October 31, 2025
Helpful episodes to listen to firstEpisode summary
The second priority of our email workshop is eliminating spam. It’s one of the biggest sources of email stress -- see episode 86 for why this matters so much.
Cutting out spam also removes most phishing attempts before they ever reach you. Yet many people see spam like death and taxes: unavoidable.
I’m here to tell you that spam IS avoidable. With the right tools -- and the skills to use them effectively -- you can beat spam. I’ve done it myself, keeping my spam to just 10 messages a year (see episode 17).
Join me in the workshop and learn how to make spam a thing of the past.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
welcome to Super Simple Security Principles where you learn how to think not just what to do
i'm Nick Jackson here to learn along with you from my good buddy and master guardian Makani Mason
let's go this is episode 87 we're going to continue on with our email workshop today
(00:23):
priority eliminate spam that's right last week reduced stress this week eliminate spam
that should get the juices flowing right there right yeah what i would do without spam yeah i'll
(00:45):
say this one i think you know some of the later ones not everyone might have a higher priority but
i'll be surprised if there's anybody we talk to that uh isn't this this isn't a high priority for
right um although you know there are there might be some people who have kind of
conquered it because i feel like in terms of spam i've more or less beat it you know requires a
(01:08):
little bit ongoing effort but i really get almost no spam and so but uh i i'd love to compare notes
with anybody who has a system too and you know open to any any systems within our current email
system that help us defeat spam so yeah absolutely especially if it's just a tool you can kind of
(01:30):
plug in that's always so because there are some of those that look like they promise anyway that we'll
be exploring so we'll see how it goes but excellent but uh so the the two introduction things i want
to say about spam though and why this is a priority other than the obvious right i mean nobody wants spam
(01:51):
you don't really have to sell that too much right shouldn't have to but i think it's more like it's not
just a nice to have right it's it's a huge security increase and we'll get into a little bit more
details on that in a second about why i say that but the second thing i want to say is it's possible
(02:16):
i think a lot of people are resigned to the fact that spam is just it's like in the death and taxes
category right that's how i feel about it anyways yeah well and i mean we've just gotten so used to
it you deal with it all the time that that's that's the only way you can kind of cope it's just okay it's
just it's just the way it is but i'm here to tell you it might require a little bit of work might even
(02:41):
require a new email address might require you know i we'll see what it requires for you right but it is
absolutely possible to defeat spam now i can't guarantee you'll never get another spam in your
email box i do get some spam in it but as i've talked about before i have gotten around 10 per year
(03:02):
yeah that's pretty recent years so you know if that's a worthwhile improvement to you then uh then hey
you can do it yes so anyway that's that's my way of introduction so security increase this goes back
a little bit to what we talked about last episode because of course one great way to reduce stress
(03:27):
in email is eliminating your spam right yeah i mean if you think about i mean you tell me if you
think differently Nick but i would say that typically spam is the number one cause of that stress in email
yeah right yep okay so and for all the same reasons that you know we talked about last week of how stress
(03:54):
helps improve security that's that's here because this is you know the single biggest way i think to
reduce stress but it's worth talking about individually and bears repeating right yeah
so the other the other security increase of course is that most phishing not all we talked about the
(04:16):
story from chem's accountant uh where it you know that that phishing attempt came from
an account that he knew had just been taken over but there's a huge amount of phishing that just comes
in from people you know non uh accounts that you know does that mean right yeah right right so if we
(04:40):
can eliminate spam what that means is we're going to eliminate most phishing attacks on you you're going
to have to you won't have to be smart have common sense whatever you don't have to like defeat most
phishing attempts if most of them you don't ever see right right that's a big win huge win huge win
(05:02):
yeah so um plus the other thing is like if you do eliminate most spam and then one comes in from
someone that you do know like it's going to be a lot easier to identify just like with chem they had a
method for sharing files that the phisher didn't know about didn't mention so even if it does come
(05:28):
like those are going to be easier to identify as phishing because you know that person you know how
