Problem: I'm Repeatedly Getting an Unwanted Email

This article shows options if you are repeatedly getting an unwanted email.

Options

Mark as spam

Marking an unwanted email as spam has multiple benefits.  It moves this message to your Spam folder, and makes Google more likely to send messages from this sender or with this kind of content to your spam filter in the future.  If enough recipients mark messages from a sender as Spam, Google will suspend that user's account (if they are a Gmail user) or stop accepting emails from that user.

To mark a message as spam, open it in the Boxer Mail web interface, click the three dots in the upper right, and choose "Report spam."

If this is a phishing message (uses fraud to try to get you to take some action or visit a dangerous site) you can choose "Report phishing" instead.

Unsubscribe

Commercial messages are required, by the CAN-SPAM act and by the rules of major email providers like Google, to provide an easy means to unsubscribe from messages from that sender.  Look for an "unsubscribe" or "manage preferences" link at the bottom of an email to unsubscribe.  When you mark an email as spam (see above) Google will attempt to automatically unsubscribe on your behalf.

Block sender

To block all messages from a particular sender, open it in the Boxer Mail web interface, click the three dots in the upper right, and choose "Block [sender name]."  Gmail will reject any messages from that address in the future.

Filter messages by subject line

If you are getting the same message from multiple sources (e.g. you are the target of an online harassment campaign) you can set Boxer Mail to filter all messages with a particular subject line.  To do so:

  1. Open the Boxer Mail web interface and click the gear icon in the top right corner.
  2. Select "See all settings" then go to the "Filters and Blocked Addresses" tab and click "Create a new filter" (found near the bottom of the page).
  3. In the "Subject" field, enter the subject line of the email in quotes.
  4. Optional: In the "Doesn't have" section, you can enter "from:pacificu.edu" to exempt emails from Pacific email addresses from the filter.  However, adding this may cause some emails with this subject from non-Pacific addresses to be inadvertently exempted from the filter.
  5. Click "Create filter."
  6. On the next page, check the checkbox next to either "Skip the inbox (Archive it)" or "Delete it"
    1. Optional: You can also check the checkbox next to "Also apply filter to [number] matching conversations" to archive or delete emails you've already received with this subject line.
  7. Click "Create filter" again to finish.

See Also

Spam and Phishing Protection (go here to inquire about a suspicious email or report a successful phishing attempt)

Managing Spam Filter: False Positives and False Negatives

Questions?

Contact Support

Print Article