dealing with spam

unwashed potato! · 8 Jul 2013 at 17:11

so because of work and various personal email account i've got 10 email address and get too much spam.

i try to find the unsubscribe link each time and do that, but tbh i'm not noticing any difference and wondering if the unsubscribe is just so they know the email is valid and will spam more.

i use postbox (basically thunderbird) and have the spam filter control set through cpanel (vidahost is my host) to i think 3 but i still get spam.

i do have filters in place which gets some, but if my phone picks it up first i still see it.

any suggestions on how to better deal with spam? i'd happily set ultra high spam settings however i'm concerned with work i may miss important emails.

KIA · 8 Jul 2013 at 17:45

Fairly sure the answer is no said:
the unsubscribe is just so they know the email is valid and will spam more.

Correct. They also use embedded images to see if there is someone in control of an email address.

I <3 Gmail's spam filter.

ennogs · 10 Jul 2013 at 16:25

You are right. Clicking unsubscribe just waves a big flag to the spammers letting them know the email address is live and emails do get read.

I have 2 personal email addresses. One for friends and family only that gets zero spam. The second email address is for signing up for things like online forums. My second email address gets lots of spam.

Out of interest why do you need 10 email addresses?

peige · 10 Jul 2013 at 17:15

Big fan of Gmail here too, gets rid of most of it. At work I have one filter setup to push any emails with "unsubscribe" in the body to a different folder, has made a massive difference to my day as I don't see most of it and only dip into the folder occasionally to make sure there is nothing I have not seen that I should have. Catches about 20 emails a day alone

Bane · 10 Jul 2013 at 19:06

Think it depends on type of spam if unsubscribe works.

If it's from British based companies and e-mail originated from them, or a mail distributor working on their behalf, then unsubscribe should work.

sithlord · 10 Jul 2013 at 22:31

Gmail is crap at Spam managament. Yahoo offer much better control. You can create one time use email addresses that are hard to guess and if they get spammed delete them.

Philtor · 11 Jul 2013 at 00:31

sithlord said:
Gmail is crap at Spam managament

What a load of old tosh.

peige · 11 Jul 2013 at 08:48

Philtor said:
What a load of old tosh.

Exactly, been using it for 5 years and its been constantly excellent. Very rarely do I have to dig a good email out of the spam folder and the only the odd bit of spam makes it into my inbox.

peige · 11 Jul 2013 at 08:49

Bane said:
Think it depends on type of spam if unsubscribe works.

If it's from British based companies and e-mail originated from them, or a mail distributor working on their behalf, then unsubscribe should work.

Agreed, I tend to "unsubscribe" from well known mailing lists or companies but if its a druggy type thing or a generally shady product I will just delete.

sithlord · 12 Jul 2013 at 01:24

Philtor said:
What a load of old tosh.

What makes it better than Yahoo ?

I use both and Ive used Gmail since it was in beta, simple fact is Yahoo is better at spam management. It has more features.

Duke · 12 Jul 2013 at 07:01

Got my domain email set up to go via Gmail, so it does the filtering. Could do that?

deuse · 12 Jul 2013 at 07:53

Philtor said:
What a load of old tosh.

+1
Never had spam using Gmail.