Spam, Junk Mail, Email Scams, Phishing, etc issues

In GOOGLE CHROME, at top right of webpage click on 3line icon. Click, more tools, then extensions. Go thru extensions and hover mouse above extension. Pick extension that
rids you of junk emails or ads. ENABLE extension. If you want to UNDO, disable extension.
Similar in FIREFOX.

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I can recommend a very good email filter for desktop computers.

I have been using DeskTopOne Basic for some time and it is very good at continuously filtering out emails that you decide to filter out. As the name implies, it is for desktop computers either Mac or Windows.

DeskTopOne Basic is free and there is a professional version for firms.

Regrettably the company has not made a version for iPhones and iPads (but I do get an idea of how well it is working on my computer.

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It varies depending on how you access your email. Do you use an email client (eg outlook or thunderbird), or do you use a web browser (eg logging into yahoo.com, outlook.com, gmail.com, or your ISP’s web mail)?

The email host you use (your ISP, gmail.com, etc) have filters that you can set, and most have spam filters you can enable and “tune”. If you use an email client they have their own spam filtering ability.

Each has its own peculiarities on how to set them up and use them. Some you can mark an email as junk and they will eventually learn to classify them as spam and put them directly into your spam or junk folder. Some you can set up a filter if it is from the same sender, and set it to just delete or do whatever with the emails.

Whatever way you use, look for “filters”. Most have automatic spam filters and be sure yours is enabled. Unfortunately spam filters can mistake legit emails for spam, so best to check your spam/junk folder every week or two.

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Thank you for your response; I just use Outlook on my computer. Haven’t “progressed” to a smart phone as yet:-)

Thank you, will look into it.

Thank you, I wish I was more computer literate but will have a go. Cheers

This should get you going. https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Overview-of-the-Junk-Email-Filter-5ae3ea8e-cf41-4fa0-b02a-3b96e21de089

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If you set up a junk filter, make sure you scan the junk email before permanently deleting them as filters can catch the odd non-spam emails
especially if the higher filter setting is used.

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You don’t want junk email filtering at the client level or a third party application on your desktop that requires you to define junk email yourself. These solutions won’t scale and are limited in their application.

It’s best to use an email service provider that has this filtering built into it and it needs to be some machine learning tool.

If your filtering is up-stream from all your devices, you don’t need to worry if you’re using your phone or your laptop. Your email is filtered before it gets to you.

It really takes a good machine learning algorithm to beat these guys. Any tool that requires manual input isn’t going to keep up.

I use Google’s mail servers. It costs me about $5 per month for the smartest guys around to filter my junk mail. Possibly Microsoft’s service is comparable.

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The OP indicated he is non-technical, so your point might be a good one for him. Gmail might be the “smartest guys around” but their systems make plenty of mistakes by misclassifying good mail as junk and to a lesser extent, vice versa.

I worked in a government agency that had a commercial filtering service. It rejected about 20,000 emails a day. Nobody I am aware audited what it filtered out. We did not have a spamming problem but now and then important emails would “go missing” in cyberspace.

I send some communications to an organisation’s membership, and sometimes (Microsoft) outlook.com systems will mark them as fraudulent or spam even though I am in the recipients’ address books. All it appears to take is a very compact pdf attachment. There are all sorts of heuristics applied that can catch an innocent email up as spam.

Some people are very comfortable with a faceless service, and others wish personal control. I am firmly in the latter. To each their own.

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Provided the email is from a reasonably reputable source, scroll down to the bottom of the email and click “Unsubscribe”.
If it is an ad for say Viagra, it is almost certainly coming from overseas, in which case this will not work.

I simply use the junk filter that is part of my mail program it is very reliable and rarely does anything slip thru.
As a rule now I never hit the unsubscribe link as it seems to embolden the scammers and fraudsters; my experience is If you do hit unsubscribe they now know it is a live address not a old dead address.

I did once regularly use the unsubscribe feature if I knew it was a reputable business or government department but I find the filter works so well I don’t see unwanted spam if it has been previously declared by me as junk.

i very occasional scan the junk folder but never find a good email in it only the usual garbage.

Thanks, I use Internet Explorer and click on block sender but most of them just come back. I agree with hitting unsubscribe as it is like stirring up a swarm of bees.

I have been using SpamSieve which is good. But eventually I deleted the main offending email address of mine to which the spam had been sent. It meant I needed to change website contacts and informed people who used that email but it has been a small price to pay for the huge reduction in spam in my inbox. It was worth it! :slight_smile:

One thing I don’t like is what I call contact spam. The commercial spam you get from the necessary dealings with reputable online companies. For example I am a member and use Qantas Freq Flyer programme but they send me one email every day flogging their latest offer to FF’s. Now I am not interested in their latest offer about online travel money, insurance, wine etc, but I cannot make them junk mail because I like to occasionally check my points balance and I need to receive some emails from them about membership issues and if I declare them spam then I miss everything.

Now Qantas is by no means the worst for what I refer to as contact spam but they are a active example.

A few that I have that regularly practise the art of over sending marketing emails to the point of exasperation;
Amazon,
catch of the day,
pets warehouse,
dick smith,
JBHi,
ticketmaster,
all football clubs to their members,
ebay.
hotels.com, etc
the list is not exhaustive there are many more.

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Yes they have us between a rock and a hard place. It was the same with letterbox junk mail; it took me a long time to get the courage to put a “no advertising material accepted” sticker on my letterbox but 99% of the junk mail went straight in the bin.
I still get the occasional bit in the letterbox and if it has an address on it I put it in an envelope with a note saying it is not welcome. I then post it to them without a stamp. My understanding is they have to pay double to receive the letter. Other times; like when real estate agents ignore my no junk mail sticker I ring them and ask them if they think I would list with them when they can’t respect me. That fixes them!

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We shouldn’t have to go to these lengths, though. I think we must have the most advertising in the world. I have my phone numbers registered with do not call register but I still get some. When I start asking them questions they quickly hang up. Some times I like to have some fun with them and try to keep them on the phone as long as I can:-)

Unfortunately it is what happens now. I agree about the ‘do not call’ register. But I think it is largely irrelevant now. Good luck with getting rid of as much spam as you can. :slight_smile:

Unfortunately you are seeking a simple answer to a VERY complex problem. There is no simple answer. I use MS Outlook as my email client, and IMHO its junk filter is utterly useless. My ISP (Optus) is actually pretty good and catches a lot of spam before I even get to be aware of it. Telstra on the other hand was hopeless when I used them, but that was a few years ago now. I use Mailwasher, which is also a good weapon, but it does require you to teach it what to block. I really haven’t had the issues with unsubscribing, possibly because I only unsubscribe from sources I know I subscribed to in the first place. In my experience most reputable sites do honour the unsubscribe link.

To make sure emails are not genuine, hover the cursor over Te sender’s supposed email and the actual source will appear. If it appears to come from, say, PayPal but an obscure email address appears you can be pretty sure it’s fake.