Help! I Get So Much Junk Email in My Inbox, Part 1: How To Get the Email You Want and Not the Email You Don't Want

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Good email management skills are essential in order to prevent too much email clutter. Emails coming into your inbox generally fall into one of three categories: emails from personal contacts (messages from friends, family, etc.); unsolicited emails from spammers; and subscription emails (advertisements, notifications, confirmations, newsletters, etc.).

First, I’m going to give you tips for managing what comes into your email inbox so you won’t find yourself dealing with so much stress-inducing spam and other email clutter.

Part 1: Manage your Email Spam

Email spam is email that comes from a company you have no relationship with and that you never asked for, and it’s illegal. Nowadays, email service providers (such as Gmail, Yahoo! mail, AOL, Windows Live Hotmail/Outlook) have sophisticated spam filters. The software automatically scans incoming emails and filters out emails that are likely to be spam or to contain viruses. These emails are sent directly to your account’s Spam folder, and are automatically deleted after a number of days.

1. Sometimes spam emails slip through the filters. If an email hits your inbox that is obviously from a spammer, don’t just delete it. Select the email and flag it as “Spam” so the filter can catch it next time.

Here’s where you can find you spam button in Gmail. Your email may look slightly different, but the process will be the same.

2. If you seem to be “missing” emails that someone claimed they sent to you or you were expecting, open your Spam folder to check that the email was not accidentally flagged by the filter as “Spam.” If you see an email in your Spam folder that you want to keep, select the email and flag it as “Not Spam.” Your email’s filter is sophisticated enough that it shouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

Here’s where to find the Not Spam button in a Yahoo! account. Your email may look slightly different, but the process will be the same.

Next week, I’ll explain how you should manage your email subscriptions.

Got a question? Ask it in the comments box below, or email it to editor@seniorplanet.com

COMMENTS

5 responses to “Help! I Get So Much Junk Email in My Inbox, Part 1: How To Get the Email You Want and Not the Email You Don’t Want”

My spam filter works fine with GMAIL, but on Netzero, my primary e-mail service, I keep sending the offending e-mail to JUNK, but to little avail. Can you suggest a remedy?

Reply to Alejandro

Tekspert Amy:

Friday, March 22, 2013 at 3:40pm

Alejandro-

Can you be more specific about the type of “offending email” you are dealing with? Is the email from a spammer or is it from a company/organization?

Reply to Tekspert Amy
1. Alejandro:
  
  Friday, March 22, 2013 at 5:58pm
  
  They are both types.
2. Tekspert Amy:
  
  Monday, March 25, 2013 at 3:03pm
  
  When you say you are sending an email to “JUNK” are you putting it in the trash (deleting it) or are you actually flagging the email as spam?
  
  For individual spammers: flagging as spam should alert netzero’s filters that the email is not coming from your approved list of senders.
  
  For companies or organizations: if you have previously subscribed to an email newsletter, the spam filter might not prevent future emails. Open the email, scroll to the bottom, and look for a way to “unsubscribe” your email address. We have step-by-step instructions on how to do this here: https://seniorplanet.org//goo.gl/0KVTm
  
  Keep me posted.

Recently, my yahoo contacts were sent one line emails with weblinks to various sites. There was no subject indicated in the email but it did say that it was from me. What should I do?

Reply to slarkin240