Spam

Getting lots of spam email sure can be annoying, Leasatom. Let us show you how to reduce the amount of spam you receive!

We have a handy guide on our website that covers how to protect yourself from email spam.

The section titled How to avoid spam has a wide range of options:

• Alter your email address in public forums. If you post your email address in a public place, you may want to change the address slightly. One way to do this is to add an x element to your user ID. For instance, instead of MemberID@att.net, your email address could say MemberIDX@att.net or MemberIDnospam@att.net. Try to be as creative as possible with both the placement and use of special characters.  (Just remember to remove the x element if you answer a post with email.)
• Don't give out your email address without knowing how it will be used. Read the terms of use and privacy statements of sites before providing your email address. If you can't find the site's privacy statement, don't divulge your address.
• Don't reply to a spam email, even if the spammer offers to unsubscribe you. A reply lets the spammer know your email address is active, potentially resulting in more spam.
• Never click a URL or website address listed within a spam email. This lets the spammer know the validity of your email address, potentially 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 spammers. In both cases, your address is recorded and valued more highly because you have just identified the address is active.

Be sure to visit our other guides that cover how to report and filter spam, troubleshoot a hacked email account, and  protect your personal information and keep your devices safe.

If you have any other questions or concerns about your email account, we'll be here.

Thank you for visiting the AT&T Community Forums!

Aminah, AT&T Community Specialist

@Leasatom  That's probably because AT&T uses Yahoo Mail, and Yahoo email is about the worst email provider around. Until Yahoo gets its act together, there is very little you can do other than try to filter the spam out. I pay for a separate email provider for my personal email and virtually no spam makes it thru to my In box. The provider traps (Graymail) 99% of the spam and either automatically deletes it after 7 days or I can go in and check to make sure something important didn't get trapped and then delete it all myself. Takes about 1 minute. My other email accounts for things like this forum are all gmail.

The amount of spam email has QUADRUPLED in the last year. 8 or more per day. 

ATT/Yahoo must have changed ('updated') software somewhere to cause this.

I opened my account in the old "worldnet.att.net" days.