Sign Up For Spam Emails by Accident? Here are Some Tips

It’s easy to accidentally sign up for spam emails while looking for a discount code, for example, or just doing some online shopping—which can quickly turn your inbox into a disorganized mess. The good news is: we can show you some ways to deal with what seems like an endless stream of spam.

• Block the spam. You can do something about unwanted emails that continue to come into your inbox. It doesn’t matter if they’re marketing emails from a store you shopped at once or messages from a mailing list you signed up for a decade ago. Instead of just deleting them, you can block the email address, so you don’t receive these messages anymore. Each email client is slightly different in the steps you walk through to block an address should you accidentally sign up for spam emails.
  

  

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  Gmail makes it easy to block unwanted spam emails by simply clicking the three dots on the right side of your browser window in the field that shows who sent the email. One of the options in the menu that drops down is to block the sender.

  You never have to open spam emails in Outlook. Instead, you can right-click on the message to pop up a menu. Select the “Junk” option, which will slide out an additional menu. At the top of the menu should be an option to “Block Sender.”

  Yahoo!’s process is also simple: you can right-click on an unopened email and click “Block senders.” You can also block a sender from an open message by scrolling to the bottom of a message in the web browser version, where you’ll see a bar with icons for options to reply, reply all, and forward. On the right side of this small bar, there are three dots. A menu will pop up when you click the dots, and one option will be to “Block sender.”

  Yes, blocking email addresses requires that you manually go through and do it. But once you’re done, you won’t have to worry about receiving messages from that particular sender anymore.

• Unsubscribe. Unsubscribing from all the unwanted mailing lists can be a pain, as well, but it’s also worth the extra effort in the long run. A note of caution: when unsubscribing, make sure you only click links for companies you trust. For instance, if you’ve decided you’re done receiving emails from a trusted online shop you’ve used several times, it’s likely safe to click the like at the bottom of their email to unsubscribe. However, you might receive random promotional emails from sites you never signed up for. The unsubscribe link could direct you to a website that confirms that your email address is real. The site will then sell your email address to other websites’ mailing lists and sign your email up for spam emails, which will compound the problem. In this case, it would be best to either block the address or mark it as spam so you don’t have to see it anymore.
• Set up a specific email address just for mailing lists. Most of us have signed up for mailing lists in order to get free shipping, for example, or maybe a percentage off an order. The problem arises in the coming weeks and months when that company bombards your inbox with promotional emails several times a day. You can keep your inbox clean by creating a separate email address for promotional emailing lists.

  A “burner email address” makes it easier to separate the spammy stuff from your work or personal email. Now you have a place for promotional emails that doesn’t interfere with your more important items.

• Use inbox rules. One of the easiest ways to keep your inbox clean is by creating inbox rules that will automatically organize incoming emails. There are a few ways you can establish your rules and send messages to a designated folder. You can set rules based on a specific sender, keywords in the subject line, and messages sent to a group. Your inbox will move messages to designated folders as they come in so that you can keep your inbox more organized.
• “Teach” your spam filters to identify spam. Many email clients use programming integrated into the software that allows them to “learn” some of your email habits. Have you ever noticed that sometimes you suddenly stop seeing emails from a particular sender? Your email client “takes notes” as you sort your emails each day, so if there’s a sender whose emails you always delete without opening, they’ll eventually get sorted as spam and go straight to your spam folder. This kind of automation often takes time before it will take effect and might not go into effect with some email addresses or platforms.

  The faster way is to use the spam button. Gmail offers an option to “Report spam” in the same location as the option to block the sender. You can send messages directly to your Junk or Spam folder in Outlook, then incoming emails from that sender will continue to be marked as spam. Yahoo! Mail shows a “Spam” option when the user right-clicks on a message.

Keep your inbox clean and tidy by using these tips above and say goodbye to the junk! Need more email organization tips? Learn more about topics like how to forward an email or send one as text, or when to use encryption, how to manage spam, and more.