Report spam email to the ICO: complaint letter generator
Want to report spam email to the ICO? If a company keeps emailing you after you unsubscribed - or never had your consent at all - UK law (PECR and the UK GDPR) is on your side. Answer a few questions below and this free tool generates a formal complaint letter to the sender plus a ready-to-paste ICO report.
Nothing you type leaves your browser - the letter is generated locally and never stored.
1. Who is emailing you?
2. What is your relationship with them?
3. Your unsubscribe attempt
Dates of marketing emails received AFTER you unsubscribed
4. Your details
It appears in the letter so the sender knows which address to suppress.
Your rights under PECR
The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR) sit alongside the UK GDPR and govern electronic marketing. Regulation 22 prohibits unsolicited marketing email to individuals without prior consent, with a narrow "soft opt-in" exception for existing customers who were offered a way to refuse. Regulation 23 separately requires every marketing email to identify the sender and provide a valid opt-out address. On top of that, Article 21(3) of the UK GDPR makes your objection to direct marketing absolute: once you say stop, they must stop.
Step 1: complain to the sender. Step 2: report to the ICO.
- Send the generated letter to the sender. Most organisations suppress your address at this point - it is cheaper than an ICO case. They have one month to respond under Article 12(3).
- Keep the evidence. The emails, dates, your unsubscribe confirmation, and a copy of your complaint.
- Report to the ICO if it continues. The ICO can issue enforcement notices and fines of up to 500,000 pounds for serious PECR breaches. Individual reports are the raw material its enforcement is built on.
Rather never write this letter again?
ClearMyInbox scans your inbox, finds every marketing sender, and unsubscribes you in bulk - and keeps a record of when each unsubscribe happened, which is exactly the evidence a PECR complaint needs. Free plan includes 3 scans a month.
Get started freeFrequently asked questions
Is it illegal for companies to email me after I unsubscribe?
In the UK, yes in most cases. Regulation 22 of PECR prohibits unsolicited marketing email to individuals without consent, and Article 21(3) of the UK GDPR makes the right to object to direct marketing absolute - once you object, they must stop. The ICO can issue enforcement notices and fines of up to 500,000 pounds for serious PECR breaches.
Should I complain to the company or go straight to the ICO?
Complain to the company first and give them up to one month - that is the sequence the ICO expects, and most senders suppress your address at that point. Report to the ICO when the marketing continues, when the sender ignores you, or when there is no working way to opt out at all.
What can the ICO actually do about spam email?
The ICO uses spam reports to build enforcement cases. It can issue information notices, enforcement notices requiring a sender to stop, and monetary penalties for serious breaches of PECR. Individual reports rarely get a personal reply, but they are the raw material enforcement is built on.
The sender is outside the UK. Is reporting pointless?
Not pointless, but expectations should be realistic: ICO enforcement against overseas senders is limited. Your complaint letter to the sender still matters (many honour suppression requests regardless of jurisdiction), and reports help the ICO map patterns. For genuinely lawless spam, marking as spam in your mail app is the most effective lever.
Is what I type here stored anywhere?
No. The letter is generated entirely in your browser - nothing you type is uploaded, stored, or logged. The only network traffic is an anonymous usage ping to our own analytics (that a letter was generated and which consent path, never names, addresses, or dates). Close the tab and the letter is gone.
More free email tools
List-Unsubscribe Checker
Test any email for RFC 8058 one-click unsubscribe compliance and the Gmail and Yahoo bulk-sender rules.
Unsubscribe Link Finder
Paste an email and extract every unsubscribe link it contains, ranked by how reliable each one is.
Email Tracking Pixel Checker
See which senders put spy pixels and click tracking in their emails, and who they use to do it.
Prefer a guide? Our email cleanup guides cover unsubscribing and inbox zero step by step.