Email questions

[kjsammy]

I will likely buy a new phone soon and have some email questions.

Currently I use an android phone and gmail. Gmail was fine for years, now it is not. Gmail does not block spam, it filters spam. Every single day of my life gmail thinks I need to receive multiple Cash app, free spins, you have won and other more beauteous emails. No I not not click on them, nor unsubscribe.

I am aware that apple is better at protecting privacy.
Does iCloud block stupid, repetitive spam? Does it allow you to identify spam you do not want and that email does not land in your account?

Some of my trouble may have happened after one of the big data breaches, there have been several.

Recently I received email in Arabic to sign in to my adobe account. I contacted adobe (do not have an account) and asked them to delete my email address from their system. They sent an email to confirm, I did, end of problem.
That is how it should work. It did not take up a lot of their time or mine.

Not so with the South American banking system. I receive endless emails from:

Mexico: Grupo Financiero Santander <notificaciones@notificaciones.santander.com.mx
Peru: Movistar Movil, recibodigitalperu.pe@telefonica.com
Brazil: Banco Ole Consignado, bancoole@oleconsignado.com.br (I have his loan documents)
Chile: Banco Ripley: Our client GONZALO ... has made an online funds transfer.

There is always a bill to be paid, money transferred, 1.86 in rewards... endless.

All emails say to unsubscribe go here. It doesn't work.
To modify your preferences go here. It doesn't work.
If this was sent in error reply here and let is know. That results in failure:
notificaciones@notificaciones.santander.com.mx. Gmail will retry for 21 more hours. You'll be notified if the delivery fails permanently.

The phone numbers don't work. If I look up a number using google there is only Spanish, no English option.
Banks, !!, do not verify an email address when an account is created.

Question: Is it possible to download an app on my phone for Santander mx (in English) and get into the account? I have account numbers and phone numbers too. I would change the email address to scammercustomer@gmail.com.

Possible? 15 years a gmail user but so disgusted now. Why is there not a way to reject an email address and never have it land in my account?

I would like to know if apple blocks spam or allows me to do it.

Thanks in advance.

[yatesd]

SPAM is everywhere…I don’t think Google is worse than anyone else, although creating a new account my be helpful. I suppose iCloud would work, I would also recommend @outlook.com

[jebmke]

SPAM is everywhere…I don’t think Google is worse than anyone else, although creating a new account my be helpful. I suppose iCloud would work, I would also recommend @outlook.com

That is probably the best solution. Migrate all personal email to the new address and never use it for anything else. That is what I did when I moved from Yahoo to GMail. My old Yahoo address is now a spam sink. It is the address I use for a lot of commercial sites who are ultimately the seeds of a lot of spam to begin with.

[pizzy]

Are you saying you mark things as spam and they don’t go in your spam folder?

[kjsammy]

Are you saying you mark things as spam and they don’t go in your spam folder?

No, it goes to spam.
Why would I want years of crap from various banks in my account?

[kjsammy]

"My old Yahoo address is now a spam sink. It is the address I use for a lot of commercial sites who are ultimately the seeds of a lot of spam to begin with."

Yes, I think I need to do this.
Thanks

[pizzy]

Are you saying you mark things as spam and they don’t go in your spam folder?

No, it goes to spam.
Why would I want years of crap from various banks in my account?

After you report something as spam, are you saying emails from the same sender are subsequently appearing in your inbox?

Or are you just mad about a spam folder?

[jebmke]

"My old Yahoo address is now a spam sink. It is the address I use for a lot of commercial sites who are ultimately the seeds of a lot of spam to begin with."

Yes, I think I need to do this.
Thanks

With GMail you should be able to create a rule to forward emails from known contacts to your new address. People will take some time migrating and there will always be a small number who never seem to get the message.

[Northern Flicker]

I have email accounts in the gmail, outlook, and personal domain, all mapped to my phone client, and get very little spam-- 2 or 3 messages/yr get through the spam filters and land in an inbox.

[kjsammy]

"My old Yahoo address is now a spam sink. It is the address I use for a lot of commercial sites who are ultimately the seeds of a lot of spam to begin with."

Yes, I think I need to do this.
Thanks

With GMail you should be able to create a rule to forward emails from known contacts to your new address. People will take some time migrating and there will always be a small number who never seem to get the message.

