Spam has been around for many years and still attack unwanted messages our mailbox. How do you avoid spam and what do you do if unsolicited e-mail arrives?
Toon van Daele
The name ‘Spam’ originally refers to a cheap American meat product that can be found almost everywhere. After a popular sketch by Monty Python in 1970 (www.youtube.com/watch?v=anWY2MPT5RE), this quickly became the term for unwanted mail.
To prevent spam, you should mainly ensure that spammers and spambots (Automated scripts that search e-mail addresses) Do not get your e-mail address. Therefore, do not place your e-mail address (as a flat text) on web or blog pages and do not just pass it on to web apps or services that ask for it during a registration.
 |
| Messages to a ‘burnt’ alias? Immediately to your trash! |
Mail-Alias
If you still have to specify a working e-mail address, you can use a mail alias. Messages to such an alias also end up in your standard mailbox. A mail-alias is therefore an extra e-mail address that is linked to your standard mailbox and that can therefore be Gmail or Outlook.com. For an alias, the same mailbox, the same list of contact persons and the same account settings are used as for the primary e-mail address.
At Gmail (www.gmail.com) you make an alias by placing a plus sign with a random word behind your address. Is your real address mijnname@gmail.comthen you can make Aliases if mijnname+webapp@gmail.com or mijnname+servicenaam@gmail.com. If you receive mail on such a alias, you will immediately see which service your address has passed on. If you want to block messages to this alias, click in Gmail on the sliding bar icon to the right of the search bar.
Fill in At the alias in (for example mijnname+webapp@gmail.com), then click on FilterVink To delete and complete with Filter. Mail to this alias will now go directly to the trash.
Disposable address
Such a Gmail-Alias ​​is unfortunately not waterproof. Spambots Those such an alias can, after all, can send messages directly to your standard address (mijnname@gmail.com). If you do not use Gmail or your e-mail service does not offer aliases, a disposable address offers an alternative.
A simple option is mail drop. Use any address @maildrop.ccas mijnname@maildrop.cc. To check whether a message has arrived there,
Surf to www.maildrop.cc, enter the address used (mijnname@maildrop.cc) and click on View Mailbox. Of Delete you can delete the message. For advanced users View Source Insight into the route that the message has traveled.
A super fast disposable address at Maildrop (here: for chatgpt)
Deregistration
If there is spam in your mailbox, don’t respond to this. For Spammers you confirm that your e-mail address is active. Also be careful with unsubscribing links. Often these have no effect and in the worst case they lead to so-called phishing sites that try to steal more data, such as your Login ID.
If you are sure that the e -mail from reliable European companies or authorities will come – which should adhere to European legislation – then you can consider such a display option. But often it is safer to simply filter unwanted emails.
 |
| Some spam turns out to be purebred phishing: Never just click on buttons or links (and also check the link addresses carefully) |
Hackers It is annoying if spammers get your e-mail address, but even more serious if criminals use it for identity theft. The risk increases if your password is also stolen, for example by a hack of an online database. You can check whether your e-mail address appears in cracked databases via www.scatteredsecrets.com (after registration) or www.haveibeenpwned.com. At the latter you can via Notify me At the top received a notification by e -mail with future data breaches.
Perplexiti.ai: a successful combination of traditional search methods and AI |
Blocking
Chances are that you can already activate a spam filter with your own mail provider and that you can also set how strict this should occur. Realize that with a strict setting bona fide emails can also be marked faster as spam. Check the website of your provider or contact the help desk to know exactly how to control and set this position.
Most e -mail services and apps also have their own (spam) filters that you can configure yourself. We take the Outlook 365 application as an example.
Start the app and select a spam message. Right click on this and choose Block unwanted mail / senderso that the message to the folder Undesirable will be moved and no more messages from the same sender in you Mailbox in will end up.
 |
| Block sender: all messages straight into the trash (folder unwanted mail). |
Extra options
 |
| Activate spam filter and block senders or not label ‘safe’ |
It may happen that the spam filter marks a bona fide mail wrongly as spam and places it in the spambox. For example, we sometimes get reports from HCC subscribers that our newsletters end up in it. Of course you want to avoid this: then click on such a message and choose Unwanted e-mail / no unwanted e-mail.
To prevent repetition, right -click and select Unwanted e-mail / options for unwanted e-mail … Go to the tab Safe Sendersclick on Add and enter the broadcast address or domain, such as @HCC.nl. Mails from this sender will now end up neatly in you Mailbox in.
Also open the tab Option and select safety Low (including the two recommended check marks). On the tab Blocked senders You will find earlier blocked addresses. If this was accidental, then you can do them here To delete. Confirm your changes with Apply or OK.