How do you handle junk email?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/46161145

I've been using Thunderbird to sort out my junk email for a while, ever since I walked away from my Gmail account. Thunderbird does a great job, but it does mean it has to stay running somewhere.

However I'm currently in the process of moving and as a result I've had to shut down the system that that I had been running Thunderbird on. The result of which, obviously, is that my inbox is now being flooded with spam.

Since it's been a while since I last looked at the problem, I figured I ask. How do you deal with spam email?

9 points · 10 comments · view on lemmy.world

10 Comments

iii@mander.xyz · 13 pts · 268d (2 replies)

It might be too late for OP to implement this, but I got this advise years ago and it works wonders: I use my own domain with a wildcard email inbox.

So when a company asks for my email address, I respond with companyname@mydomain.tld.

If ever I receive spam on companyname@mydomain.tld I just black hole that email address, and know never to trust that company again.

BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 268d (1 reply)

You can also somewhat do this with other providers in some cases.

For example, Gmail has the +Alias feature where you can use a plus symbol on your existing username to make things unique. If you go to a website and use myusername+somecompany@gmail.com those messages will still go to your same inbox. You can then use rules to handle them differently. The only problem is that some signup systems won't accept a + in an e-mail address.

Technically you can also do this with periods as well with Gmail, since:

myusername@gmail.com

my.username@gmail.com

my.user.name@gmail.com

Are all the same and go to one mailbox too. So you can use a particular variation with periods for "spam" signups, then filter those messages out.

sanguinepar@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 267d

I knew about the periods thing, but not the + thing, that's very useful - will definitely try to start doing that, thanks for the info 👍

RodgeGrabTheCat@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 268d (2 replies)

I use SimpleLogin (owned by or partnered with Protonmail) to create a unique alias email for any service I sign up with. If one of those services starts spamming, I pause that alias. I also don't give out the email address I use to login to Proton.

moseschrute@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 265d (1 reply)

I know proton has a lot of issues as a company, but simple login is really nice. I thought they were just partnered, but maybe they own them

RodgeGrabTheCat@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 265d

Yeah, I'm not sure of the relationship. I do know that SimpleLogin is maintained by SL, not Proton. I think SL developed Pass which is why it works so well.

aloofPenguin@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 268d

Check if it's not important, then delete

foobaz@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 268d

Report it as abuse: https://www.spamcop.net/

moseschrute@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 265d

Simple. Just don’t read your email. 99% of the email I get is junk, and is it really gonna kill me if I ignore the other 1%?

Quilotoa@lemmy.ca · 0 pts · 268d

Block it.