Thank you, that is helpful.

To pizzy, yes I am mad about spam. Do not want to put up with it anymore. For more than 10 years all was well.

[arcticpineapplecorp.]

I've heard proton mail is good at blocking spam according to clark howard. Haven't used it myself.

[Capster1]

I work in email development. If they are things like retail sales, newsletters, and you never subscribed, they are breaking the law. I realize that isn’t much of a deterrent.
Unsubscribe to those and then report if they keep sending them. Fed Trade commission, report to email provider, etc.

Of course, some emails are dangerous/spoofing and I’d be careful even clicking these links. Made to look like one thing and are something else. Fake paypal emails are the worst in yahoo mail for some reason.

I use Protonmail and gmail. Protonmail seems to do well filtering junk.

I guess another thing you could do is set up folders to filter by words if you keep getting the same ones. Then at least it is easy to delete.

[GreendaleCC]

As a long-time user of a free email service (e.g., my email address is my actual name), a lot of confused people with the same name as me sign up for stuff with my address. I hit the spam button once and the problem is solved. I don't even bother trying to unsubscribe. If someone can't be troubled to make sure they're using their own email address, they will have to figure out a solution on their own.

I would never try to log into their accounts and reset the email address. I'm not sure why you're investing so much time on this.

No, it goes to spam.
Why would I want years of crap from various banks in my account?

Gmail deletes Spam folder items after 30 days.

[LookinAround]

Just like the other four letter word starting with "s", spam happens.

I've had gmail for decades. Little spam makes it into my inbox. When it does I just click the spam button.

Are you concerned about all the emails collecting in your spam folder? Gmail deletes those emails in your Spam folder once it ages 30 days. Gives you the chance to look when, on occasion, email you actually expected got filtered to spam.

Do you want to permanently block a sender? Open the email, click on the 3 vertical dots to the top right, select Block. No more emails from that email address

As already recommended, I also have a junk email address to use when an email is required for a free account or otherwise I don't want to give it. But it only takes one moment for your email to get out before it's sold, gets on lists, and you start accumulating spam again.

You can ignore the spam folder and use the Spam and Block options as appropriate to keep your inbox 99% clean of crap

[rich126]

I really don't think gmail is at fault but often things you sign up for are the problems. I've used gmail for a long time and have multiple accounts. My spam is very low but at times when I have to give my email address for something, even something like a doctor's office, I frequently see spam increase. Usually it is filtered so it isn't a big deal.

I think the number of companies that either sell people's email addresses or have some kind of malware on their site is pretty high. Whether it is an auto shop, doctor's office, local store, school, etc. those places don't really have any kind of security overseeing their web site and are likely compromised and things like email addresses are probably easily "taken".

Others may disagree with me but in the years of dealing with companies, email addresses, web sites, I've seen a lot of security issues and I don't think it is a coincidence when I give someone an email address and then suddenly see a slight spike in spam.

[jebmke]

Others may disagree with me but in the years of dealing with companies, email addresses, web sites, I've seen a lot of security issues and I don't think it is a coincidence when I give someone an email address and then suddenly see a slight spike in spam.

I agree with you. Even some people (individuals) are not as careful as they should be. I never give out the email address of someone I know without asking first. Some people aren't that careful, unfortunately.

Large To: lists rather than bcc: can also create a problem.

[killjoy2012]

The problem is not the email platform. The problem is how you are (or more accurately, aren't) managing your email.

Most people should have at least 2 email accounts. One is private, family and friends, only. You never use this email for website registrations, product purchases, or anything online. The second is your SPAM-ridden email address used for Amazon, Paypal, website registration and purchases, event signups, etc. etc.

Your problem is not Gmail, or Yahoo, or Hotmail filtering spam good/bad. None of these will be able to read your mind and know what you're actually wanting to receive vs. not. Instead, you need to have a private and semi-private email addresses while accepting that any email address you give out to companies or websites will be added to spam lists w/o your consent. You'd probably be surprised how many companies and websites sell email lists to the companies that spam you.

[Chuckles960]

I will likely buy a new phone soon and have some email questions.

Currently I use an android phone and gmail. Gmail was fine for years, now it is not. Gmail does not block spam, it filters spam. Every single day of my life gmail thinks I need to receive multiple Cash app, free spins, you have won and other more beauteous emails. No I not not click on them, nor unsubscribe...

