Spam email, also known as junk mail, can be more than just irritating clutter in your inbox. They can hide important messages and waste your time.
Cybercriminals can use these unsolicited and unwanted messages to launch phishing attacks that try to steal your passwords, payment details, or personal data, spread malware(uusi ikkuna), or expose you to scams like fake delivery notices, bank warnings, “urgent” password-reset messages (like in the case of Instagram), or cloud storage scams.
If you click links, reply, or unsubscribe from shady senders, this can signal that your address is active, which can lead to even more spam.
While it’s difficult to get spam down to zero without changing your email address, these 10 tips below will help you significantly reduce or block the unwanted messages in your mailbox.
How to stop getting spam emails: 10 tips
1. Protect your email address
Every time you share your real email address when you sign up for websites or services, there’s a chance it could be sold or shared, exposed in a data breach, or scraped by bots crawling public pages — all of which could put your address on a spam list.
One of the best ways to stop getting spam emails is to not hand out your real address every time a website asks for it. Instead, use an email alias — a randomly-generated email address that forwards messages to your main inbox. If you start receiving spam from an alias, you can simply deactivate that address, and the unwanted messages stop.
Hide-my-email aliases are available in both Proton Mail and Proton Pass. Generating an alias and creating a strong password only requires one click — it’s the easiest way to protect your email address and secure your logins.
2. Opt out at the checkout
When shopping online or signing up for a service, look for any pre-checked boxes that opt you into marketing emails. Uncheck them before submitting the form to reduce potential spam from that vendor.
3. Reject unnecessary cookies
Similarly, when websites ask whether you want to accept cookies(uusi ikkuna), avoid choosing “Accept all.” Instead, select “Reject all,” “Manage cookies,” or another option that lets you block advertising and other cookies. The less advertisers have on you, the less likely they’ll target you with spam.
4. Check privacy policies
Privacy policies explain how organizations process your personal information when you buy something or sign up for a service. You can quickly review a privacy policy to see whether they share or sell your data to advertising partners or data brokers, and whether there’s an easy way to opt out later.
5. Use email filters
Most email providers automatically detect and block spam. But Proton Mail has additional features to give you more control over unwanted emails. For example, you can customize the filtering system by adding addresses or domains to your spam, block, and allow lists on Proton Mail.
6. Block email trackers
Advertisers and spammers use email trackers — typically tiny, invisible images known as spy pixels or tracking links — to track how you open or interact with emails.
Email trackers not only invade your privacy but can help scammers. Once they see you’ve opened an email or clicked on a tracking link, they’ll likely target you with more spam.
Since spy pixels work by loading images, you can block them by stopping images from loading automatically. But the only way to avoid tracking links is to avoid clicking on them.
Proton Mail blocks spy pixels and known tracking links by default. A shield icon on the top right shows the number of trackers blocked and links cleaned of tracking parameters.
This protection also applies to messages from other email accounts (like Gmail or Microsoft Outlook) if you import them to Proton Mail with Easy Switch or set up forwarding, helping remove tracking pixels and protect your privacy even when the original provider doesn’t.
7. Don’t respond to spam emails
When an email comes from an unknown sender or shows signs of phishing, don’t interact with it. That means don’t reply, click links, open attachments, or use any buttons in the message. Watch for warning signs like urgent or threatening language, all-caps subject lines, poor grammar or spelling, suspicious sender addresses, unexpected attachments, unsolicited requests for passwords or payment details, and offers that seem too good to be true.
Interacting with spam can confirm that your email address is active, which may lead to more unwanted messages. Instead, report the email as spam or delete it.
8. Block the sender
If a sender feels shady, overly persistent, or unfamiliar, block them. Blocking is more private than unsubscribing because it doesn’t require you to interact with the sender.
9. Report spam emails
While blocking stops future messages from a sender from reaching you, reporting helps your email provider recognize similar spam in the future. It can also help protect other people targeted by the same sender.
