We use Gmail for work, for personal conversations and for signing up to countless services. Over time, this often leads to inboxes getting filled with unwanted emails, such as spam, mailbombs, or messages from an account that has abused Gmail’s policies. In this article, we explain how to mark an email as spam, what to do if you receive a spam email from the contact you know and how to protect your account from mail bombing.
How to mark or unmark email as spam
For email you received that you consider spam, mark it as such. You can also unmark it. Follow the steps to Mark or unmark emails as spam:
- On your computer, open Gmail.
- Select one or more emails.
- At the top, click Report spam
To prevent a message from being sent to spam, you can:
- Add the sender to your contacts. For instructions, go to Add, move, or import contacts.
- Filter these messages. For details, visit Create rules to filter your emails.
Note: If legitimate email is still being sent to spam after you’ve added the sender as a contact and set up a filter, make sure the sender is following our sender guidelines. For details, see Prevent mail to Gmail users from being blocked or sent to spam.
What to do if you receive spam from one of your contacts
If someone on your contacts list sends you spam, a hacker might have taken over their account. In such cases:
- Don’t respond to the email.
- To report the email, in the spam alert, click Message looks suspicious.
- This action sends a report to the Gmail team to investigate. You continue to get email from this contact in the future.
- Let your contact know by another means (for example, phone or instant message) that their email account might be hacked. Suggest they follow these Gmail security tips.
How to block email from unwanted senders
- On your computer, open Gmail.
- Open the message from the sender.
- At the top right, next to “Reply ,” click More More and then Block “{sender}.”
How to protect your Gmail account from mailbombing
A mailbomb is a form of attack designed to prevent you from using your email account or finding legitimate emails.With Gmail, you can take steps to stop or prevent your account from being mailbombed. To perform a mailbox attack, an attacker only needs to know your email address. The following information helps you defend against being mailbombed.Gmail warns you if someone mailbombs your accountIf Gmail detects that your account was mailbombed, you receive a warning with a link to our existing mailbomb article. For more information, go to Mark or unmark Spam in Gmail.What this warning meansYou might have received a lot of unwanted email, such as subscriptions or promotional offers. In a targeted attack, a hacker can try to fill up your inbox so that you can’t find important security alerts from websites or services you signed up for with your Gmail account.For example, if a hacker tries to get into your bank account, your bank can notify you by email. But if your inbox is full of junk mail, you might miss the bank’s alert.
