How do I stop spam emails permanently?

No matter how many times you receive spam emails and do not open them, or move them to junk mail, there always seems to be new, unwanted emails sneaking their way into your email's inbox. Sound familiar? If so, read on to learn about the different ways you can stop spam emails permanently.

Be careful who you give your email address to

If you find yourself at an opt-in page that is requesting your name and email address, think twice before submitting your information. Determine if you trust the website. Read through any privacy policies or terms and conditions to see if there are any subtle caveats to handing out your email address. Some businesses will sell your email address to other people you may not want contacting you.

Unsubscribe from mailing lists

If you notice you are receiving excessive emails from the same contact, it may be because you are on their mailing list. You may not have even realized you signed up to be on it, but once you are, most email marketers will want to email you frequently to stay relevant and familiar in your mind and keep their emails from getting lost in the sea of other emails reaching your inbox. If you have had enough of their emails and want to stop them permanently, open one of them up and scroll to the very bottom. There should be an unsubscribe link that you can click on that will remove you from their mailing list.

Training your spam filter

Most email clients have filters for detecting spam. You can train and optimize your spam filter by marking spam emails as spam. If you can identify a spam email by the subject line or contact, do not even open it up, and if you do, definitely do not click on any links or download any files. Just mark the email as spam right away. Additionally, you should periodically review your spam or junk folders for spam emails that your email client filtered out. If you find any emails in your spam folder that you actually do want, label them as such so that your spam filter can better understand what you do and do not consider spam.

Hide your email address

Receiving spam goes hand in hand with accessibility of your email address. Be sure to hide your email address on any social media profiles you have if possible. Decline friend requests from unknown individuals. If you have a website or are required to list your email address, consider writing it out longhand like this:

CONTACT NAME (at) DOMAIN (dot com)

Publicly listed email addresses are easy pickings for spammers. By not writing the "@" symbol, web scraping tools used by spammers will not be able to find your email address. When registering a domain for your website, select to have the domain privacy feature. For business and prospecting purposes, you can also use form services as an alternative to directly giving out your email address.

Use a temporary email address

Your safest bet to stop spam emails permanently is to use a temporary or disposable email address. By using a temporary email address you can misdirect spammers away from your primary email address. You can get a temporary email address in no time and for free. If you are not interested or skeptical of receiving emails from particular sources, a temporary email address will minimize the risk and keep your primary email address safe and sound.

The more methods of preventing spam emails you use the more likely you will be able to stop receiving spam emails permanently. Whether it be monitoring who you give your email address to, unsubscribing from mailing lists, training your spam filter, hiding your email address, or using a temporary email address, any action you take to protect your email address will contribute to halting spam emails.