Comments for How do I unsubscribe from all these unwanted emails?

Comment from Carolyn McRae on 2009-08-27

2009-08-27T08:23:08Z

I use Block Sender for spam mail yet I don't see other people saying this. What are your thoughts on using this method?

Hard to say without knowing what email program/system you're using. In general the concept fails because so many spam emails use spoofed "From:" addresses. You could accidently end up blocking email from someone whose email you really wanted.

27-Aug-2009

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Comment from Charles Mulhern on 2009-08-22

2009-08-23T05:29:29Z

I handle this problem by using the "select all" option upon opening my e-mail inbox. Then I read through the list and deselect the e-mail that I want to read - if I don't know who it is, I don't need it. Then I hit the delete button and all of the stuff I don't want goes away. Usualy 50 e-mails ends up as 5 or so.

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Comment from Christine on 2009-08-20

2009-08-20T17:06:29Z

SPAMCOP...it works, but it is not immediate. It costs $30/yr and its reporting system actually causes the spammers to lose their accounts, one by one. Though Mailwasher gives immediate satisfaction, bouncing does not work in the long run. Spammers need to be physically shut out of their email accounts, one by one.

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Comment from Charles Tilley on 2009-08-19

2009-08-19T16:02:39Z

i get tons of spam in my Yahoo box. Mainly,a lot of junkmail and schemes. Opera and Hotmail does a very good job of filtering out the trash.Occasionly,a piece of junk,but no emails promising large amounts of cash. I NEVER click to these links,though I sometimes read the letter. I'm considering closing my Yahoo account because of the large volume of junk and ripoffs I receive.

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Comment from TOM T. on 2009-08-19

2009-08-19T07:46:01Z

AFTER BUYING AN ITEM FROM A FIRM I COULD NOT UNSUBSCRIBE TO THEIR CONSTANT E-MAILS. THEIR CHANGE OF ADDRESS WORKED AND I SIMPLY CHANGED TO A FICTITIOUS ADDRESS.

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Comment from David on 2009-08-18

2009-08-18T20:15:19Z

I, too have been using Mailwasher for years (bought the "pro" version to deal with multiple accounts) but the "bounce" facility is questionable these days. What spammer is going to take the trouble to sift through bouncers and bother to stop sending the stuff to particular addresses? After all, it costs them virtually nothing to just keep on sending, regardless. The few I do get, I just delete on the server.
GMail is excellent for trapping spam. I have it set up on Thunderbird and just go the spam webpage folder a couple of times a week to make sure nothing has gone in there which is legit (rarely happens) and just leave it. Stuff in there gets deleted automatically, anyway.

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Comment from Pete Ross on 2009-08-18

2009-08-18T19:12:03Z

I too have been using Mail Washer for several years and find it to be a very effective spam prevention tool. Very easy to use. My ISP also provides "Barracuda", an anti-spam program. This combination is working well.

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Comment from Shawn on 2009-08-18

2009-08-18T15:08:11Z

One other thing! I've used Hotmail for years. I used to get tons of spam in my inbox. But for the last few years, I get very few. Microsoft has done a good job of improving their filters. Granted, they could probably do better, but I have to say that I am quite satisfied with the service.

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Comment from Shawn on 2009-08-18

2009-08-18T15:01:47Z

On the other hand, some legitimate emailers do not bother to pull you from their subscriber list after you have unsubscribed. The only way I have found on these is to mark as spam or setup a filter for them, and quite frankly, a single click on "This is spam" is easier.

If they don't respond to a proper unsubscribe, I'd have a hard time calling them "legitimate" - but do make sure you're following their unsubscribe instructions properly.

18-Aug-2009

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Comment from Alan Taplow on 2009-08-18

2009-08-18T14:54:21Z

Take a look at: http://firetrust.com/en/products/mailwasher-pro

Their product, Mailwasher, lets you preview your e-mail and bounce messages back as if you never existed. You can keep messages from ever entering your e-mail program. I've been using if for several years and have pretty near solved my spam problems.

