---
layout: post
title: How to help gmail keep your inbox SPAM-free
author: Steven
date: 2010-07-13 06:46:14
categories: 
- Musings
tags: 
- google
- gwt
featured_image: https://www.stevenjaycohen.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/wsi-imageoptim-new-google-logo.png
---

	From Marking as SPAM is NOT blocking similar messages - Gmail Help:

	Recent severe increase in the amount of SPAM making it to my inbox (2 weeks so far). I mark messages as SPAM but continue to receive similar messages day after day. It looks like I am doing everything that I can on my end. Is there a public facing web page where end-users can read about the status of gmail's filtering? Is there anything more we can do than just simply marking the messages as SPAM? I want to be more involved in helping remove these messages from the inboxes of all gmail users. What else can I do to help?

	Link

	That posting is dated June 21, 2010. And, it has only gotten worse since then. And, truth be told, I know exactly what caused the SPAM uptick and I know how I could have prevented it, but at the time it had slipped my mind.

	People are often counseled to use a junk email address to sign up for things online, but it seems like a lot of trouble to maintain an address just for junk mail. Fortunately, Gmail has a built-in (but unadvertised) solution.

	If your Gmail address is joe.cool@gmail.com all you have to do is use joe.cool+something@gmail.com, where something is any group of letters that makes sense to you. The email will still wind up in your normal inbox. But, if the site you gave that address to sells your name to a spammer, all you need to do is make a Gmail filter that sends all new mail To:joe.cool+something@gmail.com to the trash.

	I forgot to do this, and now, I am suffering the consequences. Once you start getting SPAM in your gmail inbox, all you can do is mark it as SPAM and hope that the gmail filters learn fast enough to keep your inbox relatively clear.