Deal with Persistent Spammers

Sometimes, spammers can be persistent. Even though some may include unsubscribe links in their message headers, they will usually ignore unsubscribe requests or even push harder in response.

Unfortunately, once a spammer has your email address, you cannot stop their messages from coming in. Because of how email services work, any email sent your way will be delivered. You cannot make an email message disappear once it has been sent. However, Clean Email can help you stop these messages from appearing in your Inbox or triggering new mail notifications.

Creating an Auto Clean Rule

Many times you can recognize spammers by their email addresses because they include unusual patterns or uncommon domain names. For example, you may see email addresses starting with “info_” or using domain names such as “.xyz” or “.club”. Using the Auto Clean feature, you can set up rules to automatically deal with messages that include specific, unusual patterns like that.

📌 Note: Using the Auto Clean feature requires a premium subscription.

To set this up, click Auto Clean in the left-hand navigation menu.

Then, in the right-hand pane, click the plus icon at the top of the page to create a new rule.

In the new rule dialog, leave the Inbox field as is, so the rule will apply to any message that would otherwise appear in your inbox.

Use the search field (“Subject, sender, or recipients contain…”) to specify the unusual or distinctive portion of the spammer’s email address. By default, Clean Email will search for all messages that include the specified string in the sender name, email address, or subject.

For example, if you want to automatically clean messages that include “.xyz” in the sender address, enter .xyz.

If you enter multiple words or strings separated with spaces, the system will catch messages that contain any of the words, rather than all of the words.

You can also use the asterisk wildcard character * as a substitute for one or more unknown characters. For example, if you enter the search string columb*, the search will match any messages that include words like Columbia, Columbian, and Columbus.

⚠️ Caution: Please use caution when specifying the criteria for the Auto Clean rule. Clean Email will follow your instructions exactly, but you will never be prompted to confirm these actions. If you make a mistake specifying the message criteria, Clean Email may clean messages that you wanted to receive. Avoid using common words that might normally be used in a legitimate email address or subject.

Next, click the Choose action drop-down and select the action that you want Clean Email to automatically apply to all messages that meet the criteria you have selected. For example, you might choose Trash to move the messages to the trash.

Finally, click Create rule.

📌 Note: Clean Email recommends leaving the toggle switch labeled Include this rule in Action History turned on, which is the default setting. Clean Email will send you periodic notifications listing which messages have been cleaned by the rule, to help you spot any potential mistakes in setting up the rule criteria.

Using the Pause Feature of the Unsubscriber

By using the Pause feature of the Unsubscriber, you can stop seeing the sender’s messages in your inbox without actually unsubscribing. When you pause a subscription, all messages from the sender’s address that include an unsubscribe link in the message header are automatically moved to the trash so you never have to see them.

However, pausing a subscription only affects messages from that subscription’s sender address. If a spammer sends from multiple addresses, pausing each of the subscriptions may not be the most efficient solution, and creating an Auto Clean rule may be a better approach.

📌 Note: Using the Unsubscriber feature requires a premium subscription.

To use Pause, click Unsubscriber in the left-hand navigation menu.

Then, in the right-hand pane, click the drop-down next to Unsubscribe and choose Pause.

The Pause Subscription? dialog appears. Click Confirm.

Do you have more questions?

Please contact us and we will be happy to help.