More Email Best Practices: How should you handle junk email?

From Your Friends at Integrity Computer Consulting and Repair

We all are familiar with that random email from a weird sender that makes it into your inbox, that phishing attempt on your non-existent Dropbox account, a message to verify your Apple ID, or even emails you may have subscribed to that are just plain annoying… how do you get it to stop?  Unfortunately, email spam is almost more common than legitimate messages it seems. 

How you handle email messages is super important.  Email servers like Gmail, Office 365, Yahoo!, etc. and mail programs on both computers and phones like Outlook, Thunderbird, Microsoft Mail app, etc. are heuristic and learn how you handle email.  The trick is staying on top of it and being consistent. Simply deleting messages does not help.

Our best practices for messages that are spam and junk?

1. Mark junk and spam messages as such, ALWAYS.
2. Do not open junk messages if you don't have to.  If you do, do not click on any content within it once you determine it's spam/junk.
3. You can always right-click on any message for more options, and find the option to move to junk or report as spam.  You can also check the box for a single message or multiple and use the menu at the top of your email provider or email program to handle it accordingly.
4. If an email is junk (random advertising or content), move to your junk or spam folder or report it as spam.
5. If an email is phishing (asking you for personal or account information) definitely report it as spam. Reporting emails tells a mail server important information.
6. Block senders or domains if necessary.
7. Unsubscribe from email lists you know you signed up for but don't want to receive emails from (usually an unsubscribe link can be found at the bottom of the email).  Do not use the unsubscribe function on emails you do not recognize.
8. Covet your email address, especially if it is used for business or real personal use; don't use it to sign up for anything.
9. Create and use a separate email address that you use specifically for spam content like newsletters, rewards programs, and the like. 
10. If you are unsure of the validity of an email, send it to an IT professional you trust to check it out for you. We are happy to let you know if something is legitimate or not and how to handle it.  (However, if it is truly spam, it will sometimes get stuck in our spam filter; so if you do not receive a timely response, please call our office!)

If you need help with anything listed above, this can be done remotely.  Please call our office (208-288-4345), or email us (info@integrityidaho.com) if you have any questions or need immediate assistance!