I agree with other posters that there is very little spam in the Gmail inbox. It mostly goes into the Promotions and Spam mailboxes. So I am not sure what the OP's rant is about.

...I receive endless emails from:

Mexico: Grupo Financiero Santander <notificaciones@notificaciones.santander.com.mx
Peru: Movistar Movil, recibodigitalperu.pe@telefonica.com
Brazil: Banco Ole Consignado, bancoole@oleconsignado.com.br (I have his loan documents)
Chile: Banco Ripley: Our client GONZALO ... has made an online funds transfer.

It is very easy to block specific addresses. Of course, most spam does not come from unvarying addresses, but Google is very good at identifying them.

[dukeblue219]

I don't get it either. I've been using Gmail since 2004 and never had a problem with spam making it to the inbox. The spam folder is massive but I ignore it and Google auto deletes on a rolling 30 days.

If a retailer or other mailing list gets to be annoying I unsubscribe or block the address.

Any mail provider is going to be similar to that. I'd be surprised if icloud email spam filtering is significantly better than Gmail's

[pizzy]

I don't get it either.

It's obvious to me that it's the way people use their email, not the email service that leads to success/failure.

[freakyfriday]

I will likely buy a new phone soon and have some email questions.

Currently I use an android phone and gmail. Gmail was fine for years, now it is not. Gmail does not block spam, it filters spam. Every single day of my life gmail thinks I need to receive multiple Cash app, free spins, you have won and other more beauteous emails. No I not not click on them, nor unsubscribe.

I am aware that apple is better at protecting privacy.
Does iCloud block stupid, repetitive spam? Does it allow you to identify spam you do not want and that email does not land in your account?

Some of my trouble may have happened after one of the big data breaches, there have been several.

Recently I received email in Arabic to sign in to my adobe account. I contacted adobe (do not have an account) and asked them to delete my email address from their system. They sent an email to confirm, I did, end of problem.
That is how it should work. It did not take up a lot of their time or mine.

Not so with the South American banking system. I receive endless emails from:

Mexico: Grupo Financiero Santander <notificaciones@notificaciones.santander.com.mx
Peru: Movistar Movil, recibodigitalperu.pe@telefonica.com
Brazil: Banco Ole Consignado, bancoole@oleconsignado.com.br (I have his loan documents)
Chile: Banco Ripley: Our client GONZALO ... has made an online funds transfer.

There is always a bill to be paid, money transferred, 1.86 in rewards... endless.

All emails say to unsubscribe go here. It doesn't work.
To modify your preferences go here. It doesn't work.
If this was sent in error reply here and let is know. That results in failure:
notificaciones@notificaciones.santander.com.mx. Gmail will retry for 21 more hours. You'll be notified if the delivery fails permanently.

The phone numbers don't work. If I look up a number using google there is only Spanish, no English option.
Banks, !!, do not verify an email address when an account is created.

Question: Is it possible to download an app on my phone for Santander mx (in English) and get into the account? I have account numbers and phone numbers too. I would change the email address to scammercustomer@gmail.com.

Possible? 15 years a gmail user but so disgusted now. Why is there not a way to reject an email address and never have it land in my account?

I would like to know if apple blocks spam or allows me to do it.

Thanks in advance.

To block an email in Gmail open the email click the three dots in the top right near the sender name and pick Block user. That works for me.

If you are struggling with true spam (unsolicited junk you never had any contact with the sender) go into Gmail settings and make sure to block loading external resources. Do not "unsubscribe" from this junk. Just block the email address and mark as spam.

The problem is when you open an email and load images, many spam emails use unique links for those images (sometimes 1pixel images). To detect engagement, similarly unsubscribe merely highlights that this is an email account someone checks... All these lead to your email being higher priority to sell on.

Instead you want to quietly ignore them.

Finally using a desktop email client can give you more control and local filtering.

[LookinAround]

btw... a little know gmail feature you may or may not want to try sometime....

