Advice Request Best way to get rid of Spam email

Please provide comments and solutions that are helpful to the author of this topic.

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Paul Lee

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Oct 14, 2014
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1) The "Unsubscribe" method: Some emails have an "Unsubscribe" button at the button that makes them stop sending emails. For example, If you've signed up for a newsletter, you could make them stop sending emails by clicking "Unsubscribe"

2) The "Malware cleaning" method: I remember once when my laptop used to be infected with malware. Such malware compsomised my email by sending spam to my contacts as well as to myself. To fix this, you must run an Antivirus solution (Free or paid depending on your preference) which is up-to-date alongside a few second-opinion scanners such as HitmanPro, MalwareBytes Anti-Malware & Emsisoft Emergency Kit.

3)
The "New email" method: If none of the two solutions stated above work, the second-to-last option would be to create a new email. As far as my personal preference goes, I prefer using Gmail as opposed to Yahoo, Hotmail ans so on. In my case for my mother, I created two Gmail accounts: One for personal interactions with friends, one for business purposes & one in which she receives new newsletters, horoscopes etc.

4)
The "Reformat" method: If none of the above solutions work, your best option would be to do a clean install if Windows. This was the solution that worked in my base a few years ago when I was receiving and sending spam emails.

Hope I was of use! :)
 
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ElectricSheep

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Aug 31, 2014
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1) The "Unsubscribe" method: Most emails which aren't sent by people have an "Unsubscribe" button at the button that make them stop sending emails. For example, If you've signed up for a newsletter, you could make them stop sending emails by clicking "Unsubscribe"

2) The "Malware cleaning" method: I remember once when my laptop used to be infected with malware. Such malware compsomised my email by sending spam to my contacts as well as to myself. To fix this, you must run an Antivirus solution (Free or paid depending on your preference) which is up-to-date alongside a few second-opinion scanners such as HitmanPro, MalwareBytes Anti-Malware & Emsisoft Emergency Kit.

3)
The "New email" method: If none of the two solutions stated above work, the second-to-last option would be to create a new email. As far as my personal preference goes, I prefer using Gmail as opposed to Yahoo, Hotmail ans so on. In my case for my mother, I created two Gmail accounts: One for personal interactions with friends, one for business purposes & one in which she receives new newsletters, horoscopes etc.

4)
The "Reformat" method: If none of the above solutions work, your best option would be to do a clean install if Windows. This was the solution that worked in my base a few years ago when I was receiving and sending spam emails.

Hope I was of use! :)

That works. Have a main email only for trusted contacts, such as family and friends; and one or two others for miscellaneous stuff such as companies and other things where you KNOW you're going to get junk from!:p:cool:
 

DardiM

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May 14, 2016
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There are tools / options on some providers that allow to delete or refuse automatically some spam mails
Or some AV than can interact with mail apps.
For example, deleting automatically bad attachment,
Putting automatically the spam on a chosen folder.

What does she used for mails ?
 
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Cats-4_Owners-2

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Dec 4, 2013
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@ng4ever, it's very thoughtful of you to do this for your mom.:)

I agree with everything mentioned above:rolleyes: (particularly to utilize Gmail which, imho, has the most effective Spam filters). I would go a step further than unsubscribing by suggesting she, or you, select the pesky junk emails, and click on the SPAM button. Companies share information, and for this reason, she's probably linked into many who have obtained her email address from others.

A new email, one which could be very similar but ending instead with ...gmail.com, instead, is what I would suggest for my mother.;)
 

LASER_oneXM

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There are tools / options on some providers that allow to delete or refuse automatically some spam mails Or some AV than can interact with mail apps.
For example, deleting automatically bad attachment,
Putting automatically the spam on a chosen folder.

What does she used for mails ?

...yeahhhh .... tons of spam emails... i know this situation quite good.... One of my mail accounts is receiving (since 3 years, per month :mad: ) about 400 spam emails ("holiday", "travels", "offers", "making money" and trash like this) ....still i don't know how this could happen.... :confused:
My email account has the possibility (on the mail server) to configure simple rules for every single email adress. So all this trash/spam mails are disapearing every month automatically and immediately in the "spam" folder. So my "inbox" looks fine again.... I also hve the possibility to immediately delete spam mails. This is already possible on the server so i will never see spam mails in any of my folders....
 
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DardiM

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...yeahhhh .... tons of spam emails... i know this situation quite good.... One of my mail accounts is receiving (since 3 years, per month :mad: ) about 400 spam emails ("holiday", "travels", "offers", "making money" and trash like this) ....still i don't know how this could happen.... :confused:
My email account has the possibility (on the mail server) to configure simple rules for every single email adress. So all this trash/spam mails are disapearing every month automatically and immediately in the "spam" folder. So my "inbox" looks fine again.... I also hve the possibility to immediately delete spam mails. This is already possible on the server so i will never see spam mails in any of my folders....
For me it's easy : Microsoft outlook 2010 + externals accounts : mail are transferred to the app but not spams :p
Old mails from external accounts are automatically removed after some days.
 
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_CyberGhosT_

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I know it sucks, but the tried and true way is method 1 that Paul Lee posted.
Its slow and repetitive but once it is done it is easy to maintain.
I have spent many a evening doing this, usually its only after I set up a new email acct.
Good luck buddy.
 

