How to Get Less Spam and Junk Mail

Decluttering your inbox and mailbox can simplify your life

Are you tired of having your inbox full of spam emails and your mailbox full of marketing letters you didn’t ask for and don’t want? You can fight back! The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recommends using the strategies here.

Reduce the Number of Spam Emails

Spam emails are unsolicited messages sent in bulk. While most of it is relatively harmless and just annoying, keep in mind that scammers also use spam to unleash phishing attacks and expose you to malware. That’s why it’s important to take steps to reduce the number of spam emails that get through to your inbox:

• Use an email filter. Check your email account to see if it has a tool to filter out unwanted emails or to funnel them into a junk email folder. Many email providers (like Gmail or Yahoo) have strong spam filters turned on by default. But there are ways to make them work even better. For example, if any spam makes it through to your inbox, mark it as spam or junk. Filters aren’t perfect, so even emails that make it past the filter might still be spam. Also, check your spam or junk folders occasionally to make sure non-spam email didn’t end up in there.
• Block unwanted emails. Check your email provider’s settings for steps to block unwanted emails. Try blocking specific email addresses or email domains (the part of the address after the @).
• Check to see how companies will use your email address. Different websites and apps handle your privacy differently. When you give a company your email address, it might share or sell it to third parties. Checking a company’s privacy policy might help you see how they’ll share your contact information.
• Unsubscribe from unwanted emails. Many email providers have features that help you unsubscribe from email lists. They may show up as a banner or as a button when you open the email. To find out what options your email provider has, search online for the name of your email provider, plus “how to unsubscribe from unwanted emails.”

Identify and Report Spam

If you get an unwanted spam email, you can take any or all of these steps:

• Report it. Forward unwanted messages to your email provider (like Gmail or Yahoo).
• Mark it as spam or junk. Most email services include options to mark messages as spam or junk.
• Tell the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. It’s especially valuable to send information here when the spam email contains content you believe to be a scam. Your report will be shared with more than 2,800 law enforcers, and the information can help them investigate and bring cases against fraud, scams, and bad business practice.

Get Less Paper Mail From Marketers.

To decide what types of mail you do and don’t want from marketers, register at the Direct Marketing Association’s (DMA) consumer website DMAchoice.org, and choose what catalogs, magazine offers, and other mail you want to get. DMAchoice will stop most, but not all, promotional mail. You’ll have to pay a $4 processing fee, and your registration will last for 10 years.

If you do not have online access, register by sending your name and address (with signature), along with a $5 processing fee (check or money order payable to the Association of National Advertisers or ANA) to:

DMAchoice
Consumer Preferences
P.O. Box 900
Cos Cob, CT 06807

The site also offers the no-cost option to stop mail from being sent to someone who’s deceased (Deceased Do Not Contact List) or to a dependent in your care (Do Not Contact for Caretakers List). Registration for the Caretakers List will last for 10 years.

DMAchoice.org also has an Email Preference Service that lets you get less unsolicited commercial email. Registration is free and will last for six years.

Stop Credit Card and Insurance Offers

If you don’t want to get prescreened offers of credit and insurance in the mail, you have two choices for opting out of those offers:

1. Opt out for five years. Go to optoutprescreen.com or call 1-888-5-OPT-OUT (1-888-567-8688). The phone number and website are operated by the major credit bureaus.
2. Opt out permanently. Go to optoutprescreen.com or call 1-888-5-OPT-OUT (1-888-567-8688) to start the process. But to complete your request, you’ll need to sign and return the Permanent Opt-Out Election form you’ll get after you’ve started the process.

When you call or visit optoutprescreen.com, they’ll ask for your personal information, including your name, address, Social Security number, and date of birth. Sharing your Social Security number and date of birth is optional, but the website says that giving this information can help them successfully process your request. It says the information you give is confidential and will be used only to process your request to opt out.