You marked it as junk. You blocked the senders. You cleared the mailbox. The spam is back in a week.

That is normal. Filters catch what they have seen. Spammers send from new addresses every day.

When it will not stop, work down this list.

1. Raise the filter one notch.

Go back to the filter setting in Part 3. If you are on Low, try High for a week. Check the Junk folder daily. If real mail starts landing there, go back.

2. Use a second address for sign-ups.

Most of the spam is not from people writing to you. It is from every store, contest and website that ever asked for your address.

Make a second free address for those. Use it for store accounts, coupons, and anything you are not sure about. Keep your main address for people you know, your bank, and your doctor.

In a year, the second address takes the junk and the main one stays clean.

3. Ask your email provider.

Your provider may have its own filtering you can turn up. Spectrum, Comcast, Yahoo, and others each have settings on their website. Filtering there is better than in the program on your computer, because the spam never gets downloaded.

4. Report the scams.

Spam you can ignore. A scam, a message that wants money or a password, is worth reporting. The FTC takes reports at reportfraud.ftc.gov. It will not fix your inbox, but it helps.

5. Check whether the address is in a breach.

If an address is getting hit hard, it may have been exposed in a data breach. A free site called Have I Been Pwned will tell you. If it shows up, change the password for that account and for anywhere you reused it. See [What Data Breaches Actually Mean].

Your email is also the key to your other accounts. See [Why Email Is the Master Key].

6. Change the address, last.

An address that has been on the internet for twenty years will never be quiet. If it is the problem, the cleanest fix is a new one.

This is a real job. Your bank, your accounts, and the people you write to all need the new address. Do it slowly. Keep the old one open for a year, and forward from it.

It is not for everyone. Some people live with the spam and clear the folder on Sundays. That is a fair answer too.

If you want help.

I can set up filtering and a second address with you on your screen. It takes about an hour. If the mailbox is a mess, I can clear it at the same time.

Call me or book a remote session.