LASER_oneXM

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@_cyberghost_ i also think it's the best solution. And i also tried to use this possibility to 'unsubscribe' that is (i think) in every spam mail ....
But i think this (weird/sick :mad:) guys won't let you go.... this would be too easy/this seems to be too easy... I think if you unsubscribe they simply sell your adress to another spam provider and you receive again tons of new spam mails.... I don't think that this method works in every case.... so my decission was to create filter rules for all spam mails...
 
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DardiM

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@_cyberghost_ i also think it's the best solution. And i also tried to use the possibility to 'unsubscribe'
that is (i think) in every spam mail .... But i think this (weird/sick :mad:) guys won't let you
go.... this would be too easy/this seems to be too easy... I think if you unsubscribe they simply sell your adress to another spam provider and you receive again tons of new spam mails.... I don't think that this method works in every case.... so my decission was to create filter rules for all spam mails...
I hope you will help @ng4ever mother, then :)
 

Fritz

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Sep 28, 2015
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1) The "Unsubscribe" method: Some emails have an "Unsubscribe" button at the button that makes them stop sending emails. For example, If you've signed up for a newsletter, you could make them stop sending emails by clicking "Unsubscribe"

Just saw this thread and felt I had to respond, even if it's a few months old:

NEVER EVER hit unsubscribe! This would work an a legitimate newsletter, but those shouldn't spam you in the first place. Clicking "unsubscribe" on true spam mails might take you to a drive-by site at the worst, but in any case it'll verify to the spammer that your e-mail address is alive and does exist, which is about the best favor you can do for them. You'll only end up getting even more spam.

I personally recommend a spam filter like SpamSieve, which works great on a Mac but there are others for Windows as well. Also, use a temporary, disposable address for all sorts of giveaways, deals and lotteries if you're into that kind of thing (10minutemail.net, dropmail.me, etc.) in order to avoid ending up on spam lists in the first place.
 

LASER_oneXM

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NEVER EVER hit unsubscribe! This would work an a legitimate newsletter, but those shouldn't spam you in the first place. Clicking "unsubscribe" on true spam mails might take you to a drive-by site at the worst, but in any case it'll verify to the spammer that your e-mail address is alive and does exist, which is about the best favor you can do for them. You'll only end up getting even more spam.

yes, ... i also think that klicking on 'unsubscribe from newsletter' is a quite risky decission. Creating filter rules
(in my case: on my mail server) was quite sucessfull: my inbox is nearly "clean" again. But some (very few) of these weird spammers are frequently making small changes to their sender adresses so (from time to time) i have to create new filter rules....
Some 'modifcations' (for example): "spam(at)spammer(dot)com" and "spam(at)spamer13z(dot)com" or ""spam(at)sppamer(dot)com"
 

Ink

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Thanks everyone she uses Outlook.
It's an issue I have also experienced with the Web version Outlook.com. I used to Select All and Block from the Junk Mail, but no longer possible since the Web UI update. It has to be done manually blocking one-by-one of 35+ spam per day.

Some senders cannot be blocked due to an incorrect email address format, spoofed as yourself, and no wildcards can be used in the Junk Mail settings.
 

frogboy

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Jun 9, 2013
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It's an issue I have also experienced with the Web version Outlook.com. I used to Select All and Block from the Junk Mail, but no longer possible since the Web UI update. It has to be done manually blocking one-by-one of 35+ spam per day.

Some senders cannot be blocked due to an incorrect email address format, spoofed as yourself, and no wildcards can be used in the Junk Mail settings.
Yep same here. :(
 

Nico@FMA

Level 27
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May 11, 2013
1,687
1) The "Unsubscribe" method: Some emails have an "Unsubscribe" button at the button that makes them stop sending emails. For example, If you've signed up for a newsletter, you could make them stop sending emails by clicking "Unsubscribe"

2) The "Malware cleaning" method: I remember once when my laptop used to be infected with malware. Such malware compsomised my email by sending spam to my contacts as well as to myself. To fix this, you must run an Antivirus solution (Free or paid depending on your preference) which is up-to-date alongside a few second-opinion scanners such as HitmanPro, MalwareBytes Anti-Malware & Emsisoft Emergency Kit.

3)
The "New email" method: If none of the two solutions stated above work, the second-to-last option would be to create a new email. As far as my personal preference goes, I prefer using Gmail as opposed to Yahoo, Hotmail ans so on. In my case for my mother, I created two Gmail accounts: One for personal interactions with friends, one for business purposes & one in which she receives new newsletters, horoscopes etc.

4)
The "Reformat" method: If none of the above solutions work, your best option would be to do a clean install if Windows. This was the solution that worked in my base a few years ago when I was receiving and sending spam emails.

Hope I was of use! :)

Hi Paul,
First of all good advise, however i would like to add the following:
The "Unsubscribe" method: legit Marketing and Advertisement companies do have in most cases a working unsubscribe function.
However most not so legit companies just buy millions of email addresses or they do harvest them using automated tools, the problem with this is that the company in most cases does not know that those emails or at least a whole bunch of them are live.
Meaning someone is actually using that email address. Now this is "money" for a company because the moment you use the unsubscribe function you are basically verifying that they have contacted a live email address, and in many cases you will see the amount of spam increase.
Usually playing dumb and just enforce a strict blacklist works better, because most ads carousels work in sessions after 3 sessions no verification? usually the email address is being discarded.
The best way to avoid spam is using a dummy email address, and only keep your real email address for direct contact only.
Do not post your real email on the web, do not share it over social media and do not buy stuff using that email address (use the dummy for that) That will stop spam for the most part.
But eventually spam will reach you.

Cheers
 
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