I want some advice on stopping e-mail spam?

Question

It just keeps coming. I do not even enjoy checking my emaill any more.

Answer 1

Here's what I do. It's called "whitelisting." It's the only way to ensure that you never get spam. It is a bit of work to set up, and can be a pain for any friends you overlook, but it's worth it. These instructions are for GMail. You can do the same thing with Outlook, but other than GMail, I am not aware of any free e-mail provider with the proper features:



First, choose a password. The purpose of the password will become clear later. For this example, I'll use the password, "whitelist".



Second, set up a second gmail account. For this example, we will suppose that this second account is "[e-mail]".



SET UP THIS FILTER IN GMAIL

From: -([e-mail] OR [e-mail] OR myemployer.com OR mychurch.org OR .edu OR .gov)

Subject: -(whitelist)

Action: Skip Inbox, Forward it to [e-mail], Delete it.



SET UP THIS "VACATION RESPONDER" IN ACCOUNT2

You are receiving this message because you have sent me an e-mail, but you are not on my whitelist. Your message to me was automatically deleted. If you believe that you should be on my whitelist, then send me an e-mail with the subject line, "whitelist" (without quotes). Regardless of the sender, I receive all e-mails whose subject is, "whitelist".



Now you will only receive e-mail from people (or domains) in your whitelist. If you've overlooked anybody, they can send you an e-mail titled, "whitelist", and you will get it. Then you'll have the option to add them to your filter, above. If you are expecting an e-mail that you don't get, then you can check Account2, where everything that's not on your whitelist goes.



HINTS

Putting mychurch.org into your filter will allow you to receive e-mail from anybody whose address ends in @mychurch.org.



Putting .gov into your filter will allow you to receive e-mails from any US government agency. Same goes for .edu. I've never received spam from .gov, .edu, or .mil



Here are some common domains you may want in your filter:



google.com (this isn't gmail.com. This will allow you to get e-mail message from the Google company)



amazon.com

newegg.com

yourbank.com

youremployer.com

youtube.com

anydomainyoucompletelytrust.com



Also, if you own your own domain, then it wouldn't hurt to add that.

Answer 2

The big thing is to set your email to block Senders list in Windows mail under Tools once you identify an unknown one or domain. Turn off toolbars you do not use since they are a big source of spam especially AOL.

For some more free advice, check out the Asystants site.

Answer 3

If you subscripe to a lot of free services- expect them to sell your email address to others. You own ISP is probably the worse- I know Bell Canada is. Stay away from tools bars, you do not need. Finally, if it won't stop- get a new email like GMAIL and just send your really good friends the new one. I found lots of other advice for free on the Asystematics site.

Answer 4

Start unsubscribing from the stuff you get.