The exact steps vary by provider, but the general process is usually:
How to report spam in Proton Mail
Select the message you want to report as spam, then click on the Move to spam icon (the fire icon) at the top.
How to report spam in Gmail
Select the message you want to report as spam, then click on the Report spam icon (the exclamation mark) at the top.
How to report spam in Outlook
Select the message you want to report as spam, then click the Report dropdown. Select Report Junk.
10. Unsubscribe from emails and newsletters
Some emails don’t start out as unwanted spam. You may sign up for newsletters and promotional updates you are initially interested in, but eventually stop reading. For these types of emails, you can simply unsubscribe — just look for an “unsubscribe” button or link at the bottom of the message. It usually opens a browser page asking you to provide a reason for unsubscribing
Proton Mail provides a simpler way: an Unsubscribe button below the header of each email that supports this option, which you can easily spot and click to submit an automatic unsubscription request.
For a more detailed cleanup, you can manage your subscriptions from a dedicated space in Proton Mail, where emails from the same sender are grouped together. From there, you can unsubscribe, delete old messages, or move emails into dedicated folders.
Use Proton Mail to fight spam
Spam is hard to avoid completely, but the right habits and tools can make it much easier to control. They can also help you spot and stop phishing attempts before they cost you money or access to your accounts. Proton Mail includes many of these protections by default, so you don’t have to manage every layer of spam and phishing defense on your own.
Create a Proton Mail account if you want an email that’s designed for privacy and security from the ground up. Proton Mail comes with powerful features that help protect you from spam:
- Advanced spam filtering driven by machine learning to sort all incoming emails
- Spam, block, and allow lists so you can customize your spam filtering
- Email filters to further organize incoming messages, including spam
- PhishGuard advanced phishing protection and link confirmation
- Enhanced tracking protection to remove invisible trackers that monitor your email activity
- Hide-my-email aliases to protect your real address when signing up for services
- One-click unsubscribe options to help you leave mailing lists more easily
- Subscription management tools to view and manage your mailing lists in one place
Switching to Proton Mail doesn’t mean losing all your emails, contacts, and calendars from your old email provider. With Easy Switch, everything is automatically migrated over — you only need a few minutes to connect and get started.
FAQ: How to block spam emails
There are several reasons why you might start getting spam:
– You might have signed up for a service that sold or shared your email address with third parties, including data brokers and spammers.
– Your address might have been leaked in a data breach, ending up in the hands of spammers.
– If you post your email address on social media or another public-facing website, spammers can harvest it using bots or AI systems.
– If you respond to spam by clicking on a link, spammers know your address is active, so they may send you more.
– If you use the same email address for everything (for personal use, work, online shopping, etc.), spammers are more likely to target you over time.
Opening it isn’t dangerous by itself. The risk is in clicking links or downloading attachments, so reading it is fine. Just don’t interact further unless you’re confident it’s legitimate.
Clicking “unsubscribe” in a legitimate email (for example, a newsletter you once signed up for) usually initiates steps to remove your address from their mailing list. This is compliant with data privacy laws like the GDPR in Europe and the CAN-SPAM Act in the US, which require companies to offer a way to opt out of receiving emails.
However, if the spam is from an unknown or suspicious source, the “unsubscribe” link may be malicious. Check for signs of phishing and only click on “unsubscribe” if you’re sure the message is genuine.
As with other email services, you can permanently stop emails from individual addresses or domains from reaching your Gmail inbox by blocking the sender. But spammers can always change their address to beat your block.
If you find emails from legitimate senders are ending up in your spam or junk mail folder, there are different ways to prevent this from happening in the future:
– Email providers usually have an option like “Not spam” or “Not junk” that you can select. On Proton Mail, this is called “Move to inbox (not spam).” By choosing this option, you’ll move the message to your inbox and train Proton Mail not to filter this sender’s emails to spam in the future.
– Add the email address or domain to your safe senders list. On Proton Mail, this is called the allow list.
– Create a filter stating that messages from specific senders should be moved to your inbox or another designated folder.