they're going to talk you know what you exchange and that if they're coming in from an account that's
compromised they're not usually going to sound like the person that you know is supposed to be on
the other end of that email right does that make sense oh yeah oh yeah so oh yeah okay so what i'll
(05:54):
say next is that eliminating spam is dependent on two things okay one is the tools that you use
okay i mean obvious right but here's one thing that's not so obvious is email providers are not
all identical some legitimately have better anti-spam tools okay in my my opinion fastmail for example
(06:24):
is one example they have some better anti-spam tools than gmail does
yeah now i'm not even talking about like the built-in spam detection that all email providers do
there's some variants there and of course gmail is a bigger target because
they're the biggest email provider and things like that so there's other factors as well but i'm talking
(06:48):
about the actual tools that you have control over filtering and just a lot of things where they're
just not all identical and all equal yeah i think a lot of people aren't aware of that yeah it's like
a lot of times that's all you think is i'm just going to use this email to correspond you don't realize that
some are built differently yeah well and it kind of goes back to the whole death and taxes thing too
(07:14):
i think we've just when we when you get in the mindset that spam is unavoidable then you don't look for
solutions right right it doesn't matter just deal with it right it doesn't matter what email provider
i use because i'm just going to get a ton of spam no matter where i go right right right but it doesn't
have to be that way so and this goes back to the the paid thing too even the add-ons or whatever like
(07:39):
you can do some stuff you know to fight spam with your free tools yeah but you are going to get what
you paid for so to speak like you're going to have some better spam tools uh if you're willing to pay
some yeah and you know i i hate to beat that drum because i know free email is so universal so many
(08:00):
people count on some people want it and i get that but email is just such a part of of our um modern
society i mean i think about like a phone line used to be yeah i mean yeah certain everybody would
love to have a free phone line that was never a thing right right um and never gonna be a thing
(08:22):
or maybe it was in the very very early days i don't know how that worked but my whole lifetime
anyway phone is hasn't been free and and it's crazy to think it would be and so i don't know i just
to me email is the same kind of thing like to expect it to be free when it's such a foundational tool
i don't know i just i'm not saying there shouldn't be free email for anybody but
(08:47):
um yeah i just i just think it's worth it to to invest a little bit of money into a paid email
account that's my that's my take so get what you pay for right yeah so then the other thing though is
and this is good and bad news is fighting spam is also dependent on you not just the tools but it's
(09:10):
dependent on you yeah and of course how well you use those tools either free or paid yeah um so there
are some things you're going to learn um you know about reporting spam unsubscribing uh setting up filters
training the uh system to know how to fight spam for you there's things like that and my goal though
(09:35):
is even though i've you know promoted the paid tools definitely my objective to help you
whatever tools you use to use those most effectively to fight spam yeah
yeah yeah so that's all i got what's your thoughts now Nick
(09:57):
do you know what here here's my thing you know i like the fact this is where i'm going to kind of
focus in the last little bit is the fact that we're going to eventually have to take the fight to spam
we're going to have to do some things ourselves we have to be proactive you know we we can't let the
threats get into our email box and do nothing about them we we have to be reactive and we have to take
(10:22):
charge and take us down and so using these tools maybe that's getting a a paid tool that helps you
fight this absolutely like but you're gonna have to literally take charge too
yeah so those are my thoughts yeah thank you well and and this is something i just i'm never gonna
(10:45):
get tired of saying is you know i think that it these email problems the spam problems specifically
even will just isolate it should be solved at the system level like this should not be a thing in email
unquestionably and i want to solve that in the meantime i'm going to do my best to help
(11:06):
solve it within the broken system that we have that sounds awesome you know it just it kind of makes
me i don't know it's weird to me sometimes to think like you know it's universally hated why is there not
more work like why hasn't somebody already solved it like it is it is solvable why is there not more work
(11:29):
to solve this problem and i'm i'm not sure what the answer exactly is i mean i know it's inertia
there's factors whatever but anyway i'm hoping that uh yeah my dream is to to solve that so i love it
awesome that was a good one yeah
(11:52):
