Many people create a bulk email folder in their email programs to reduce the amount of spam or junk mail that can fill their inboxes. With the help of spam filters, this can greatly reduce the time wasted dealing with spam, but spam filters are not foolproof: some emails you want to receive in your inbox can be archived for error in your spam or bulk mail folder. You don’t want messages from family members, lists of servers you subscribe to, or business emails getting “lost” in a bulk mail folder. Also, you shouldn’t have to go through that folder trying to find the important stuff.
Spam poses a very real threat to millions of email users around the world.
Despite the proliferation of email filters, there are very simple ways to prevent good email from being archived in your bulk email folder. Your email program may have the option to mark email as “junk” or “not junk.” When you mark email as ‘not junk’, it will end up in your inbox, not your bulk email folder. Do this over time, and your spam filter should be trained to know that this type of email is not spam.
While bulk mail folders can save you time and help you avoid security issues, spam filters aren’t foolproof.
Another thing you can do to prevent good emails from being misfiled in your bulk email folder is to make sure your mailing list includes the email addresses you expect to receive emails from. Most email service providers maintain a handy address book where you can store important email addresses. Make sure your address book includes the email addresses of family, friends, bookmarkers, and business partners and you should be able to reduce the number of valid emails that are incorrectly archived.
If you’re looking for a job and send resumes to multiple email addresses, you can add those addresses, at least temporarily, to your address book. You can always delete them later if you don’t get a response from the company.
These two simple steps together should help reduce most of your problems with bad emails in your bulk email folder. Still, email service programs and spam filters have different features. If these solutions don’t work, check the options or preferences in your email program to see if there are any other suggestions your email service provider may have.
Another thing you can do, which most email programs and ISPs allow, is to set up a “dummy” email address. That way, if you’re asked to provide your email address to register with certain companies, you provide the “fictitious” address, rather than your real email address, which you only provide to those who wish to receive correspondence. Most spam, advertisements and the like will end up in the dummy address bulk folder instead of going to your real address.
When searching for jobs, especially on sites like craigslist, you often don’t know what email address to look for in response emails. Since some job postings may be scams, it is recommended that you do not submit resumes via anonymous Craigslist mail. Instead, contact the person and request a company email address before submitting the resume, then add that address to your address book.
Some anti-spam programs filter email based on a regularly updated list of known spammers.
