Massive Gmail storage plus the awesome folder view provided by a Gmail account equals the perfect spam folder! If you have the ability to have your spam filtering program forward all detected spam to a separate email address, then you can create your own Gmail spam folder account too! Gmail is the perfect way to scan all of your spam for mail that you actually want, because the Gmail email folder view shows you the first sentence of the email along with the subject, making it super easy to determine if the mail is really spam or not without opening it! Here’s how!
First, set up a Gmail account (sign up for Gmail here). If you already have a Gmail account, create a different one, which you will use as a spam folder only.
Next, have your spam filtering program forward all of the email it detects as spam to your new Gmail spam folder account. We use the awesome Mail-Filters program, which checks our email for spam before it ever gets to us, but lots of different spam filtering programs will now allow you to send all of the detected spam to one particular address.
Now, whenever you check Gmail (that is, your Gmail spam folder account), you will be able to easily scan the contents of your spam folder to determine if there is any email you actually want. You won’t have to rely on the subject, or the name of the sender, because Gmail shows you the first lines of the email contents, without your ever having to open the email. You can just scan down the list of emails in the folder!
Here is a screen capture of my Gmail spam folder account, to show you how well it works:
The Internet Patrol is completely free, and reader-supported. Your tips via CashApp, Venmo, or Paypal are appreciated! Receipts will come from ISIPP.
CashApp us
Venmo us
Paypal us
See how easy it is to determine whether email is spam – even email that looks like it could be legitimate – by checking the first line or so of the content of the email?
With this set-up, you can just leave a browser window open to your Gmail spam account, and quickly and easily check to make sure that you are not missing any wanted email that was accidentally tagged as spam.
The Internet Patrol is completely free, and reader-supported. Your tips via CashApp, Venmo, or Paypal are appreciated! Receipts will come from ISIPP.
CashApp us
Venmo us
Paypal us
Ironically, I’d like to be able to pull stuff from my Gmail spam folder to help train the filters on the server I manage. I have yet to find a “download my spam” option, since even POP3 access skips the spam folder.