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Comment from Tom on 2009-08-18

2009-08-18T14:18:55Z

David has the best answer I have found. A Gmail account solved virtually all of my spam problems. My ISP had so much trouble with attacks on their system a couple of years ago, that they switched all email service over to Google. I wasn't sure it was a good idea at the time, but went along with it. The fact I didn't understand at the time was that I would need a separate Gmail address, but could continue with my old address as my main email contact. All "valid" email was just forwarded over to my new Gmail account, and the original address has served as a great spam filter.
Since I have my own real estate web site, and publish my email address (original) in newspaper ads and on literature, I get about 300 emails a day. With the above system in place, about 30-40 get through to my new gmail account, and the rest are caught in the old account. When I have time, I scan through the suspect emails and simply hit delete all.
The fact that I periodically find an email from a new client in the "Spam" account is usually easy to spot and send on to my "good" account.
Works for me!

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Comment from Thomas Richards on 2009-08-18

2009-08-18T14:03:02Z

I use a program called Mailwasher Pro by Firetrust. It allows me to bounce and delete unwanted email from the mail server before it ever gets to my local computer.

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Comment from Scott on 2009-08-18

2009-08-18T13:30:12Z

Another point worth noting...an "unsubscribe" link can actually take you to an unsafe sight, opening yourself up to viruses, worms, and malware. Spam is really the least of your problem when you think about it. Spam is a nuisance, whereas virus/worm/malware can be catastropic.
Thanks as always Leo...see you on the Tardis.

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Comment from David on 2009-08-18

2009-08-18T13:19:05Z

Something worth doing too is learning how to apply filters.

Just because you mark something as spam doesn't mean you won't get a very similar spam the following day. It's because marking something as Spam only identifies one particular source and 'blacklists' that source (and hence why it can hurt legitimate senders if you mark them incorrectly).

Far better to learn to filter emails with keywords in the subject. For example, I expect I will NEVER receive legitimate email with the subject line containing the word 'Pharmaceutical' so I have a filter in place to automatically delete mails with that word in the subject.

It can be tedious setting them up in the early days and it certainly pays to check your 'deleted' folder occasionally to make sure you're not accidentally deleting friendly mail.

As a point of interest, I'm sure they've made some adjustments now but Hotmail is/was a spam magnet (one reason many corporate firewalls disallow email from Hotmail email accounts!!).

Conversely, in four years of having a gmail address, I've received about three spam messages and they were very cleverly constructed. Perhaps Google use their smarts to filter spam better than others?

I had an ISP who actually charged a premium (can you believe that!!? - I wasn't going to pay extra to overcome their sloppy standard service) for spam filtering and I'm told their filter rate wasn't as good as Google's.

Anyway, enough of that rant. Learning to create filters is pretty simple and is one of the most worthwhile activities I can recommend. I get 80+ mails per day, I need as many helpers for sorting/deleting as possible.

Keep up the good work Leo.

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Comment from Bev Robinson on 2009-08-18

2009-08-18T13:17:26Z

When I receive an email from someone that I don't recognize I use the block sender, bounce email on my email program (incredimail) I never receive another email from those senders.

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Comment from David Aharon Lindsay on 2009-08-18

2009-08-18T13:00:56Z

A few Suggestions:

re: 100 Spam emails

Turn your Spam Watch on - Yahoo calls it SPAM GUARD]
a] go through INBOX and anything you are sure you don't want to read tick off as either "Read" or SPAM [2 steps]

b] Move those to your email trash folder

c] Open Trash and SPAM folders to check for mistakes

d] Use Empty button to clean both Spam and Trash emails

In following this approach you might see email you want that was placed by you or your email provider in the SPAM folder!

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Comment from Tony M. on 2009-08-18

2009-08-18T12:33:20Z

Yes, this is absolutely excellent advice. There's no better way to say it. However, readers who may be a little less IT savvy may be extremely perplexed by mentioning that "When you click on 'this is spam' for legitimate email that may cause other people - people who want it - to stop getting it."

I hope Leo will be able to answer that question in a later message: "How can my marking mail as spam affect the mail that others receive?" I think I know the correct answer, but I'll leave that to the pro.

Thanks, Leo ... A great, great message.

That's actually addressed in the related article: Why shouldn't I use the "Report Spam" or "Junk" button?

18-Aug-2009

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A comment on: How do I unsubscribe from all these unwanted emails?

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