Up to your ears in junk mail? This is how to track down the culprits selling your email address
IF you have a Gmail account, you need this life hack
HAVE you ever looked in your inbox and found a stream of spam from companies you’ve never heard of?
Unfortunately for many of us, the relentless unwanted emails clogging up our inbox has become an all too regular occurrence.
The constant bombardment of offers and newsletters that don’t spark even the faintest flicker of interest are enough to drive anyone insane.
‘HOW DID THEY GET MY DETAILS?’ You may well ask, as another junk email floats into your inbox, prompting a surge of fury.
If you’re nodding along to this (and you have a Gmail account), you need this simple hack in your life.
It takes a bit of forward planning, but there is a little-known trick to track who is selling your email address.
If your email address was [email protected], next time a website asks you to enter your details, add +(name of the the website) before the at sign.
So if you were signing up for Ebay, you would enter [email protected].
Google doesn’t read the plus sign, so anything that follows isn’t picked up.
However – and here comes the clever bit – the next time you get an email you don’t want, check the email address it’s sent to.
If it includes the ‘+(name of website)’ but wasn’t sent from them, you have caught your culprit!
Reducing the number of unwanted emails we receive is often one of the quick fixes psychologists recommend to reduce stress and feel happier.
You might want to consider these other tips to keep your inbox a spam-free safe haven.
The most effective tactic is preventative, so be spam savvy!
If you receive a message that you suspect could be spam, don’t open it.
If you have already opened the email before realising it’s spam – it’s not too late, just don’t open any of the links.
Even ‘unsubscribe’ options count – sophisticated scammers look for any way to fool you so rather than preventing further messages, clicking the link will only confirm your email address is active and probably attract more unwanted messages.
Don’t go dishing out your personal email address to anybody and everybody and, if you have a website, don’t make it public as this is easy fodder for spammers harvesting details.
It’s also good practice to keep your anti-virus software up to date so if you realise something was a scam too late, you have a final line of defence.
And whatever you do, DO NOT REPLY!
Seriously, never.