Protect

A flood of spam, promotions and scam emails is one of the most universal annoyances online. You can't stop every unwanted message, but you can cut the volume dramatically — and protect yourself from the dangerous ones. Here's how spam reaches you and the practical steps that actually work, in order of impact.

Why you get spam in the first place

Spam arrives because your address is known. It gets leaked in data breaches, sold by companies you handed it to, scraped from public web pages, or simply guessed. Once an address is on a list, it spreads — which is why the most effective long-term fix is controlling who gets your real address in the first place.

Step 1: Unsubscribe from senders you trust

For real companies you recognise, use the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email — legitimate senders are required to honour it. This clears the bulk of opt-in newsletters and promotions. One caveat: only click unsubscribe on mail from senders you actually recognise. On obvious scam or phishing email, unsubscribing just confirms your address is live, so mark those as spam instead.

• Unsubscribe from newsletters and promos you actually recognise.
• Report spam (don't just delete) to train your filter.
• Never reply to, click, or buy from spam.
• Block remote images so tracking pixels can't fire.
• Use a unique email alias for each signup — disable any that leaks.
• Keep your real address off public web pages and profiles.

Step 2: Report spam to train the filter

When junk lands in your inbox, use 'Report spam' rather than just deleting it. That trains your provider's filter to recognise similar mail and route it away from your inbox automatically, quietly improving what reaches you over time. Deleting alone teaches the filter nothing.

Step 3: Don't interact with spam

Don't reply to spam, click its links, or buy anything it advertises — any interaction signals an active, responsive address and invites more. Many email clients block remote images by default; leave that on, because loading images can trigger a tracking pixel that tells the sender you opened the message.

Step 4: Use email aliases — the strongest fix

The most powerful step is to stop giving out your real address. An email alias (or hide-my-email address) is a forwarding address you create for a single signup: mail to it lands in your real inbox, but the site never sees your real address.

The payoff is control. Give each service its own alias, and if one starts sending spam — or leaks in a breach — you can see exactly who's responsible and disable that single alias, killing the spam at the source without changing your real address. It turns spam from a permanent problem into a switch you can flip.

Step 5: Keep your real address private

Spammers run bots that scrape email addresses from public pages, forums and social profiles. Avoid posting your address in plain text publicly; use a contact form, an alias, or write it in a way bots don't easily parse. The less your real address appears in public, the less it ends up on spam lists.

The honest takeaway

You can't eliminate spam completely — some will always slip through — but these steps cut it from a daily flood to a trickle: unsubscribe from the legitimate, report the rest to train your filter, never interact, and above all use aliases so each leak stays contained. Treat your real email address like your phone number: something you give out deliberately, not by default.