Just like junk mail, email spam is something that is almost impossible to avoid, and despite regulations such as GDPR coming in to place, it only appears to be getting worse. At Freebies we know all about spam and will share some of the main ways to avoid it.
Unfortunately it’s not something that can be avoided completely, so we’ve included a section further down about protecting yourself against spam.
But firstly, while we may not be able to completely eradicate spam emails, there are a number of ways you can reduce the amount of spam emails you’re receiving.
4 Main Ways to Reduce Email Spam:
1. Make a separate email account
Firstly, have a separate email address for important/necessary correspondence, and one for your more leisurely activity. It literally takes less than 5 minutes to set up and will reduce your spam emails ten fold.
If you’re a frequent freebies visitor, or someone who uses a lot of competition sites, this ones especially important as the catch for receiving items for free is you have to give up some of your personal data. It’s a pretty sweet deal if you have an account especially for this – you still get your freebies, while avoiding on-going emails you don’t want.
2. Don’t share your email address publicly
If your email address is listed anywhere publicly, you can bet that you’ll receive plenty of spam emails, as well as phishing emails (ones that pose as a different company in order to get you to fill out your details). Social media accounts such as Facebook and LinkedIn can display your email address publicly, so check your privacy settings to ensure it isn’t visible.
3. Check the small print
We get it, reading the small print sucks, but when you’re entering your email address there can be parts in the small print that states they share your details with ‘partners’ or other companies. Once you’ve read a few terms and conditions, it will be much faster to find the parts in the document that detail this, so you’ll be able to skim through it and quickly find the parts you need.
4. Unsubscribe
It’s much faster to delete an email, or simply ignore it than it is to unsubscribe every time, but keeping on top of this will help you filter through any spam emails, as you’ll know it’s something you’re not expecting. When our email accounts become cluttered with lots of spam, it’s much easier to click on something you think is legit, because it stands out against all the emails you usually ignore.
We’d recommend spending some time each month to go through your inbox and unsubscribe from anything you don’t need or want. You’ll thank us later for this one.
Protecting yourself against spam
While the above lists how to avoid spam in general, as we mentioned at the start of the email it’s almost impossible to stop it entirely.
Some fraudsters will simply generate email lists at random, using scrips to create thousands of potential email addresses that they can send spam emails to.
The best way to protect yourself against either identity theft or payment scams is to ignore absolutely everything you’re not expecting.
People that send out these types of emails are ruthless and will use anything from collecting your details on social media platforms to make you think they have a something against you, to mimicking your bank/NHS/government or other personal emails to an absolute T. Usually it will just be one letter out of place in an email address they are using, allowing them to look almost identical to verified businesses and institutions.
Never click on an email you’re not expecting and don’t ever fill out any personal details. If it’s something that you’re unsure of, or think it might be legit, Google the official phone number from whoever it is and contact them directly rather than replying via email.
Many official companies also have guidelines on their websites listing what they will and won’t send you, and regularly update these, so it’s always worth having a read through these. Natwest even have a whole hub to protect customers against phishing emails, which you can visit here.
We hope the above helps to protect you online and allows you to cut down the amount of junk or spam you’re receiving. If you want to sign up to an email newsletter that won’t spam you, but instead sends you lots of free stuff, sign up for the Freebies newsletter here.
