No more credit card offers in the mail: Visit optoutprescreen.com to stop financial junk mail you later have to shred. Choose to opt out for five years or forever. Opting out permanently? You’ll have to use snail mail, but it’s worth it. Print, sign and mail a confirmation form. I did it.
Protect your privacy, your cell phone number and email address
Phone scams are never-ending because they work. Scam texts are increasing, too. Here are five sure signs a text is junk you need to delete.
While we’re talking scams, I’d be remiss not to mention your inbox. Tap or click for convincing spam that landed in my email with not-so-obvious red flags.
One way to cut down on the endless attempts to steal your money and info for sale to marketers is to limit who has your contact information. Here are some simple, free ways to do it.
Hide your email address with a burner
Consider all the reasons you give away your email without thinking about it: Signing up for a new account, emailing a company with a question, or getting a coupon code — to name a few.
Whenever you give out your email address, you open yourself to junk mail, malware, and an inbox full of spam messages. This is where a burner email comes in handy.
Burner email addresses are disposable and can be used in place of your primary. There are several ways to get one.
- Temp Mail provides a temporary, anonymous and disposable email address. You don’t need to register for the free version. Remember that the service doesn’t automatically delete your temporary email address (that’s up to you), and you can’t send emails. Emails are stored for about two hours before they’re automatically deleted.
- 10MinuteMail is another popular option you can also use to send emails. As the name suggests, the email and address are deleted in 10 minutes. If you receive an important message you don’t want to lose, you can forward it to another email address. There’s no need to provide personal information to get started, which is a nice bonus.
If you’re an Apple iCloud+ subscriber, you get access to one of my favorite Apple features: Hide My Email. It creates unique, random email addresses that forward to your inbox. You can create as many addresses as you want and reply to messages.
- To create a new email address, go to Settings and tap your Apple ID.
- Go to iCloud > Hide My Email > Create New Address.
- Follow the onscreen instructions, and you’ll get a new email address you can manage from iCloud settings.
Gmail also allows you to create free aliases tied to your primary inbox. They are handy for filtering mail or seeing how your email address ended up on a spam list.
Tired of all the junk in your inbox? Create a burner email address
Though texting someone is more convenient than opening your email app and composing a message, email carries a formality. It’s still the king of professional correspondence, especially in an office setting.
Do you CC or BCC? Knowing the difference and the proper time to use each is important. Tap or click here for a rundown on these email tools and avoid committing a digital faux pas.
Tech tip: How to find anyone’s email address online
Keeping up with your inbox feels never-ending some days. Between work, your personal life, and all that spam, you might have hundreds of emails to sift through.
Is junk mail getting you down? Do something about it. Spending a little time once will save you from clicking “trash” all day. Tap or click for five simple ways to stop spam.
Use this app to put a stop to junk mail - the paper kind
These days, checking your physical mailbox can be just as frustrating as going through your email inbox.
It seems like every other day there’re piles of junk mail surrounding the important stuff like bills, company notices and even checks. And this isn’t limited to your physical mailbox, it can happen in your email, too. Tap or click to cut down the amount of spam in your inbox. How can you make it stop?
Advertisers are following you home with targeted junk mail
If you find those targeted ads that are following you around online creepy, it’s time to take matters into your own hands. One way to do this is by changing settings on sites that are known for tracking.
Need help figuring out how to do this? No worries, we’ve got you covered. Tap or click here for 6 ways to stop advertisers from following you online.