Recent data shows 68% of Brits don’t protect their inbox from spam emails – not only are they annoying, but they can also be potentially dangerous. So, what – if anything – can we do about it?
It turns out there are quite a few easy solutions to dwindle the number of junk from your inbox, web hosting experts Fasthosts.co.uk have compiled a list of the best advice.
So, whether you’re a business professional, reporting a dodgy email or just looking for some good advice, here are some top tips to stop spam emails:
1. Stop spam emails with your website design
If you have a personal website or business website, you’ll want to display your contact information on it so potential customers can get in touch. The problem with this is that it’s not only customers who can see this information. Spammers will trawl through sites searching for the ‘@’ character to find email addresses to add to their mailing lists.
There are however a number of ways to reduce spam received from these sources. You could have a ‘Contact Us’ button that is linked to your email address so that a user can just click the button to send you an email. This prevents a spammer from being able to see the address on the actual page.
2. WHOIS opt-out and domain privacy
By law, when you sign up for a domain name you have to register it with a phone number, personal address and email address. This information is publicly displayed on domain directory services such as WHOIS. The reason for this is so that customers and businesses can easily contact the owner of a website – it can however, also be used by spammers. To reduce spam you can choose to protect this information from the public by adding domain privacy.
Alternatively, if you’re making a personal website rather than a business one, you can opt out of registering to the WHOIS directory for free.
3. Stop email spam
There are a number of antispam software applications available that can help reduce spam and the amount of unsolicited mail you receive. They work by using a range of preset filters, or by blocking mail based on the amount of mail sent to you. By using either of these methods the software will determine whether or not the mail you receive is genuine, or if the item should be sent to your spam or junk mail folders.
4. Managing your inbox
Usually when you buy something online you have to provide an email address. This is partly so that the company can contact you with offers in the future. You may think of these emails as spam, but you’re only receiving them because you signed up to them. However, being a part of these mailing lists has risks. If that company’s website is compromised, then the hacker can obtain your email address from their mailing list.
To avoid this and reduce spam, it is best to unsubscribe from any mailing lists or newsletters that you’re not interested in. Some companies can and do sell your contact information to third parties which will increase the amount of spam you receive while increasing the risk of your email being compromised.
5. Reporting spam emails
Reporting spam email to your email provider or the spammer’s email provider can help reduce spam for everyone. You can recognise a spam email a number of different ways. By expanding the email to show the sender’s email address, for example, you can see that the email what you believed was from a major company such as Microsoft, is actually from an address that isn’t. Similarly, you should always right-click on a hyperlink to see what the actual address is, because it may be different than the actual highlighted word.
