Although in my view not as bad as junk postal mail or unwanted phone calls unwanted emails can be a problem or at least a nuisance.
They are called many things:
- junk mail or email
- spam
- bulk mail
- unsolicited mail
- unwanted e-mail
How to reduce junk mail.
- Certain email programs are better than others at handling junk mail. Many of the web based programs are slightly better at handling than desktop email clients.
- Don’t sign up for emails you don’t want
- If you signed up for an email you don’t want there should be an unsubscribe option.
- If it’s a personal email address be careful who you give it out to.
- Many email programs have a reporting option/ button like “This is spam” or “report junk mail” or “block sender”
- Don’t click on the links of unwanted email, however sometimes the unsubscribe option is ok to click on.
- Sometimes it is simply best to just delete it.
Phishing:
- Phishing are emails, letters, phone calls pretending to be other people, businesses, and organizations.
- They might pretend to be your friends or relatives. Many of these emails are from out of the country.
- Clues to phishing:
- misspellings from companies
- links look different
- email addresses are slightly different
- trouble with your bank or PayPal account
- Email from your friends or relative, that are in unusual circumstance, and are different than how they usually word things
Common email/mail scams:
- For Businesses:
- SEO services (Search engine optimization saying your web site does poorly in search rankings even though that’s how they probably found you)
- mobile web development
- Listing services that look like a bill or look like it is needed for your web site
- there are legitimate business services for those things listed above (like mine, I offer SEO, web development, and Business Listings) but you probably should not trust those that send you junk emails.
- scam letters from out of the country saying you are getting money (Nigerian Letter Scams, Out of Country Lotteries)
- phony virus alerts
- Urban legends and misquoting famous people
- and more
Another Problem:
- There is so much junk email that some important email end up in your junk or bulk mail folder. So it is best to check it before emptying.