Simple SPAM Fighting Tips

There are so many spammers, and so many techniques for sending spam, that any effort to combat it must be a multipronged approach, according to the head of a software company that makes an antispam tool. Enabling content filters on e-mail programs is helpful but there is always a risk of automatically deleting legitimate messages, known widely as "false positives".

The following is a list of actions that should be considered:

1. Do not open unsolicited attachments

2. Never hit the "remove or unsubscribe" link in an e-mail message

3. Run Anti Spy, Adware programs such as “Adware” & Spybot a few times a year

4. Create "disposable e-mails accounts" when corresponding with companies they are unsure about eg. myspam123@gmail.com

5. Install Anti-Spam programs some antivirus programs have it built in

6. IT managers can thwart automatic e-mail "harvesters" by obscuring e-mail addresses in "human-readable" or "HTML-obscured" form

7. Whenever possible inform you ISP (Internet Service Provider), email manager about spam sending sources

8. Always use the BCC: (Blind Copy) instead of CC: when forwarding emails to other people

9. Activate filtering features on your browser, Outlook Express, Outlook and  Hotmail

10. Try to keep re-sending/forwarding “chain emails” such as funny, inspiring and cute emails to a minimum these are usually meant to gather email addresses for the spammers

11. Be conservative when subscribing to news, information or any type of free email updates

12. If your email is heavily compromised (enters one or more spammer’s lists) it is probably best to simple change it and inform only your important contacts of your new email address