How to Stop Spam

Preventing Spam

Only use your personal and business emails for personal or business uses. Don't use your personal or business email to sign up for contests, online services, apps, or mailing lists. Many spammers monitor these mailing lists and look for email addresses to spam. You can easily create a new Gmail, Outlook or Yahoo account for free. It's a good idea to have a separate email account that you use to sign up for frivolous services and mailing lists.

Check who emails are from. Most of the time, spam comes from an unrecognized sender, often with odd email addresses. That doesn’t mean all unrecognized email is spam—legitimate newsletters, website administration emails (password resets, authentication requests, etc.), and more may come from addresses you don’t recognize—but spam emails usually have multiple numbers, dashes, and/or odd letter combinations in them. Only open emails and links in emails if you trust the sender. You should either know the sender, be expecting an email from them, or have a reasonable reason for why the other person would send you an email randomly.

Avoid clicking on links in emails. The goal of most spam emails is to get you to click on a link, so only click links in emails from people who you know and trust. If you're unsure of a link in an email from a friend, consider calling them and asking about the link. It is possible their contacts list was compromised by spam. If you receive a suspicious email from a company, bank, or organization that you have an account with, you can usually find out if there is a problem with your account by opening a new browser window and logging in to your account from their website.

Check the email's spelling. Spam often contains misspellings and oddly-worded sentences. This can include bizarre capitalization and weird punctuation, or awkward formatting such as bolding, italics, and randomly colored text.

Read the message. Anything that claims you won a contest you never entered, offers you access to unclaimed money or promises free electronics, jewelry, or anything 100% free is never legitimate. Any message that asks for your password is never real. All legitimate websites have automated password reset programs. Requests from strangers should always be ignored. Many email services have a preview window that will allow you to read the beginning of an email message without opening it. This will help you avoid downloading any malicious attachments within the email.

Don't post your email publicly or online. Scripts created to comb through websites for email addresses can quickly gather thousands of emails at a time from websites where the email addresses are made public. Avoid entering your email address to sign up for things like coupons. Never type out your email address in a comment or post online or make your email address publicly available on Facebook or other social media services. Always be careful who you give your email to. If you need an email address to sign up for frivolous services, you can create one for free using Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo.

Make your email address unscannable. If you must provide your email address in a public context, try writing it out in creative ways (e.g., "name [at] yahoo [dot] com" instead of "[email protected]"). This will prevent would-be spammers from pulling your email address with an automated program.

Don’t make your username the same as your email address. Usernames are almost always public. This makes email discovery a simple matter of figuring out the correct service to add at the end. Services such as Yahoo! Chat make this even easier, since chances are everyone using it has a @yahoo.com email address.

Never respond to spam. Replying or clicking the “Unsubscribe” link confirms that your email address is valid and active. This will generate more spam. It is best to report and delete the spam using the steps in the following sections.

Blocking Spam with Gmail on Desktop

Go to https://www.gmail.com/ in your browser. This will open your Gmail inbox if you're logged in. If you aren't logged in, enter your email address and password before continuing.

Select a spam message. Click the checkbox on the far-left side of a spam email to select it. Alternatively, you can click and drag an email to your Spam folder in the panel to the left.

Click the "Report Spam" icon. It resembles a stop sign with an exclamation mark on it. You'll find it in the row of buttons above your inbox. This displays a prompt informing you how to stop spam.

Click Report spam or Report spam & unsubscribe. Clicking "Report Spam" will report the email as spam and move the email to your Spam folder. If you click "Report Spam & unsubscribe", the email will be moved to your spam folder and then you will be taken to a page that allows you to unsubscribe to the email. Select the option to unsubscribe to the email.

Click the Spam inbox. It's in the panel to the left. If you don't see the Spam folder in the panel to the left, click More below your inboxes, and scroll down to view more inboxes.

Click Delete all spam messages now. This link is at the top of the page.

Click OK when prompted. Doing so removes all spam messages from the Spam folder.

