out those spammy emails that you no longer want to see, determine a keyword that’s present in the subject title or email body and add it to your filter.
Protected from spam – One More Trick
There are various ways to reduce or even eliminate spam completely but one method is the three email method. You can use one email address for personal correspondence, one for subscriptions (maybe even social networking updates), and one for junk (i.e. online signups, etc.). For the junk address, you can either create a legit address and use it over and over for junk or you can use a disposable email address.
When it comes to dealing with email spam, there are many different opinions on how to deal with it. Some people go as far as to track down the senders of unsolicited messages for some type of retaliation. Others rely mostly on filters. This article basically outlines this writer’s way of doing things.
How do you protect your email inbox from spam? Share in the comments.
