Tips To Avoid Spam
It is very hard to effectively stop spam email. It costs nothing to send out a few million e-mail messages, so there is no disincentive for people to do so. The offers to remove your name from a list are generally untrue, and often result in your name getting added to yet another list. There are ways to reduce the amount of spam in your e-mail inbox.
Spammers get your email address from potentially anywhere you make your address public. These spammers have usually used software to extract your address from a public location, along with hundreds, thousands and in some cases millions of others. In order to avoid spam in your email inbox, use a false return address or avoid posting your email address at locations such as Web based discussed groups, mailing list discussions, Web pages, etc. Protect your email address – treat it like your phone number!
If you participate in a mailing list, there may be nothing you can do to stop a spammer from getting your email address from that list. Spammers can sign up to mailing lists just as easily as you can, and if they do, they can get your address from any message you send to the list. The only real options here are to not participate at all, or to accept the fact that you may be spammed as a result.
Additional tips to prevent more spam include:
- Never respond to unsolicited email – this can alert the sender that your email address is valid.
- Never click on a URL or web site listed in spam – this will also alert the sender that your email address is valid.
- Never forward spam chain letters.