Blocking Spam with Gmail on Mobile

Open Gmail. Tap the Gmail app icon on your Home screen or Apps menu. It resembles a red "M" on a white letter. This will open your inbox if you're logged in. If you aren't logged in, enter your email address and password before you continue.

Tap and hold an email that you want to mark as spam. A checkmark will appear next to the email to indicate it is selected.

Tap ⋯ on iPhone or ⋮ on Android. It's in the upper-right corner of the screen. A menu will appear.

Tap Report spam. It's on the menu. Doing so moves the email to the Spam folder.

Tap ☰. This icon is in the top-left corner of the screen. A pop-out menu will appear.

Tap Spam. It's on the menu near the bottom.

Tap EMPTY SPAM NOW. This option is at the top of the screen below an icon that resembles a trashcan.

Tap OK when prompted. Doing so empties the Spam folder.

Blocking Spam with Outlook on Desktop

Go to https://www.outlook.com/ in your browser. This will open your Outlook inbox if you're logged in. If you aren't logged in, enter your email address and password before proceeding.

Select an email. Hover over an email that you want to mark as spam. Then click the white circle that appears on the left side of the email's preview. A checkmark will appear in the circle. If you're not using the Outlook beta, you'll click a square checkbox here instead. Alternatively, you can click and drag an email to Junk Email folder to the left.

Click Junk. It's a tab near the top of the inbox page. This displays a drop-down menu with options.

Click Junk, Phishing, or Block. Click Junk to move the email to your Junk Email folder. Click Phishing to report the email for attempting to hack your account. This does not block the user or move the email to your junk folder. Click Block to block the sender.

Click Junk Email. It's in the list of inboxes in the panel to the left. It's next to an icon that resembles a circle with a slash through it. Outlook also comes with McAfee Anti-Spam. You can view any emails that McAfee Anti-Spam has filtered by clicking McAfee Anti-Spam below your Inbox.

Click Empty Folder. It's above the list of emails.

Click Delete all when prompted. Doing so empties the Junk Email folder.

Blocking Spam with Outlook on Mobile

Open Outlook. Tap the Outlook app icon on your Home screen or Apps menu. It has an icon that resembles a blue sheet on a white background. This will open your Outlook inbox if you're logged in. If you aren't logged in, enter your email address and password before you proceed.

Tap and hold an email you want to mark as spam. A checkmark will appear next to the email indicating it is selected.

Tap ⋯ on iPhone or ⋮ on Android. It's the icon in the upper-right corner. This displays a menu.

Click Report Junk or Move to Spam. It's next to an icon that resembles a folder with a cross-circle over it. This displays a menu at the bottom. If you are signed into an email account that is not Outlook (i.e. Gmail), you may see "Move to Spam" instead of "Report Junk".

Tap Junk or Phishing. Tap Junk to move the message to your Junk Mail folder. Tap Phishing to report the email for attempting to hack your account. This does not move the email to your Junk folder or block the sender. Currently, there is no way to block senders using the mobile app. If you tap "Move to Spam" instead of "Report Junk", this option may not be available.

Tap the Outlook icon or profile icon. On Android, tap the white icon with a blue sheet of paper in the upper-left corner. On iPhone and iPad, tap the icon with your profile image or initial in the upper-left corner. This displays the menu. If you are signed in using another account beside Outlook (i.e. Gmail), tap the icon that resembles your service instead.

Tap Junk. It's in the pop-out menu below your Inbox. Additionally, Outlook comes with McAfee Anti-Spam. Tap McAfee Anti-Spam below your inbox to view emails filtered by McAfee Anti-Spam.

Tap Empty Folder or tap the trashcan icon. On iPhone and iPad, tap the button that says Empty Folder in the upper-left corner. On Android, tap the trashcan icon in the upper-right corner.

Tap Permanently Delete when prompted. Doing so will remove all of the Spam emails here.

