By now, most people's phone numbers and email addresses are circulating across marketing lists, auto-dialers, and data breaches. While EasyOptOuts removes your information from data brokers and people-search sites, these aren’t the only places spammers source your data from. We've put together practical tips for reducing unwanted spam.
Spam Calls
National Do Not Call Registry
EasyOptOuts customers are automatically added to the National Do Not Call Registry, a free database that stops most unwanted calls from legitimate telemarketers. You can register online or by phone, and telemarketers are legally required to remove your number from their contact lists. Not all telemarketers respect the list, but it'll help.
Built-in Device Settings
Carrier Tools
Your carrier's free spam blocking is often the most effective defense:
Third-Party Apps
Apps like RoboKiller, Nomorobo, and Truecaller can actively intercept and hang up on robocallers.
Protect Your Phone Number
- Google Voice (Free): Use a free Google Voice number for purchases and sign-ups to keep your real number private.
- MySudo (Paid): MySudo offers secure digital profiles with phone numbers, email inboxes, virtual cards and more.
If calls still get through
Some are legitimate businesses that obtained your info legally. If you answer, a polite "please remove me from your call list" usually works, and they're required to comply. It's also worth asking where they got your number, as tracing it back helps you stop it at the source.
Spam Email
Filter and Train Your Inbox
- Turn on the strictest spam filtering your provider offers:
- Mark unwanted messages as spam to help train your spam filter. Don't just delete them.
- Block repeat offenders.
Protect Your Email Address
Use a secondary "burner" email or an email masking tool for online signups and shopping rewards programs. If these emails start getting spam and you don’t need it for any other purpose, delete and create a new secondary email or alias.
- Secondary Email (Free): Create a secondary "burner" email on the email provider of your choice.
- Addy.io (Paid): Addy.io is an open-source, privacy-first email aliasing service that protects your real email address, blocks tracking, and keeps your inbox clean and secure. EasyOptOuts subscribers get 25% off their first year of any paid plan.
- Proton (Free/Paid): Free plans include 10 aliases. Paid plans allow more.
- Yahoo (Free/Paid): Free plans include 3 aliases. Paid plans include 500.
None of this eliminates spam entirely, but together these steps make a meaningful difference, and most take just a few minutes to set up.
If you'd like to go a step further and remove yourself from the people-search sites sometimes used for targeted, high-effort scams (as opposed to low-effort spam), check out our guide to removing yourself from Google search results or sign up for EasyOptOuts to let us take care of it for you.