• I'm receiving unsolicited emails from people or companies I don't recognize
• I'm receiving messages with inappropriate or explicit subject lines
• How to avoid spam in Yahoo! Mail

If you're receiving unsolicited email from people or companies you don't recognize, it's probably spam. Unfortunately, spam messages often contain inappropriate content.

Yahoo! Mail automatically filters for spam (and sends suspected spam messages to your "Spam" folder), but sometimes unwanted messages still make it through our Spamguard. If you are receiving spam in your inbox, here are some additional ways prevent spam:

1. Use the "Spam" and "Not Spam" buttons: The most effective way to prevent spam from entering your inbox is by using these buttons. If a spam message is delivered to your "Inbox," click "Spam." If a non-spam message is delivered to your "Spam" folder, click "Not spam." For more information on using the "Spam" and "Not Spam" buttons please refer to How to report spam to Yahoo!.

Note: If the messages are already going to your Spam folder, no further action is needed. The Spam folder was designed to keep these types of messages out of your inbox. 

2. Set up filters: Filters deliver emails containing specific words or phrases to the folder of your choice -- or the Trash. You can set up filters from the Mail Options menu. Learn how to set up filters.

3. Block an address: You can block email specific addresses you do not want to receive email from. When an address is blocked, incoming email from the address will be automatically disposed of without bouncing back to the sender. Blocking is also an action you can perform from the Mail Options menu. Learn how to block addresses. 

4. Block images: Image blocking prevents spammers from receiving the confirmation “hits” they get whenever one of their images is viewed. Since a view can include the moment you click to open a spam message, initially blocking all images is your safest choice. Learn how to block images. 

Spammers use their own methods of collecting email addresses and sending unsolicited email through their own computers, programs, Internet sites, forgery, etc. The following steps illustrate some measures you can take to avoid spam:

• Never respond to unsolicited email/spam. To the individuals who send spam, one "hit" among thousands of mailings is enough to justify the practice.
• Never respond to the spam email's instructions to reply with the word "remove." This is just a ploy to get you to react to the email and alerts the sender that a human is at your email address which greatly increases its value. If you reply, your address may be placed on more lists resulting in more spam.
• Never sign up with sites that promise to remove your name from spam lists. Although some of these sites may be legitimate, more often than not, they are address collectors. The legitimate sites are ignored (or exploited) by the spammers, and the address collection sites are owned by them. In both cases, your address is recorded and valued more highly because you have just identified it as being read by a human.
• Avoid displaying your email addresses in public places. This makes it harder for spammers to run programs or bots to gather email addresses.
• If you use a service that uses an online directory of their users, you may want to "opt-out" of this directory. Spammers search the directory for new listings.

Yahoo! takes your privacy seriously. Yahoo! does not rent, sell, or share personal information about you with other people or nonaffiliated companies; except to provide products or services you have requested when we have your permission or under other limited circumstances. For further information, please review our full Privacy Policy.

For more useful tips to combat spam, please visit our anti-spam page.