Embarrassingly Simple Computer Question...

[pixeljammer]

It probably won't. Cookies trigger things when you're browsing the web. They don't invite email.

Microsoft offers fairly good advice to reduce spam.

The #1 way to keep spam down is to not give your email address to any website you don't want spam from. If you participate in online surveys, enter online contests, or create accounts at sites of just about any kind, even reputable ones, they'll try to send you spam. If less reputable sites--especially the aforementioned contests or surveys--get hold of your address, they'll not only send you their spam but they'll also sell your address to anyone who'll buy it. Those places will put you on their spam lists and resell your address again, ad infinitum, until you're drowning in spam. This is why spam sometimes seems to explode; your address landed on a particularly bad list or on a list that got sold multiple times in short order. It's like tossing a match into a grain silo.

If you're patient and diligent about using the Unsubscribe button, you can cut down the spam, but it will take time--like, up to a year--before the spam is back down to a trickle. The most flagrant spam abusers don't just ignore Unsubscribe requests but instead take any interaction at all with their email as proof your address is active and therefore target it for MORE spam and move you to the "most valuable" list of addresses for sale. This is illegal in most countries, but not all, so guess where the spam comes from?

The fastest way to cut off spam is to open a new email account. Send the new address to people you want to have it and no one else. Keep the existing address around until all your friends have updated their address books and you're sure all your billing, airline accounts, etc., are migrated to the new one. Then either delete the old account or leave it fallow, to be used only when you're on a website that might resell your info again. This process also takes time and effort if you pay bills online, but it's the surest and most gratifying way of cutting off the spammers.

This is solid advice. I will add that making yourself a gmail account that you can use when signing up for things on the Internet that aren't important (like "keep me informed" at Sweetwater or wherever) will protect your main email from spam.

 

[StoneH]

Congratulations! You are one of the duped.

You don't really believe they use that unsubscribe link to remove you from their spam machine do you? LMAO!

All that does is confirm it's a valid email address. Good luck with that.

Did you not read "non-malicious"? I unsubscribe from legitimate businesses routinely when I no longer want their advertisements or news letters. I've never been duped . . . LMAO at you.

 

[telleutelleme]

There are spam blockers that are free and you can configure them. Lots of the "from" addresses are not the originating e-mail they are alias's that you see and blocking them doesn't do squat. There are a few good commercial ones that you point at the e-mail and it also catches all the domains sending them and blocks them along with known blacklisted sites. It is an endless battle and takes effort to solve.

 

[The Angle]

I will add that making yourself a gmail account that you can use when signing up for things on the Internet that aren't important (like "keep me informed" at Sweetwater or wherever) will protect your main email from spam.

Even in the years before the internet existed, people still subscribed to newspapers and magazines, joined book- and record-of-the-month clubs, entered mail-in contests, and sent box tops to Battle Creek, MI for neat prizes. A friend advised me to alter my name slightly in a unique way every time I did something like that. Then, when I started getting junk mail with my name mispelled, I'd know who they got my address from and I could avoid that company in the future. Solid advice then, still solid now.

 

[Ironwolf]

I have MailWasher Pro. It holds the mail, and marks known spam as such and allows review without opening it. As you review you can train it by marking and unmarking spam before downloading to Outlook. When you select wash, it permanently deletes the mail marked bad and downloads the good to Outlook. Works really well. Especially since I get anywhere from 20 to 60 spam and junk emails a day.

 

[Happy Enchilada]

Right click on all the junk messages and 'Block Sender'.

And once you "block sender," there's a box you can check in junk email preferences that immediately permanently deletes anything that's marked as "junk." Be forewarned - this will help clear out your junk email, but it might delete something that's NOT junk that accidentally ends up there. Your call.

 

[teleplayr]

If you're still on AOL probably not. They don't make improvements anymore and could care less.

People still use AOL????

I worked for them back in the 80's and when all the other ISP's left dial-up AOL stayed there.

 

[moosie]

If the emails are already in the junk folder... don't do anything! Your email client has filtered the crap for you. Do you have reason to think the algorithm is wrong, and is tossing your good mail?

I don't know about other clients, but gmail deletes all spam once they're 30 days old. So, there's always a month's worth in there, and if I can't find an expected email, I'll check spam, but things rarely get mis-categorized. The client learns from my actions, and I've been using it since 2004.

 

[wangdaning]

Just ignore them unless someone has emailed you and you did not receive it, then search for that email and mark as not spam.

 

[rze99]

you can set a policy to only accept email from contacts but that means setting up all new people/companies as contacts.

 

[buster poser]

The easiest path is declaring email bankruptcy and get a new account. Re-sign up for services you need under the new address(es), let any human contacts know who might still use it.

It's that or going through and hitting unsubscribe a gazillion times and you won't get to the bottom of it. Good mitigation strategies above. Also, having email accounts for finance/banking, personal, and professional strata has worked for me.

 

[StoneH]

If the emails are already in the junk folder... don't do anything! Your email client has filtered the crap for you. Do you have reason to think the algorithm is wrong, and is tossing your good mail?

I don't know about other clients, but gmail deletes all spam once they're 30 days old. So, there's always a month's worth in there, and if I can't find an expected email, I'll check spam, but things rarely get mis-categorized. The client learns from my actions, and I've been using it since 2004.

I have been checking my Gmail spam because I have found legitimate email there. Their algorithm is not perfect. It does a good job on the Phishing stuff, but I don't know where it draws the line on "similar" messages.

 

[BuckNekkid]

For the last 20 years I have used a program from C-Command Software called SpamSieve (Mac only). It works terrifically. Get a spam email? Tell the program (works as a plug-in) and you'll never see another from the same sender. Even better, C-Command has never charged an update fee.

 

[pixeljammer]

For the last 20 years I have used a program from C-Command Software called SpamSieve (Mac only). It works terrifically. Get a spam email? Tell the program (works as a plug-in) and you'll never see another from the same sender. Even better, C-Command has never charged an update fee.

SpamSieve is great. I use it, and it catches almost everything. You can share your white and black lists, too, which means training time is almost nonexistent. I got the impression that the OP was using a PC.

 

[archetype]

I have 4 email addresses I use for different purposes. For regular email, my outlook.com address receives almost no spam, as it's aggressively filtered on the Microsoft side. My gmail.com address receives more spam than I think it should, given Google's technical abilities.

This won't help the non-tech person, but...

For my business, I control my own mail server. On the server side I pipe all email through a program that analyzes for and blocks spam. It's filtering "aggressiveness" is tunable. I also have a list of keywords that I block.

 

[zimbo]

OP. Are you using AOL?

 

[Guitarzan]

You can also set up sub-folders for known and important senders and establish rules to have that important mail deposited in those folders. Then you can focus on the important stuff first and then get to the junk.

You can do a number of things with junkmail such as deleting, blocking senders, and establishing rules as well.

 

[moosie]

I have been checking my Gmail spam because I have found legitimate email there. Their algorithm is not perfect. It does a good job on the Phishing stuff, but I don't know where it draws the line on "similar" messages.

View attachment 984303

Sure, I find stuff there too, occasionally. But very, very rarely. If you're concerned, glance through it twice a month, and if you find anything, report it as not spam. Don't just move it to inbox. Reporting it trains the algorithm.

If you take a few bad algorithm assumptions and decide you'd better start reading all the spam "just to be sure".... good luck!

 

[P-Nutz]

I use hotmail as a throwaway account and get probably 50-ish junk mails a day. In my gmail account, which I only use for “serious” emails (no purchases, etc.) I get maybe one a week.