Junk mail. Experts come on in, please.

[Jefe's Dope]

About two years ago I began to get a lot of junk mail. I mean A LOT. I get several hundred junk mails a day in my iCloud box and probably 25+ in a Comcast account. I never received so much junk mail prior. I've had the Comcast account for over 20 years and the iCloud account since Apple began their email service when it was @me.com.

Is there anyway to get it to stop?

Most of it gets sent to the junk mail folders but I'm a little OCD and need to empty my emails of all emails I've either read or don't need any longer or are just junk mail. My wife on the other hand usually has 1,000 plus unread emails in her iPhone icon. It drives me nuts.

 

[PatMiles]

I would like to know also!

 

[Gunfighter14e2]

Switch to Proton and call it a day.

 

[Ichi]

One option in default mail app on the Mac and iPhone, is to Block All Remote Content. This option will prevent images and other remote content from being loaded when you open an email. If the email is not junk, you click on the link or button to load the remote content.

Remote content is used to determine if the email was viewed. If the email was viewed, the email address is deemed valid and active. The email address can then be sold to other junk mailers and spammers.

In mail on macOS just pull up the Privacy settings in the Settings.

This video is a little old. Some of the apps have changed and the settings may be on different screens, but it covers the basics.

 

[918v]

Have you tried marking them as spam?

 

[Herb Stoner]

Likely too late to do anything about your current e-mail. Avoid common providers like Gmail, Microsoft, etc.

I‘ve used a couple of alt e-mail accounts for anytime an example is required to login somewhere, for commerce sites, etc. I can check the e-mail if needed to reset a password, to retrieve a tracking number from a shipment, but I mostly just go in and delete everything.

With this the e-mail that I use for friends family stays relatively spam free - maybe a couple of spam e-mails a week on average.

 

[Jefe's Dope]

One option in default mail app on the Mac and iPhone, is to Block All Remote Content. This option will prevent images and other remote content from being loaded when you open an email. If the email is not junk, you click on the link or button to load the remote content.

Remote content is used to determine if the email was viewed. If the email was viewed, the email address is deemed valid and active. The email address can then be sold to other junk mailers and spammers.

In mail on macOS just pull up the Privacy settings in the Settings.
View attachment 8411405

This video is a little old. Some of the apps have changed and the settings may be on different screens, but it covers the basics.

I have these settings in play. It mostly all goes to "junk" and the content is mostly not loaded.

Have you tried marking them as spam?

Always.

Likely too late to do anything about your current e-mail. Avoid common providers like Gmail, Microsoft, etc.

I‘ve used a couple of alt e-mail accounts for anytime an example is required to login somewhere, for commerce sites, etc. I can check the e-mail if needed to reset a password, to retrieve a tracking number from a shipment, but I mostly just go in and delete everything.

With this the e-mail that I use for friends family stays relatively spam free - maybe a couple of spam e-mails a week on average.

This I fear is my only solution. My thought is that eventually my preferred emails will slowly begin to stop getting all the junk mail while my alternate emails will get all the junk. But I'm still gonna get hundreds of junk emails in those.

 

[Mr. Z]

This should trip your trigger.

 

[Jefe's Dope]

This should trip your trigger.

View attachment 8411595

JHFC!

 

[Herb Stoner]

I have these settings in play. It mostly all goes to "junk" and the content is mostly not loaded.


Always.


This I fear is my only solution. My thought is that eventually my preferred emails will slowly begin to stop getting all the junk mail while my alternate emails will get all the junk. But I'm still gonna get hundreds of junk emails in those.

Yes - the alternate Emails will get a lot of junk. Just go in and hit delete all occasionally. It’s all junk so no need to waste any time checking if anything of value is in there.

 

[Jefe's Dope]

Yes - the alternate Emails will get a lot of junk. Just go in and hit delete all occasionally. It’s all junk so no need to waste any time checking if anything of value is in there.

That's the problem. Just about when I'm about to just mark them all and delete them w/o going through them, I find one that shouldn't be in there. And why I don't have the setting to just delete all junk mail before I even see it.

 

[Herb Stoner]

That's the problem. Just about when I'm about to just mark them all and delete them w/o going through them, I find one that shouldn't be in there. And why I don't have the setting to just delete all junk mail before I even see it.

Then you gave out the e-mail for the wrong thing.

Once in a while I’ll leave the some recent stuff and start the delete with stuff thats a couple weeks old. Sometimes I’ll have a bunch of shipping confirmations with tracking info from in-transit online purchases - I’ll just scroll down a bit for the start of the delete leave the newer for later. But really, anything like that, worst case, you can login to the site or e-mail the company.

If you‘ve just got to check everything before you hit delete - this approach won’t help you.

 

[dustingaunder]

I’m pretty diligent on unsubscribing to emails that are benign but junk. Mark as spam and block sender for others. I get enough junk but not overwhelming amounts.

 

[BLEE]

Agree with Gunfighter14e2. I switched from gmail to Proton and never looked back and hardly ever get junk email.

 

[Franko]

I don't have an iCloud account but you might be able to set up a policy to send mail that isn't explicitly whitelisted to spam. You then might be able to mass delete or block the crap you don't want.

 

[Charmingmander]

Your email was sold to a mailing list. Eventually if you never open or view the mail, it can stop rolling in if the mailing list isn't getting any data back from you viewing it.

Spam usually has whats called a "tracking pixel" embedded in it. Basically it can tell if you view it or not and if you did it sends a confirmation back to the mailing list that you are viewing their spam. I was getting a bunch of several years on my primary public facing email account and recently it stopped.

 

[Milo 2.5]

I only use my laptop for email, not phone, usually junk mail comes in bulk, like it's all generated from the same place, unsubscribing takes care of it in a few days.
Today, my email is basically used only for purchases-tracking.

Apparently, someone believes I need financial assistance and my phone has been bombarded with offers lately, complete with messages.
I have to be a contender for most blocked phone #'s.