Have you ever been waiting for an important email only to find it in your spam folder?
This may be frustrating if you’re waiting to hear from someone, but it can also be frustrating and awkward for the sender who’s waiting for your reply.
While you should use your spam folder to filter unwanted emails, it’s also important to add any email addresses you want sent directly to your inbox to a “safelist” – and there are other ways to keep actual spam emails at bay.
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Smartphone email app (Kurt “Cyberguy” Knutson)
What does it mean to “safelist” an email address?
“Safelisting” an email address means adding it to a special list that marks it as trustworthy. When you safelist an email address, messages from this sender will bypass spam filters and go directly to your inbox. This is especially useful because sometimes important emails are mistakenly marked as unwanted spam.
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The Safelist is a useful tool in situations where you can’t afford to miss important messages, especially business or personal communications. By adding an email address to your Safelist, you’re telling your email service that you know and trust this sender, and that their email is important to you. This step ensures that you always receive the emails you want, including our emails. CyberGuy Newsletter.
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Woman using a laptop (Kurt “Cyberguy” Knutson)
Read more: How can I eliminate robocalls using apps and data deletion services?
Part I: How to safelist email addresses on different email platforms
To ensure that important emails always reach your inbox and don’t get lost in your junk folder, we recommend adding trusted email addresses to your safelist, which requires adding contacts to your email platform’s address book and taking another step to ensure they are delivered to you.
Here’s how to do this for different email platforms.
Gmail:
Add an email address to your contacts:
- Go to Google Contacts (contact address).
- click “Create contact” and, “Create contact” Enter the email address you want to add to your safelist in the form.
- click keep. This will ensure that emails from this address automatically go to your inbox instead of your spam folder.
Add spam emails to your safelist:
- Navigate Your Gmail inbox.
- Scroll down from the left navigation bar and click more.
- Then click spam
- Find an email from the sender you want to add to your safe list. Click the empty box to the left of the spam email you want to remove from your spam list.
- Tap Not spam
Create a non-spam filter:
- From your Gmail inbox, “setting” Click (gear icon), “Show all settings.”
- invite “Filters and blocked addresses” Click it.
- Then tap Create a new filter.
- Enter Email address or domain I want to add it to my safe list “from” Field.
- click Create a filter Check this search “Please do not send to spam” “Create a filter“
yahoo mail:
Add a Yahoo contact:
- click Contact card Click the icon in the top right corner of your inbox.
- next, 3 horizontal points Just below right
- select “Add a new contact.”
- Fill out the form Sender detailsClick “keep.”
Add filters to Yahoo Mail.
- click Gear icon In the top right corner, click “Advanced Setting”
- choose “filter” From the left navigation menu
- Next click Add a new filter.
- Fill out the form Filter Name And that Email address or domain If you want to add it to your safe list.
- click “keep” Enable the filter.
AOL Mail:
Add your AOL contacts:
- Log in AOL Mail Account
- click contact address Left navigation menu
- Tap 3 horizontal points Under “Contact Us”
- click Add a new contact
- Please fill in contact addressClick keep
Create a filter in AOL Mail.
- Log in AOL Mail Account
- click option
- Then click Mail Settings
- under Filter settings, click Create a new filter
- Enter name For filters, you specify the conditions (such as email from a specific email address) and then set the action. Go to inbox
- Save your filter This will ensure that all future emails from this address go directly to your inbox instead of your spam folder.
- Log in to your StartMail account: First, sign in to your StartMail account.
- Accessing Settings: Look for the settings or options menu, usually located in the top-right corner of the screen.
- Go to Safelist options: In the settings menu, find the section dedicated to “Filters” or “Safelists”.
- Add an email addressIn the Safelist section:[追加]or[新しいルールの作成]You have the option to: Enter an email address to add to your safelist.
- Save your changes: To update your safelist settings, be sure to save or apply your changes.
Following these steps will allow email from safelisted addresses to bypass spam filters, allowing you to receive important communications directly into your inbox.
Note: One of the best features of StartMail is that it is a more private and secure email service, giving you more control over what gets into your inbox and what you send. Learn more about how to upgrade your email security here..
Learn more: Outsmart the spammers and put an end to junk email
Part II: Why do unwanted emails in your inbox bypass spam filters?
If you plan on safelisting email addresses so that you don’t miss another email from a trusted address that ends up in your spam folder instead of your main inbox, you might be wondering how it works the other way around: why would an email end up in your inbox when it should be in the spam folder?
If you’re receiving a lot of “promotional” or “spam” emails (depending on how you label the email), it’s probably because you subscribed to them at some point. To find out where you’re subscribed and unsubscribe from multiple places at once, there are services like: Clean email This feature can help you do this quickly, but you can also do it manually by taking the time to review your inbox and unsubscribe from any unwanted emails that arrive there.
Also, your email address is publicly available on the Internet, allowing scammers (and companies) to can be found You may be added to a mailing list without your explicit permission. To minimize this, How to take your data offline.
![Woman using a mobile phone](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/05/1200/675/3-Bypass-the-spam-filter-How-to-safelist-emails-effectively.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Person looking at email on smartphone (Kurt “Cyberguy” Knutson)
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Use aliases to protect yourself from spam
Sometimes it’s best to create various email aliases so you don’t have to worry about all your information being stolen in a data breach. Email alias addresses are also a great way to prevent frequent spam emails by simply deleting them.
My top recommendation for avoiding spam is: Alias Email AddressAn alias email address is an additional email address that you can use to receive email in the same mailbox as your primary email address. It acts as a forwarding address, forwarding emails to your primary email address.
In addition to creating disposable email accounts for online sign-ups and other situations where you don’t want to expose your main email address, alias email addresses are also useful for handling and organizing incoming correspondence.
Sometimes it’s best to create various email aliases so that you don’t have to worry about receiving a lot of spam emails or having your email stolen in a data leak. Alias email addresses are a great way to stop receiving spam emails too often by simply deleting the email alias address. Read our reviews of the best secure and private email services here
What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
![Woman checking email](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/05/1200/675/4-Bypass-the-spam-filter-How-to-safelist-emails-effectively.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Woman checking emails on laptop while on the phone (Kurt “Cyberguy” Knutson)
ALSO: “Unsubscribe” email scam targets Americans
Important points about the cart
Managing contacts in an email system can be time-consuming, just like managing them in a physical address book or on your mobile phone, but safelisting email and using aliases to prevent spam can help ensure that your email gets where it needs to go.
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