Why changing your address rarely works
Abandoning an inbox means updating every bank, employer, friend and account you have. It takes months, things get missed, and the new address starts leaking the moment you use it to sign up for something. The better approach is to keep your address and change how you hand it out.
1. Let your filters do more
Mark spam as spam rather than simply deleting it. Your provider learns from every report. Create rules that move bulk mail from known senders into a separate folder, so your inbox shows only what matters.
2. Unsubscribe carefully
Use unsubscribe links from companies you knowingly signed up with. They’re legally required in many countries and usually work. Avoid clicking unsubscribe in messages from senders you don’t recognise: it can confirm your address is active and lead to more spam.
3. Know the limits of plus addressing
Some providers let you add a tag to your address, such as yourname+shop at your provider. It’s useful for filtering, but it isn’t privacy. Your real address is still in plain sight, and spammers can remove the tag in seconds.
4. Stop giving out your real address
This is the step that actually reduces spam over time. The next time a site asks for your email, use an alias that forwards to your inbox. If that alias ever starts receiving spam, stop it. Nothing more gets through, and your real address never entered that company’s database.
5. Move your noisiest accounts gradually
Look at which companies send the most mail. For each one you still use, change the account email to an alias. For each one you don’t, close the account. Over a few weeks, most bulk mail ends up flowing through aliases you control.
6. Check whether your address has leaked
If spam arrived suddenly, your address may have been part of a data breach. Services like Have I Been Pwned let you check. See what to do if your email was in a data breach.
A realistic expectation
Spam already aimed at your real address won’t disappear overnight. What changes is that new spam has nowhere to land, and existing spam gradually fades as filters learn and lists go stale.