• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Creative ideas for stopping email spam?

ggp

Android Enthusiast
Oct 26, 2009
272
21
Whitewater, Wisconsin
Hi folks,

I'm trying to help someone who'd like a way to stop email spam from reaching his Android phone. I understand this is usually best done from the email server side of things, but this is where we are right now...

This is regarding his work email, and I've suggested that he have gmail fetch it for him so they can filter it (does this work for fetching? I know it works great for emails sent directly to gmail), alas, he says he only has an imap server and no Pop3 server for gmail to fetch.

I looked in the market and found only one not terribly highly rated app for filtering email spam on Android phones.

Can anyone tell me if you've found a way to solve this issue, or if you've tried that email filtering app, and if it worked for you?

Thanks a TON for any ideas!!!
 
I don't know what can be done to prevent spam from getting there, once it's already started. I'd recommend either creating a separate account for things like registration at a website (knowing full well they'll sell it off and spam that account), or create another one to get pushed to the phone, and stop monitoring the current one.
 
Upvote 0
I don't know what can be done to prevent spam from getting there, once it's already started. I'd recommend either creating a separate account for things like registration at a website (knowing full well they'll sell it off and spam that account), or create another one to get pushed to the phone, and stop monitoring the current one.

Agreed.

I have a specific account for signing up for loyalty cards and the like. I don't give friends and family this addy. Solely reserved for non-credit card email sign ups.
 
Upvote 0
I would think you'd want this to get done at the source. Most decent providers have something like Postini available as an option, often at a small additional fee, sometimes built into the price. Outlook has a built in junk mail filter that works "kind of okay". I wouldn't think you'd want an app running on the phone, just another operation to bog things down and suck up battery life.

The other suggestion of getting a yahoo, gmail or whatever account to use with things that generate spam is one of the most effective. I started doing that a few years ago and it cut down the spam on my business domain account substantially. When the other account starts getting bogged down too much, I just sign up for a new one. No big deal since they're free.
 
Upvote 0
I appreciate everyone's input, and while I agree 100% with you, this gentleman is a customer of mine, who is holding his cell provider responsible for his spam, not his email hosting service. I'm desperate to try to help him... but I know he's going to yell at me more when I call him back without a good answer :(

I think you're best off explaining to him who really is responsible for the problem.
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones