Last year, 54 billion junk emails were sent throughout the world. These emails come from advertisers, companies, and mailing lists, some with malicious intent. Oh, and by the way, that’s 54 billion each day, every day in 2019. Sometimes you might look at your inbox and think you account for half of that number. How can you make it stop?
Glancing at your email, you may see more than 1,000 messages, some with “interesting” subjects:
- How to Lose Weight by Drinking Wine!
- Get Medical Help for Your Child’s ADHD
- Prosthetics…with NO interest
- Try Vitamin-Infused Coffee FREE!!!
- ADVANCED Guard Dogs – Collies, Shepherds, Bull Dogs
These are spam emails, or more commonly referred to simply as “junk mail.” You may have no interest in any of these things, although losing weight by drinking something so good sounds pretty nice. So why are you receiving these?
You may wonder how these intrepid companies got your email in the first place, especially if you’re generally very careful about who you give your email address to. Unfortunately, there are several ways a company can get your email address. Usually, it involves them buying your email address from a company that you thought would be trustworthy. Perhaps the reason you keep getting these emails is because a certain sports newsletter you signed up for several months ago sold your email address to a few companies. They, in turn, sold your email address to yet more companies. The cycle goes on and on. In other words, you have a problem that 51% of email owners have. You are receiving a part of the 54 billion spam emails sent worldwide each day.
This raises the question – how do you stop the flow of unnecessary emails? Simply put, you hit the unsubscribe button. Unfortunately, the simple answer doesn’t always solve a problem simply. So, here’s the in-depth way on how to unsubscribe from junk emails.
Per a law enacted in 2008, all advertisers must allow email recipients (that’s you) to prevent further emails from being sent to them. So, if a company is law-abiding, they will have something called an “unsubscribe” or “opt-out” link at the very bottom of their email. If you want to stop receiving emails from a certain company, you’d do well to find that link.
Now, all you have to do is click “unsubscribe,” and the first step to decluttering your inbox is done! Once you click that link, it will bring you to a new tab that will have one of the following:
- A box to type your own email address into (to let the company know that your email address is off limits)
- A list of specific types of emails you can unsubscribe from. For example, if you are unsubscribing from a health newsletter, you can unsubscribe from emails geared toward children but keep receiving email for adults. You will also be given a choice to unsubscribe from all further emails, if you so choose.
- A simple message stating that you have been unsubscribed.
Now that you have finished these simple pieces, all that’s left to do is wait. Per the same law mentioned earlier, the sender has 10 days to remove you from their mailing lists. That means you may receive some emails for a few days after you unsubscribe.
Unsubscribing from emails can take time, particularly if you have several different companies sending you emails. Yet, if you’re sick and tired of having to delete all the junk mail that collects in your inbox, or maybe you’re just tired of being asked for money every day, than it’s worth the effort. To help pass the time as you unsubscribe, could enjoy some weight-loss wine or vitamin-infused coffee as you pet your advanced guard dog.
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