How do I stop unwanted email

bootman

Please help!!

I am being bombared with !!!!!! and buy V1agra emails and all sorts.

I made the mistake of opening one a while ago and clicking on the unsubscribe button. They did stop for a while but now they are about 20 or so a day :mad:

They are always from a combination of letter such as ixixwdxcds. I don't want to change my email address. They do generally go to my bulk folder and I just delete them without opening but I don't want them at all :mad:

Any advise welcome

matty_c608

Well if you use Outlook express/a mail client rather than a web based service, look around for a SPAM filter.

never used this myself, but top google result for a free one:

http://www.spambutcher.com/

I have web based email anyways (lovely Google Mail...) and that catches ALL spam I get!

Matt.

EDIT: SPambutcher is crud! It says free, but it isn't!

Try this list:

http://email.about.com/cs/winspamreviews/tp/free_spam.htm

coolagarry

I was in the same situation and in the end had to change my email address... I think it's the only real answer. (Incidentally changing my email address and mailing everyone in my address book was no real problem)

smcicr

as coolagarry says - the only way to completely stop it is to change addresses - then be ULTRA careful where you go online, where you enter the new email address etc.

a lot of people have two seperate email addresses for this very purpose: keep one totally clean for friends and real stuff and use the other to sign up to boards and free deals etc.

obviously if this is a free address you're talking about (hotmail / yahoo / lycos etc) then swapping it for another of the same will only help briefly - there was an article ages ago where someone signed up for a new hotmail account, told no-one about it, left it for a day or so and came back to find it already had spam. my hotmail account gets around 20 or 30 spam mails a week, i just delete them and use the report as spam feature - as it's not my main account i don't really care.

2ax

If you do go for a new address, or anyway, don't publish an email address in plain form on any website - forums, your own site, or anything - as web 'bots search the net harvesting email addresses.

People suggest using at and dot in words instead of the characters - things that humans understand easily - but maybe one day the search agents will cotton on to this.

If you have a website yourself, place the email address inside an image file - this cannot be read by searchbots.

If you do go for a new address, chose a name that can't be guessed easily by name dictionary lists - ie not john.smith23 @ isp. Even better is to have your username after the @ sign, although in front may also be valid.

I have had 12 junk emails in two years. Luck much more than judgement to start with.

I've only just been introduced to gmail, but I can see very interesting filtering, forwarding, collating and deletion options if you use addresses that you are willing to consider disposable.
_

edit - I forgot to say ...

If you have Windows XP fully updated, then Outlook Express now blocks images in emails. This is because some of them, sometimes called web-beacons, have a similar function to cookies, and can uniquely identify receipt by you, tallied back to the email address to confirm it is valid.

In older versions of Windows, this blocking did not happen, and the feedback could happen even if the email was seen in the preview pane and not even opened. It may be worth switching the preview pane off, or setting to view emails only as text fomat, not html.

C-3P0

I had to change my address it was a bit of a pain but now I dont get
any junk mail at all.

HTH

windym_2

I use mailwasher - https://www.mailwasher.net basically it lets you read the header and first few lines of each email. You then get the choice of accepting, deleting or bouncing. You can add domains or addresses to your bounce list, so once set up it builds on your 'hate' list until you don't even have to worry about all the cr*p. I have been using it for about 2 years, it used to be free but I think you may have to pay now. Cannot recommend highly enough.

bootman

Thank you everyone for your tips. I only started getting them after finding money saving expert. I went on the free freebie thread and you have to give email details.

I think I will have to change address as you say.

Many thanks

Dude

Not really a solution, but this is a good way of knowing what company “sold/shared” your email address. If you own your own domain name e.g. mydomain.co.uk you could included the company name when you sign up e.g. moneysavingexpert@mydomin.co.uk.

Another option is to use http://www.mailinator.net (website which creates a temporary email address) for when a company emails you a username and password before you can access there website.

ioscorpio

I used to get a lot on yahoo, but since I changed my settings to block all "bulk" emails, I don't get any at all now.

moomintroll_3

When I used a PC I always used SpamPal to catch the spam I got. Pretty good, and free!

G