Say goodbye to spam: 6 tips to protect your email address

Email addresses are essentially a part of our identities. Whether it’s our personal or professional life, we use them everywhere. Unfortunately, these days our email addresses are also a prime target of spammers who love bombarding our inbox with thousands of unsolicited messages and malicious links. Don’t worry. I can assure you that with certain precautions and remedial measures, you can effectively stop spam emails from flooding your inbox. In this post today, I will share 6 tips to help you combat the menace of spam emails. I have successfully fought email spam, and now I am confident that by following the tips shared in this article, you too can get rid of email spam for the good!

Why email spam is concerning?

Email spam is not merely an annoyance; but it also possesses a serious risk to your privacy and security. Here are a few reasons why unabated email spam may be alarming:

• Privacy Invasion: Spammers often include tracking mechanisms such as web beacons and pixels in emails, which can notify them whenever you open that email, thereby revealing that your email address is active. This simple verification trick can encourage the spammers to target even more spam attacks on your inbox.
• Phishing Attacks: Spam emails are very commonly used for launching phishing attacks, which may lead to substantial financial or identity theft, if someone falls prey to them.
• Malware Attack: Such emails often include malicious attachments or links which, when clicked or downloaded, may potentially infect your device with viruses and malware such as ransomware and spyware.
• Anxiety and Stress: With constant influx of spam emails, you may worry about missing important emails. This creates a sense of anxiety and stress.

6 effective tips for combating email spam in 2023

Now let’s start fighting email spam right away by following these essential tips:

1. Use a separate email address for online activities

We all are often required to signup with our email address for various online apps, services and forums. Once we sign up, these apps, websites, and services store our email addresses, which may then be distributed / sold to third-party marketing agencies. Result? Spam calls and emails.

Therefore, the best way is to avoid signing up for anything on the internet using your personal email address. Create a separate email account instead and let spam keep hitting this alternative email account. You will at-least have peace of mind whenever you open your primary / personal email account.

2. Use a disposable temporary email address

Using disposable temporary emails is gaining ground these days. But let’s first understand what exactly is a Disposable Email Address:

A Disposable email address is a temporary email account which can either be manually deleted or set to auto expire after a specific period of time. You can of course access your temporary email account anytime as long as it has not expired.

The key utility of using a disposable email address is to fight spam. Whenever you are required to signup for any non-essential service such as games, entertainment forums, or even apps that you do not intend to use long term personally, you can signup for all of them using a temporary email address. This way, your real / personal email account remains shielded from unsolicited emails of spammers.

Temp mail is one of my favorite disposable email address service providers.

Just as you are on their homepage, Temp Email provides you a unique temporary email address, which you can copy and use while signing up for various non-essential apps and services. You can also view incoming emails in your new disposable email account right on the homepage. The best part is that Temp mail also comes with mobile apps for android and iOS, which makes it so much convenient to use.

3. Stop displaying your personal email address publicly

One common mistake we all make is that we often leave our personal email addresses to show up on various online places such as Quora, online forums, directories, social media profiles, including comments made on various blogs or websites.

Now, why is this a problem?

It’s a problem because this habit leaves our email addresses more vulnerable to be scrapped for malicious purposes. Spammers use automated tools to scan websites, social media profiles, and online directories for email addresses. Once they find an email address, they add it to their spamming lists, resulting in an influx of unsolicited spam marketing / promotional emails.

Therefore, stop doing this right now and be more conscious with the public display of your personal email address.

If you’re a blogger or website owner, avoid displaying your email address in plain text on your website or social media profiles. Instead, use contact forms or email obfuscation techniques to make it harder for automated tools to harvest your email address. Here are some good email obfuscation techniques that you can consider.

4. Exercise caution with email subscriptions and online forms

Have you ever found yourself questioning — Why am I suddenly getting a lot of spam emails?

One of the most common reasons for sudden influx of spam is signing up for email subscriptions on various blogs or websites.

It’s common for websites to share / sell your email information to third parties. Therefore, whenever you sign up for email subscriptions or fill any online form, exercise caution to prevent your email address from falling into the wrong hands. Only subscribe to reputable and trustworthy websites or newsletters. Be wary of websites that require excessive personal information or seem suspicious. Additionally, do check the privacy policy of the website (here’s mine for example) to ensure they won’t sell or share your email address with third parties.

That said, it’s also important to read the terms and conditions on websites carefully before you decide to sign via email. Look out for any clauses related to data sharing or marketing communications. If you come across anything that raises concerns, consider using a disposable email address or opting out of the subscription altogether!

5. Use anti-spam email filters

Using email services with strong anti spam filters is another line of defense against email spam. If you intend to use free email services, then Gmail and Outlook offer pretty good anti-spam features. In Outlook, you can even adjust the level of spam detection between Low and High. In case you are hyper sensitive about junk emails and choose to be more restrictive, then you can select ‘Safe Lists Only‘ mode in your Outlook. Once activated, messages from anyone who is not in your safe senders’ list won’t appear in your inbox.

That said, if you value more privacy, then the spam detection technology of Proton Mail is far more superior than that provided by free email service provider.

6. Report and Block Spam Emails

While taking proactive steps to stop spam emails is one good thing, it’s equally important to report them to your email provider as soon as you spot them in your inbox. Most email providers have a built-in reporting feature that allows you to mark emails as spam. Reporting spam helps your email provider improve their spam filters, while also protecting other users from similar spam emails.

In addition to reporting spam, make sure you also block the sender of the spam email. Reporting and blocking a sender ensures that their future emails are automatically sent to your spam folder or blocked altogether from reaching your inbox.

How do you deal with spam emails?

By implementing these strategies, you can reclaim control over your email address and enjoy a clean and secure inbox. So, take action today and say goodbye to spam once and for all!