You can add a + followed by a character string to your email address when you sign up somewhere, need provide your real email address and you might wonder if they'll sell your email address in the future (or they got hacked). For example, if your email address is jdoe@gmail.com and you sign up for Time magazine, enter your email address as jdoe+Time@gmail.com

Gmail will still route the email to jdoe@gmail.com but the sendto field you'll see is the full email address jdoe+Time@gmail.com so you know where it originated

Try it out. Send yourself an email such as: jdoe+test@gmail.com

[Swee'pea]

A recent Bogleheads Live episode (#43) is How to Stay Safe Online with Steve Ryder. Of course, the series is hosted by Jon Luskin. I haven't listened to it yet (plan to) but it might have information helpful to you.

https://boglecenter.net/bogleheads-live ... pisode-43/

[Nummerkins]

I don't get it either.

It's obvious to me that it's the way people use their email, not the email service that leads to success/failure.

Yup. I’ve had gmail for decades and get very little spam. I just checked and I have 7 junk mails in the past month. Hundreds of companies have my email as a username— I just manage it.

Don’t give out your email to anyone if you can help it. Software download? Gets a fake email. Registration forms for anything? Blank email if allowed. Sweepstakes/contests? Nope. Opt out of any and all offers for further contact. The second you get email from a new business you purchased from, unsubscribe. Being in IT I sometimes I see people’s mailboxes at work — Carnival cruise newsletters, golfing junk, coupons from any all of the worlds largest companies, etc.

[bluebolt]

You'd probably be surprised how many companies and websites sell email lists to the companies that spam you.

I use a unique email address for just about every site/service I sign up for. My experience has been the opposite. I am surprised that I almost never get any spam emails to these addresses. I do get spam to addresses that are public in any way - on a web site, domain registration, sites that have been hacked etc.

[CFM300]

Just ignore your Spam folder since it's causing you so much stress. Problem solved.

[WoostaGal]

I use Protonmail and Posteo email and get no spam whatsoever. Although I pay a small annual fee for both, Protonmail has a free version. I used the free version initially to see if I liked it and got no spam with the free version either.

[kjsammy]

Responding.
Thank you for all the feedback, it was great really.

"The problem is not the email platform. The problem is how you are (or more accurately, aren't) managing your email.
Most people should have at least 2 email accounts. One is private, family and friends, only. You never use this email for website registrations, product purchases, or anything online. The second is your SPAM-ridden email address used for Amazon, Paypal, website registration and purchases, event signups, etc. etc.

Yes, I should have had 2 email addresses, and agree that I did not manage it well. Imo, a big problem was that I happily made a simple email address years ago. I would tell people to make an address far less likely to be used by others like your first name and an initial.

I thought I had blocked emails before and that it didn't work. Will try again. I do know that true spam is always a different address and would not bother.

Did not know about blocking external resources, Sounds great.
"If you are struggling with true spam (unsolicited junk you never had any contact with the sender) go into Gmail settings and make sure to block loading external resources. Do not "unsubscribe" from this junk. Just block the email address and mark as spam."

Yes, agree: Finally using a desktop email client can give you more control and local filtering.

Never heard about this and will do it, really good :
btw... a little know gmail feature you may or may not want to try sometime....
"You can add a + followed by a character string to your email address when you sign up somewhere, need provide your real email address and you might wonder if they'll sell your email address in the future (or they got hacked). For example, if your email address is jdoe@gmail.com and you sign up for Time magazine, enter your email address as jdoe+Time@gmail.com
Gmail will still route the email to jdoe@gmail.com but the sendto field you'll see is the full email address jdoe+Time@gmail.com so you know where it originated "

Yes:
"Don’t give out your email to anyone if you can help it. Software download? Gets a fake email. Registration forms for anything? Blank email if allowed. Sweepstakes/contests? Nope. Opt out of any and all offers for further contact. The second you get email from a new business you purchased from, unsubscribe. Being in IT I sometimes I see people’s mailboxes at work — Carnival cruise newsletters, golfing junk, coupons from any all of the worlds largest companies, etc."

HAHAHA, no, I cannot do this. You are funny and are far better at controlling things the I am:
"I use a unique email address for just about every site/service I sign up for. My experience has been the opposite. I am surprised that I almost never get any spam emails to these addresses. I do get spam to addresses that are public in any way - on a web site, domain registration, sites that have been hacked etc."

I used to be like one of the other people in this dialogue and would get about 7 spams a month. Good old days.
You made me laugh: "Just ignore your Spam folder since it's causing you so much stress. Problem solved".