Mine have increased since changing Medicare plans.

Hacks from hotels?
 

I am the original poster. I am 100% sure that I have not given my address to a suspicious entity. I recently traveled and used the hotels' unsecure wifi to check my emails. Of course I don’t use those wifis for sensitive issues, but can email be hacked in those situations?

I just heard about this site/app yesterday to help with junk mail. It's called Unroll Me. It apparently helps unsubscribe you from all the junk mail.

Unsubscribe from emails, instantly - Unroll.Me

I don't know about gmail, I know yahoo emails get hacked a LOT. I've had a hotmail account for over 30 years, and have never had my account hacked. Maybe change to another email? Let your friends and family know of the change, put the email address change as your signature so everyone will see it. Then you'll only have to check your gmail occasionally for other emails.

The default connection to gmail is via https or a secured version connection. You have to fiddle with connection settings in your browser to turn that off. There is no reason to turn that off unless you're on a WiFi connection that's trying to snoop on you. In the past, some public wifi may have prevented secure connections, but I seriously doubt any of them do it today.

There should also be a lock or symbol of some kind, it's different on different browsers, next to the URL address at the top. This means you are secure from your computer to google. No one can snoop on that.

Of course, it's possible that when you're on an open WiFi, that someone else could break into your computer, but frankly, that's beyond the skill is almost everyone and unless you've really opened up your computer intentionally, this is not something to worry about.

You can always block them by using the 3 dot pull down menu just to the right of the email.. That helps, but it's just like the spam and telemarketer stuff on our phones. It's just really an ongoing task to block them all. : )

I’m in the same boat. My junk e-mail was up over 3000 the other day. Takes longer than a few seconds to look through for possible info I need and to delete that many unwanted emails. Some were coming 6 at a time right in a row😤

I keep a separate email address for banking, credit cards. Rarely disclose these, no spam problem on them. If I have to change my shopping or personal email it's easier.

Interesting thread, I have the same problem as the OP, way too much spam mail showing up in my junk folder. It’s kind of a pain is the butt. I have a Comcast email account and my browser is Safari. Wondering if anyone else with that set-up has found a way to block all the spam mail without having to change their email?

I get over a hundred of junk emails a day. They all go into my junk folder. Sounds like your spam folder is doing what it is supposed to do.

I am doing the same thing.
I set up a new email only for financial/banking/utility's sites and no spam or junk mail.

One question:
Should I be deleting my spam folder in my old e-mail in Gmail or leave it build up?

Do not. Delete spam/junk mail from the folder!
This is how the gmail program identifies the junk/spam.

But can/should I remove the junk mail that's already in the folder, was my question

Ohiobuckeye
 

Don’t get on group emails! Friends send what they think is a funny or neat emails to people you don’t know, & you might of said something that someone wants so you get hacked, plus you really don’t know if some of these people have a lot viruses & they pass there viruses on to you, then this virus could open your bank accounts. So if really don’t want to get hacked, quit emailing. Eventually every country in the world will know your business. It’s coming!

if you identify that it all is junk then yes. if you want to improve on that then dump gmail which will stop some of your problems

It is never a good idea to connect to an open wifi you find even if it says McDonalds or Hilton-Guest. For a few hundred dollars a bad actor can buy a small device that advertises a fake wifi signal that you connect to. You think everything is ok because they pass you through to the real open wifi. This is called a man-in-the-middle attack. Every username and password you type in can be captured even if it is a strong password.

With Gmail, you can setup two factor authentication (2FA) which is using your password and something like a text code to your phone or better yet is an authentication app like Google Authenticator app. Without both, no one can login to your account.

All of this security is free. I know it is easier to just use just a password and usually the same password for multiple logins, but you set yourself up for a problem sometime in the future. A little inconvenience now, will save you a ton of inconvenience in the future.