Stop the spam Six tips against annoying advertising emails
Technological progress or not: unwanted emails are still loyal companions in 2025. Not only are they annoying, they can also be dangerous. Stop the flood of spam with these 6 tips.
According to experts, around 70 to 90 percent of all emails sent worldwide are still spam. And the problem is growing: in Switzerland and worldwide, the number of unwanted advertising emails has risen again compared to 2024. Swiss providers, for example, recorded an increase of around 65% in the first half of 2025 compared to the previous year.
Spam emails also increasingly contain malware designed to spy on or blackmail recipients. Here are 6 tips on how you can defend yourself.
Use two email addresses and a disposable service
It is helpful to use at least two different email addresses. One address that you really only pass on to friends and acquaintances and a second address for competitions, forums and online shopping.
The senders of spam search the internet specifically for email addresses. But even those who guard their private address carefully must expect spam: Real e-mail addresses can be generated from common first and last names with a high hit rate.
For example, if you need an email to register but only want to use the service for a short time, you can create a disposable address with services such as wegwerfemail.de. Depending on the provider, you can then only read the emails or also reply to them.
Train your spam filter
It is thanks to spam filters that your digital mailbox does not overflow every day. The major providers such as Bluewin pre-sort.
The emails then end up either in "Friends & acquaintances", "Unknown" or in the spam folder, where they are automatically deleted." Users should train these filters and therefore always mark spam emails as such.
How to recognize spam
Recognizing spam is no longer so easy, as it is generally getting better and better. It used to be said that you could recognize a spam email by its bad language. This is no longer the case in most cases.
Instead, senders often use the names of well-known companies, banks, online retailers or telecommunications companies. This increases the likelihood that recipients will think the email is genuine and open it.
Advertising spam vs. malware spam
Generally speaking, there are different types of spam: Firstly, there is advertising. This is annoying and is often not permitted, but it does not cause any damage to the user's computer. There is also malware spam, i.e. emails containing malware. Ransomware has also become widespread in recent years. These are emails that install ransomware on the computer.
The perfidious malware blocks access to your data and demands a ransom. Private individuals often do not back up their data and make themselves vulnerable to blackmail. Instead, it is better to keep the computer's virus protection and operating system up to date and regularly make a backup copy of all files that are important to you. It is important to disconnect the external data carrier from the computer afterwards.
Do not interact with spam emails
To protect yourself from malware, you should subject every email to a brief security check before opening it:
What you should always check
- Is the sender known?
- Does the subject make sense?
- Is an attachment expected from this sender?
If these three points do not add up, the recipient should delete the email immediately. This is the only way to be on the safe side, as malware can be hidden in the source code of HTML emails. However, if you deactivate HTML display in your mail program, you are also protected against such attacks.
You should never open the attachment of a dubious e-mail or click on a link - not even those that purport to unsubscribe you from a mailing list. In the most harmless case, you are only confirming your identity to the sender. The sender is then happy to be able to sell it.
Be careful with out-of-office messages
You should also be careful with automatic replies (e.g. out-of-office emails during the vacations). You should think carefully about whether it is absolutely necessary to give your telephone number or address. This is because this data could also be sold and misused.
However, spam is not only a problem with emails, but also in social networks. You need to be just as careful with Facebook, WhatsApp and the like as you are with links and emails. In the end, only one thing really helps against spam of any kind: mistrust, mistrust, mistrust.
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