Stopping and Reporting Spam

Using Filters

One of the less desirable aspects of using email is spam -- unsolicited mail or just plain junk mail. How do you stop it from filling up your mailbox space? One great way to lessen the blow of spam is to establish filters.

You can configure your email program to filter your email as you receive it. Email filters will place unwanted email into your Trash folder. In order to do this, you need to identify key words within the unwanted email and then have your email program filter all messages containing these criteria to the Trash. The next time you check your email, your email program will search each message looking for the words that you have specified and move the offending message to the Trash.

As a precaution, you may wish to look through your Trash for a few days to ensure that you are not filtering any wanted email. Although this feature can be extremely useful, you need to be very careful in selecting specific words for your filters, as you may unknowingly filter out mail from your family, friends or business contacts. If you use a dedicated email program for email, click here for an explanation of how email filters work and step-by-step instructions on how to filter spam to your Trash folder. Just select your personal email program and follow the steps provided. With emailMyName you can use Sort & Delete Settings, Block List features to filter your spam. Click on the links below to learn more.

Using Sort & Delete Settings
Using Block List

Additional Steps to Avoid Spam

There are additional actions that you can take to help reduce the amount of spam you receive. One of the most important ways is to NOT reply to spam messages. Spam programs are intelligent. What these programs don't know is whether the address to which they are sending is valid. Once you reply to a spam, you have confirmed to the spammer that your email address is real and is actively in use.

Secondly, you need to use discretion when giving out your email address while visiting other sites or registering for on-line contest prizes and other promotions. You should use the same judgment that you use when providing your home address and consider how it may be used. Finally, you need to watch out for the opt-in check boxes. These boxes are usually placed next to questions that ask if you would like to receive information from the Web page owners or their partners. By leaving the box checked, you are agreeing to receive promotional emails from the promoter and possibly other parties.

Reporting Spam on emailMyName.com

Just select your personal email program and follow the steps provided.