Email – Easy or Maybe Not

Email – Part 1: Easy or Maybe Not

Email is a great tool, but it can be a nightmare if you let it get out of control. Spam, phishing scams, not getting your email on all your devices the same and whether or not you can send a secure email can be a pain to deal with if you don’t have a reliable IT company to help you with it.

In this post, we’ll break down some tips to help get then keep your email under control and how PST can help.

Spam

Spam is unwanted and/or unsolicited emails which we all receive and sometimes on a daily basis. Spam can also refer to emails we signed up for but no longer want. Can we stop this completely? No, but you can minimize it to a great degree if you follow these steps:

Unsubscribe from any emails, newsletters, etc that you did sign up for but no longer want.
Mark real unwanted and unsolicited emails as junk using your email program’s junk settings.
If you have real IT to help you, ask them to block specific email addresses or possibly whole domains in the email provider’s settings.

Phishing Scams

Phishing is sending an email to someone with fake or bad links in the email meant to capture your login information so the thief can then login as you and steal everything possible or lock you out of your account and use it for themselves.

Phishing is a form of spam but it is intended to steal information, so it is a very bad form of spam. What to do:

Delete these emails without clicking on anything (a link, image, etc) inside the email.
Make a note of the email address and add that to your junk or block list depending on your email program’s settings.
Let your IT know if you have real IT help so they can block the domain or specific email address in the email provider’s settings.

Not getting the same email on all of your devices?

If you have to know which device (phone, laptop, desktop, etc) you sent an email from in order to see that sent email then you are not on the right type of email these days. A type of email called POP-3 is being phased out because it does not sync sent emails across any devices. Other types of emails such as IMAP and Exchange (Office 365 uses exchange) do sync incoming and sent emails as well as your folders inside your mailbox. So, what do you do to get all of your emails on all of your devices?

You will need to change your type of email to IMAP or Exchange.
Whether you can make this change depends on what type and provider of email you are using now.

We can review your current situation during our 1-hr free initial consult.

Can you send a secure email?

Do you send sensitive or confidential information via email? Or do you want to be able to but you’re not sure how to? Your ability to send a secure email depends on several factors:

Which email provider are you using? If it is a free provider such as yahoo, gmail, outlook.com, live.com, hotmail.com, or your internet provider’s free amil such as Spectrum, AT&T, etc then you very likely cannot send a secure email.
If you are using an email provider such as (but not limited to) Office 365 then you need the right license to be able to send a secure email.
One way to send a basic secure email is to password protect the file you are sending. However, if you want to send a secure email on top of password protecting the file or if password protecting the file is not an option, you will need to use an email provider and the right license to be able to do so properly.

How PST Can Help

At PST, we help businesses like yours navigate technology transitions with little-to–zero downtime, full compliance, and total peace of mind. Our services include:

Network audits and hardware assessments
HIPAA compliance checks
Windows 11 upgrade support
Secure email, backup, and cloud solutions

And to make it easy to get started, we’re offering a FREE 1-hour consultation. No pressure, no strings—just expert guidance to help you plan smart and stay ahead of risk.