# how to stop email spamming? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 17, 2002, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-stop-email-spamming/104191 "2002-04-17T18:38:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![razer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@razer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/razer)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-stop-email-spamming/104191/1 "2002-04-17T18:38:17Z")
here’s the deal… recently my email address has been passed along to quite a bit of spammers (particularly of the PORN type). normally i am content with simply replying to the address given and “UNSUBSCRIBING”. well for the past two months or so… ALL of the said “UNSUBSCRIBING” emails have bounced. are there any options i can do/use short of changing email address? How can i trace the originally emails? I would assume i would need to trace the WEB site that the emails promote but some of these sites claim that they dont spam or send out emails… help me, Spammed in SB ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-stop-email-spamming/104191/2 "2002-04-17T18:46:05Z")
Try using some of [**Sam Spade’s**](http://samspade.org/t/refer?custom=abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz-&i=on&edit=on) tools. ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-stop-email-spamming/104191/3 "2002-04-17T19:02:44Z")
I work for a company that sells email software and our customers sometimes cross the line and have to have their hands slapped… but from your perspective I would got to [http://spamcop.net/](http://spamcop.net/) and use them since they are fairly effective at shutting down spammers. You could change your email address but then the people who you want to communicate with can’t email you anymore at the old email address. When I get spam I immediately pass the email to spamcop. If you reply to it it may just tell the spammer that you are monitoring that email account and trigger them to send you yet more spam… ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-stop-email-spamming/104191/4 "2002-04-17T20:00:09Z")
Just send an email back to the spammer asking politely to be removed from their database. And tell them all your friends’ email addresses too, so they’ll know not to email them anymore either. ---
**Author:** ![vl\_mungo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc8723/32.png) [@vl\_mungo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vl_mungo)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-stop-email-spamming/104191/5 "2002-04-17T20:25:44Z")
Sometimes it is a bad idea to reply to the unsubscribe address. These spams are sent to see if the addresses are actual working addresses… when you unsubscribe, you are merely telling them that “someone is home” ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-stop-email-spamming/104191/6 "2002-04-17T20:31:30Z")
Fiver, are you making a joke? NEVER send a list of email addresses to a spammer! They will for sure add all of your friends to their spam list. It’s also a good practice to not click unsubscribe links, because as dolphinboy says, the spammers will probably just send you more. Another thing to do is set up filters in your email program. Collect the spam for a few days and see if any particular domains are being used (ones you never get other email from) and block those. Also, check out the TO field of the email. I often get spam from people sending to smtp05.myschool.edu which is a loophole that sends email to everyone at myschool.edu. Set up a filter to block all email that has the offending stuff in the TO field.