are you ready to take action and wondering where to start get my bulletproof my identity starter kit
for free the seven most vital layers of protection everyone needs i'll send you one step at a time
and help you if you get stuck just go to bulletproofmyid.com and enter your name and email
(12:14):
and i will send you the first step again that's bulletproofmyid.com
welcome to Super Simple Security Principles where you learn how to think not just what to do
i'm Nick Jackson here to learn along with you from my good buddy and master guardian Makani Mason
let's go this is episode 87 we're going to continue on with our email workshop today
(00:23):
priority eliminate spam that's right last week reduced stress this week eliminate spam
that should get the juices flowing right there right yeah what i would do without spam yeah i'll
(00:45):
say this one i think you know some of the later ones not everyone might have a higher priority but
i'll be surprised if there's anybody we talk to that uh isn't this this isn't a high priority for
right um although you know there are there might be some people who have kind of
conquered it because i feel like in terms of spam i've more or less beat it you know requires a
(01:08):
little bit ongoing effort but i really get almost no spam and so but uh i i'd love to compare notes
with anybody who has a system too and you know open to any any systems within our current email
system that help us defeat spam so yeah absolutely especially if it's just a tool you can kind of
(01:30):
plug in that's always so because there are some of those that look like they promise anyway that we'll
be exploring so we'll see how it goes but excellent but uh so the the two introduction things i want
to say about spam though and why this is a priority other than the obvious right i mean nobody wants spam
(01:51):
you don't really have to sell that too much right shouldn't have to but i think it's more like it's not
just a nice to have right it's it's a huge security increase and we'll get into a little bit more
details on that in a second about why i say that but the second thing i want to say is it's possible
(02:16):
i think a lot of people are resigned to the fact that spam is just it's like in the death and taxes
category right that's how i feel about it anyways yeah well and i mean we've just gotten so used to
it you deal with it all the time that that's that's the only way you can kind of cope it's just okay it's
just it's just the way it is but i'm here to tell you it might require a little bit of work might even
(02:41):
require a new email address might require you know i we'll see what it requires for you right but it is
absolutely possible to defeat spam now i can't guarantee you'll never get another spam in your
email box i do get some spam in it but as i've talked about before i have gotten around 10 per year
(03:02):
yeah that's pretty recent years so you know if that's a worthwhile improvement to you then uh then hey
you can do it yes so anyway that's that's my way of introduction so security increase this goes back
a little bit to what we talked about last episode because of course one great way to reduce stress
(03:27):
in email is eliminating your spam right yeah i mean if you think about i mean you tell me if you
think differently Nick but i would say that typically spam is the number one cause of that stress in email
yeah right yep okay so and for all the same reasons that you know we talked about last week of how stress
(03:54):
helps improve security that's that's here because this is you know the single biggest way i think to
reduce stress but it's worth talking about individually and bears repeating right yeah
so the other the other security increase of course is that most phishing not all we talked about the
(04:16):
story from chem's accountant uh where it you know that that phishing attempt came from
an account that he knew had just been taken over but there's a huge amount of phishing that just comes
in from people you know non uh accounts that you know does that mean right yeah right right so if we
(04:40):
can eliminate spam what that means is we're going to eliminate most phishing attacks on you you're going
to have to you won't have to be smart have common sense whatever you don't have to like defeat most
phishing attempts if most of them you don't ever see right right that's a big win huge win huge win
(05:02):
yeah so um plus the other thing is like if you do eliminate most spam and then one comes in from
someone that you do know like it's going to be a lot easier to identify just like with chem they had a
method for sharing files that the phisher didn't know about didn't mention so even if it does come
(05:28):
like those are going to be easier to identify as phishing because you know that person you know how
they're going to talk you know what you exchange and that if they're coming in from an account that's
compromised they're not usually going to sound like the person that you know is supposed to be on
the other end of that email right does that make sense oh yeah oh yeah so oh yeah okay so what i'll
(05:54):
say next is that eliminating spam is dependent on two things okay one is the tools that you use
