I've got spam!

I receive a lot of spam (read junk email) from people I do not know. It was so annoying and time consuming as I used to read all those emails thinking that they might be important! Geez.. :-(
You wouldn' t believe the amount of bogus offers that arrive in my emial box everyday and a few of the email hoaxes I have fallen for. I hope I know better now!

Ever wondered how these emails reach you?

Whenever you post your email address on a website , a chat room or a newsgroup, your address like that of so many others, is purchased by email spammers from list brokers ( whose job is to harvest emails from the internet and then sell them to anybody who pays for them). These spammers then use a special software to send thousands or even millions of email messages at the click of a mouse.

How to avoid spam?

1. Do not enter your email address in public sites like chat rooms, online bulletin boards or newsgroups.
2. Check the privacy policy of the website before submitting your email address. See whether they sell your address to their partner sites. Refrain from giving your email address to such sites.
3. Use 2 email addresses - one for your personal use and the other for chat rooms and newsgroups.
4. Use an email filter. It is provided by most email readers like Outlook and Netscape. This will allow you to filter spam or channel it into a bulk folder from where it can be deleted.
5. Send a copy of the spam to spam@uce.gov They will take action against people sending deceptive messages.

What to do with spam?

1. The simplest and easiest way to do deal with spam is to - Delete it. Put it in trash. Don't even open it. Just hit the delete button.
2. Don't reply to spam. Even to messages which say ' Remove me from the list.' Chances are that it is just another way of making sure that your email address is active and can be spammed again.
3. Don't open attachments or links in your email. Delete it. Alternatively, before opening it, save it in your hard disk for your computer to check for viruses ( you must have an anti virus software installed in your computer for this).
4. Don't forward chain messages as you are facilitating spammers to gather more email addresses.
5. Never ever purchase anything through spam. Put them out of business by doing so.