Training Your Email Service

NEW YORK – Unwanted emails are a fact of life, and they can quickly take over your inbox. You may be wasting valuable time reading and deleting them. But if you simply delete spam emails, you might be making your email service's built-in protections less effective. And if you unsubscribe, you could be doing the spammer a favor. Worse, if the spam is actually a scam, you may be setting yourself up for even more trouble.

Let's first talk about spam. These emails arrive without your permission — you didn't sign up for them or agree to receive messages from the company, a common requirement when you sign up for a first-time buyer discount. In contrast, legitimate bulk emails (sent to a mailing list) may look like spam, but if you subscribed, the sender is authorized to contact you. Sale notices, new product arrivals, newsletters and the like fall into this category.

It's important to separate legitimate emails from spam, and only you know whether or not you signed up. If you're unsure, try searching your inbox for a confirmation or welcome message. You can safely unsubscribe from legitimate emails. Look for the unsubscribe link required by U.S. law at the bottom of the email, often printed in tiny font. You may have to confirm your intent to unsubscribe, but some companies skip this step and you'll see a message confirming your successful unsubscribe. If you use Gmail, you'll find a Google-generated unsubscribe button at the top of the page.

But for true spam emails, do not unsubscribe. According to data firm Statista, spammers send 3.4 billion spam emails every day to any lists they can get their hands on. They don't know if the email addresses are valid. When you click the unsubscribe link, you're telling them your email is active. Expect more spam.

Here are some helpful stats from internet security provider SpamLaws on the types of spam and their share of all spam emails. Marketing and advertising emails are the most common, making up nearly 36% of all spam. Emails with adult content follow at around 32%. Financially related spam comes in at about 27%, and 2.5% of all spam emails are scams and fraud.

So, what should you do with spam emails instead of deleting them? Take the opportunity to train your email client. Spam filters in Outlook, Gmail and others have improved over the years, but they're not perfect. When you identify spam, mark it as such. In Outlook, for instance, you can label an email as junk, phishing or not junk (if you've retrieved an email from the junk folder that you want to keep) by using the dropdown menu to the right of the Forward button. Marking the email as junk or phishing automatically sends a report to Microsoft, which helps refine its filters. Gmail works similarly: Click the stop sign with an exclamation mark to report spam, and Google will use that information to improve future filtering.

Junk folders are usually emptied every 30 days, so you don't have to worry about them piling up. Of course, you can permanently delete the contents of this folder whenever you'd like.

Spam texts are on the rise, and they can be even more annoying than spam emails because of their immediacy. You might get messages pretending to be from your bank, a delivery service or even a government agency. They often include a link claiming to fix a problem with your account or provide a package update. Clicking that link can lead to malware or a site designed to steal your personal information.

How do you spot a spam text? Like with email scams, watch for grammatical errors, generic greetings and a sense of urgency designed to pressure you into clicking or responding. If you weren't expecting a message from the supposed sender, that's a major red flag. Even if the message looks legitimate, never click on a link without verifying it first — contact the sender directly using official contact information.

To report spam texts, forward the message to 7726 (SPAM) to notify your carrier, then block the number. If you see an unsubscribe option, don't fall for it. Clicking unsubscribe tells the spammer your number is active, which only leads to more spam and potential scams.

© Copyright (c) 2025, Standard-Examiner