Blocking Spam with Yahoo on Desktop

Go to https://mail.yahoo.com/ in your browser. This will open your inbox if you're logged in. If you aren't logged in, enter your email address and password before continuing.

Click the checkbox to the left of an email that you want to mark as spam. This selects the email and displays the options at the top of the page. If you are using the free version of Yahoo Mail, you may see ads in your inbox. The only way to get rid of these is to upgrade to ad-free.

Click Spam. It's at the top of the inbox. Doing so will immediately move the selected email to the Spam folder. Alternatively, you can click and drag an email to your Spam folder to the left.

Click the Spam folder. It's in the panel to the left.

Click the checkbox at the top of the Spam folder. Clicking the checkbox at the top of the list of emails checks all emails in the folder.

Click Delete. It's at the top of the page next to an icon that resembles a trashcan.

Click Ok. This deletes all checked emails in the Spam folder.

Blocking Spam with Yahoo on Mobile

Open Yahoo Mail. Tap the Yahoo Mail app icon, which resembles an envelope on a purple background. Your inbox will open if you're logged into Yahoo. If you aren't logged in, enter your email address and password before proceeding.

Tap and hold an email that you want to mark as spam. A checkmark will appear next to it.

Tap ⋮ on Android or ⋯ on iPhone and iPad. It's in the bottom-right corner of the screen. A pop-up menu will appear.

Tap Spam on Android or Mark as spam on iPhone and iPad. It's in the menu at the bottom. Doing so moves the selected email to the Spam folder.

Tap Inbox. It's at the bottom of the screen. This displays a menu with all of your email folders. If you have not selected a profile image, your initials will appear as your profile icon.

Tap the trashcan icon next to Spam." The trash can icon is next to your Spam folder in the list of email folders. This deletes all emails within the Spam folder. Alternatively, you can tap Spam to view the emails within the folder. Tap and hold to select individual emails you want to delete. Then tap Delete at the bottom of the screen.

Blocking Spam with Apple Mail on Desktop

Go to https://www.icloud.com/ in your browser. This will open the iCloud login page.

Log in to your iCloud account. To do so, enter the email address and password associated with your Apple ID. Then click the arrow icon (→). Skip this step if you're already logged into iCloud.

Click Mail. Its app icon resembles a white envelope on a light-blue background.

Click an email that you want to mark as spam. This selects and opens the email.

Click the "Reply" icon. It's the icon that resembles a curved arrow pointing left. It's in the upper-right corner. This displays a drop-down menu. If you don't want to open the email, simply click and drag it to the Junk folder to the left.

Click Move to Junk. It's at the bottom of the menu that appears when you click the "reply" icon in the upper-right corner.

Click Junk. It's on the left side of the page.

Click the email(s) you want to delete. Clicking the email highlights it in blue to indicate that it is selected. To select multiple emails, hold Ctrl on Windows or Command on Mac and click the emails you want to select. To select all emails in the spam folder, hold shift and click the first email and the last email.

Click the trashcan icon. It's at the top of the page. This deletes all selected emails.

Blocking Spam with Apple Mail on Mobile

Open Mail. Tap the Mail app icon, which resembles a white envelope on a light-blue background.

Tap the "Back" arrow. Generally, Apple Mail opens to the latest email in your inbox. Tap the Back arrow in the upper-right corner to display your email list in the inbox.

Tap Edit. It's in the top-right corner of the screen.

Select a spam email. Tap an email that you want to mark as spam. This places a checkmark next to the email. You can select as many emails as you need to.

Tap Mark. It's the first option at the bottom of the screen.

Tap Move to Junk. This moves the selected emails to the Junk folder.

Tap Mailboxes. It's next to the back arrow in the upper-left corner of the screen.

Tap Junk. It is below the "Inbox" folder.

Tap Edit. You'll find this in the top-right corner of the screen.

Tap Select All. It's in the upper-left corner. This selects all emails in the Junk folder.

Tap Delete. It's in the bottom-right corner. This displays a pop-up.

Tap Delete All. This deletes all selected emails.