Less spam in your e-mail – that’s how you do it

There is nothing more annoying than a mailbox full of spam messages. Fortunately, you can do something about it yourself. We’ll show you how to get less spam in your email from now on!

Less spam in your email

Spam is defined as e-mails that end up in your mailbox unsolicited. Sometimes it’s just advertising, but often they try to lure you into clicking on a link with the wrong intentions. According to research firm Statista, about 49 percent of all emails sent worldwide last year were spam.

There are a number of guidelines you can follow to minimize spam. We list the most important ones for you:

• Use one email address for serious communication and another email address to sign up on websites and forums;
• Only share your ‘serious’ email address with people you trust;
• Use ‘Sign in with Apple’;
• Don’t unsubscribe from newsletters you never subscribed to;
• Do not delete spam mails, but move them to the spam folder;
• Do not click on links or download photos or files from a spam email.

It may already be too late for some of these guidelines, because you should have followed them from the start.

Settings and spam filter for less spam

There are also a number of settings that you can adjust to ensure that you receive less spam in your mailbox from now on. The first thing you need to do is activate the option ‘Protect activities in Mail’. You do this as follows:

• Open the Settings app;
• Scroll down a bit and tap ‘Mail’;
• Under ‘Messages’, tap ‘Privacy Protection’;
• Make sure the “Protect activity in Mail” option is enabled.

Also use the spam filter of your mail program. There are no separate spam filter settings on your iPhone. They are inherited from your e-mail provider. If you want to change them, you do so via your e-mail account. To do this, log in to your e-mail provider (e.g. Google) and open the settings there.

Training spam filter

Over time, the spam filter gets better at recognizing whether an email is spam or not. Many users delete the unwanted mails directly themselves, but it is better not to do that. By leaving them in the folder, you train the spam filter to recognize spam.

When you receive a spam email that is not recognized by the spam filter, do the following:

The email is now classified as advertising, or spam. In this way you help the spam filter to recognize spam emails in the future.

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