stopping spam

Brie

I'm getting really really tired of deleting all the carp that comes to my email account.  And I'm very careful about what I've signed up for, never click on links, always go to proper websites but obviously something, somewhere has happened.  

So I get a few emails every day from "dragon's den" but of course each one is from a different email address/domain so blocking isn't really effective.  And more supposedly from "currys", again all different.  I suspect i am blocking a few legitimate sites but I guess that's a risk I need to take.  

What really bugs me is the vast number of !!!!!! emails - you know the type.  And it's not just the viagra ones.  It's promises of "view my video" etc etc with language that would shock a fish wife.  (nothing I've not heard before but must be a bit much for someone from a more sheltered background than myself.)

So the question is - how can I make these stop?  I can't set up rules to immediately block/file due to the constantly changing email addresses and I can't find the source.  fyi - outlook/hotmail seems to have the problem but my gmail account doesn't.  But gmail keeps setting me up automatically for local freegle which is weird.

And on a vaguely related query - if anyone knows a magic solution to stop the scam/automated calls to our landline that would be divine too.  Can't screen/ignore calls as we got lots of legit ones from various places in and out of the UK.  TPS isn't working for us as the origins are no doubt outside the UK.

Ergates

Any legitimate site will give you an unsubscribe option - though obviously be careful of what you click on.

Other than that - unless your ISP filters out known spam emails there isn't a great deal you can do.   Same with the calls.

k_man

Blocking sender's doesn't normally help, as Spam doesn't come from consistent sender's.

With the big email providers (Outlook, GMail etc) then marking as Spam (not just deleting) normally does address these messages. You do need to be using the web interface, or a client that feeds the reporting back to the email provider for this to work though.

Regarding landline, some providers (BT, Sky, Plusnet) offer call screening, which stops unwanted calls almost completely (albeit may disrupt a few legit ones too!)

ETA: if legit callers actually listen to the screening message, and follow instructions, they don't get blocked.

jon81uk

Sometimes it can be worthwhile just getting a new GMail address and starting again.

GMail seems to have the best Spam filters.

TELLIT01

I get very little spam so can only assume that my e-mail provider does a very good job of stopping them getting through.  I had a short spell when I would get 20 or 30 a day, but even those were filtered into a spam folder automatically.

Brie

Ta all - glad to know it's not just our household that gets this muck!!!

@k_man - i didn't know there was the call screening option.  Will look into that!!

Olinda99

You can put filters in eg

 'if body contains dragons den then move to deleted'

'if subject contains bitcoin then move to deleted'

...you get the idea.

debitcardmayhem

Brie said:

Ta all - glad to know it's not just our household that gets this muck!!!

@k_man - i didn't know there was the call screening option.  Will look into that!!

I have a BT branded phone, am out at the moment but it screens our calls very effectively. You would need caller id on your line, and if you put your contacts in with their std code they won’t screened,unless they have set their phone to withhold their number, but they just need to prefix your number with 1471.

J_B

Brie said:

 fyi - outlook/hotmail seems to have the problem but my gmail account doesn't. 

Can you set up the hotmail to divert to gmail, which will then filter out most spam?

Brie said:

And on a vaguely related query - if anyone knows a magic solution to stop the scam/automated calls to our landline that would be divine too.  Can't screen/ignore calls as we got lots of legit ones from various places in and out of the UK.  TPS isn't working for us as the origins are no doubt outside the UK.

As DCM says - get a BT call screening phone and ... job done

Grey_Critic

I use Firefox - ublock origin - Ghostery and Yahoo mail. Get plenty of stuff straight to Spam folder over a month but very rare in my normal mail = possibly one every couple of months. I also use Windows defender

Often surprised when people tell me they get lots of crap.

[Deleted User]

@Brie What email provider and email client do you use?

So for example I use an 18 year old gmail as my main address and it has been subject to many leaks so gets spammed a lot compared to my newer accounts, probably more spam than real mail but Google are very accurate at dumping it all in the spam folder.

You can also get add-ons to email clients like Outlook and Thunderbird to help reduce it.