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Tips on how to manage and stop spam emails

Anyone with an email address is a target for spam with many noticing a huge increase in the past few months since the coronavirus crisis. But how can you stop receiving these annoying messages? Is there anything you can do?

We’ve heard from a number of Tech Guide readers with Optus email accounts who are being inundated by spam which is peddling everything from bitcoin, medicine, porn and other get rich schemes..

Tech Guide reached out to Optus for its tips on how to manage and avoid spam.

Here are the Optus tips on managing and stopping spam from flooding your inbox.

1 – Utilise a private and public email address. Optus provides the ability to create multiple email accounts so you can use one for your friends and family, and another to sign up for mailing lists and to subscribe to companies apps and websites. Using at least two email addresses keeps your private email spam free.

2 – Check to see if your email address has been part of any published hacking or spam list breaches. You can use a website called Have I Been Pwned? to see if your email address has been mentioned in a breach notification or is on a published spammer list.

https://haveibeenpwned.com/

If your address is mentioned on this website, you are likely going to receive higher than normal volumes of spam as your email address has been published, and you might like to consider starting a new “clean” email address by contacting Optus support and we can add new ones for you.

3 – Optus provides a spam filter that sits on our mail server however because of the risk of filtering legitimate email it cannot be as strict as may be required for users who are on high volume spam lists. For this reason, maintaining your own, third party, spam filter is always a great way to combat high spam volumes. You can be as strict as you like with your own filter rules and use it in conjunction with the, less strict, Optus filtering.

4: Optus Webmail has a feature where you can report spam that has bypassed our filters filter. You open https://webmail.optusnet.com.au and find the spam that is in your Inbox. Use your right mouse button to click on the spam and then select “Spam” from the drop down menu that appears. This then reports the spam to the Optus Network Security team and also reports the spam to the Optus filter so that it can be filtered for other customers before they receive it.

– 5 – Beware of Optus branded phishing scams that are used to steal your email address and password. Optus will never as that you log in to your account via an email. If you are ever unsure of an email that clams to be from Optus, use the “My Optus” app instead from the Google Play and Apple iTunes stores to check all your account notifications and balances. If there is a problem with your payment or other details, it will be advised there. This is also the best place to check on your data balances and usage.