okay i mean obvious right but here's one thing that's not so obvious is email providers are not
all identical some legitimately have better anti-spam tools okay in my my opinion fastmail for example
(06:24):
is one example they have some better anti-spam tools than gmail does
yeah now i'm not even talking about like the built-in spam detection that all email providers do
there's some variants there and of course gmail is a bigger target because
they're the biggest email provider and things like that so there's other factors as well but i'm talking
(06:48):
about the actual tools that you have control over filtering and just a lot of things where they're
just not all identical and all equal yeah i think a lot of people aren't aware of that yeah it's like
a lot of times that's all you think is i'm just going to use this email to correspond you don't realize that
some are built differently yeah well and it kind of goes back to the whole death and taxes thing too
(07:14):
i think we've just when we when you get in the mindset that spam is unavoidable then you don't look for
solutions right right it doesn't matter just deal with it right it doesn't matter what email provider
i use because i'm just going to get a ton of spam no matter where i go right right right but it doesn't
have to be that way so and this goes back to the the paid thing too even the add-ons or whatever like
(07:39):
you can do some stuff you know to fight spam with your free tools yeah but you are going to get what
you paid for so to speak like you're going to have some better spam tools uh if you're willing to pay
some yeah and you know i i hate to beat that drum because i know free email is so universal so many
(08:00):
people count on some people want it and i get that but email is just such a part of of our um modern
society i mean i think about like a phone line used to be yeah i mean yeah certain everybody would
love to have a free phone line that was never a thing right right um and never gonna be a thing
(08:22):
or maybe it was in the very very early days i don't know how that worked but my whole lifetime
anyway phone is hasn't been free and and it's crazy to think it would be and so i don't know i just
to me email is the same kind of thing like to expect it to be free when it's such a foundational tool
i don't know i just i'm not saying there shouldn't be free email for anybody but
(08:47):
um yeah i just i just think it's worth it to to invest a little bit of money into a paid email
account that's my that's my take so get what you pay for right yeah so then the other thing though is
and this is good and bad news is fighting spam is also dependent on you not just the tools but it's
(09:10):
dependent on you yeah and of course how well you use those tools either free or paid yeah um so there
are some things you're going to learn um you know about reporting spam unsubscribing uh setting up filters
training the uh system to know how to fight spam for you there's things like that and my goal though
(09:35):
is even though i've you know promoted the paid tools definitely my objective to help you
whatever tools you use to use those most effectively to fight spam yeah
yeah yeah so that's all i got what's your thoughts now Nick
(09:57):
do you know what here here's my thing you know i like the fact this is where i'm going to kind of
focus in the last little bit is the fact that we're going to eventually have to take the fight to spam
we're going to have to do some things ourselves we have to be proactive you know we we can't let the
threats get into our email box and do nothing about them we we have to be reactive and we have to take
(10:22):
charge and take us down and so using these tools maybe that's getting a a paid tool that helps you
fight this absolutely like but you're gonna have to literally take charge too
yeah so those are my thoughts yeah thank you well and and this is something i just i'm never gonna
(10:45):
get tired of saying is you know i think that it these email problems the spam problems specifically
even will just isolate it should be solved at the system level like this should not be a thing in email
unquestionably and i want to solve that in the meantime i'm going to do my best to help
(11:06):
solve it within the broken system that we have that sounds awesome you know it just it kind of makes
me i don't know it's weird to me sometimes to think like you know it's universally hated why is there not
more work like why hasn't somebody already solved it like it is it is solvable why is there not more work
(11:29):
to solve this problem and i'm i'm not sure what the answer exactly is i mean i know it's inertia
there's factors whatever but anyway i'm hoping that uh yeah my dream is to to solve that so i love it
awesome that was a good one yeah
(11:52):
are you ready to take action and wondering where to start get my bulletproof my identity starter kit
for free the seven most vital layers of protection everyone needs i'll send you one step at a time
and help you if you get stuck just go to bulletproofmyid.com and enter your name and email
(12:14):
and i will send you the first step again that's bulletproofmyid.com
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!