Junk messages, scams, phishing schemes: spam comes in many forms. While some messages can be just annoying, others can actually lead to viruses that may damage your computer or even put your finances and personal information at risk. Whether you just created a new email account or your current address has been getting bombarded with junk, it helps to learn ways to combat spam.

By following these tips, the only messages that you’ll receive in your email inbox will be the ones that you want!

Set up Filters

Most email clients like Gmail and Yahoo! Mail allow you to organize your messages according to filters. While these filters are useful for organizing your inbox, they can also move messages straight to your trash folder. To enable this:

1. Access your settings on your email account
2. Copy the email address of the spammer and paste it in the filters area

If you set up the filter correctly, all emails from the spammer will automatically be deleted rather than end up in your inbox.

Don’t Open the Message

When you receive a spam message, it can be tempting to look into the content of the email. This is especially true if you are not familiar with spam mail. However, opening these emails can be risky, especially if you click any attachments in the email. Clicking a link or opening an attachment can lead to inadvertently downloading malware or other viruses that can wreak havoc on your computer, as well as potentially compromising your personal information.

Alter Your Email Account to Delete Pictures

There are ways to tip off a scammer that your email address is live and active, and pictures are one of them. These pictures may be invisible to the naked eye as they may only consist of a single pixel that matches the color of the body of the email. You could never find this picture by yourself, so go into your email account settings to turn off all pictures. The amount of spam that you receive just may decrease as a result of this simple action.

Don’t Email Back

No matter what kind of email message that you receive from a spammer, absolutely never message back. Many spam accounts try to look like legitimate businesses, but you can often tell that something isn’t quite right. To stay safe, consider this rule of thumb: if you don’t know who is emailing you and you didn’t reach out to this person first, it’s best not to reply.

Invest in Software

Lastly, if you find that the above measures aren’t really helping reduce your rate of spam, you may want to consider an anti-spam program. This software gains permission from your email account to prevent unwanted spam messages from ever reaching your inbox. That should hopefully take care of your spam problem for good.