Anti-Spam Strategies

Are you getting burned out with checking your email account because of all the spam you expect to see there when you do check it? If you want to try to reduce the amount of spam you receive, try these ideas and see if they will work for you.

Email that you receive that you didn't ask for, that comes from someone you don't recognize, is considered spam. Spammers send messages to thousands of internet users simultaneously, users that never asked to be added to a mailing list to receive advertisements. It wasn't until 1994 when unsolicited messages were referred to as spam, but this type of activity has been taking place since 1978. It is plain to see that this is something that has been a problem for quite some time, with little to no resolution.

Programmers have developed software that scans the internet for the @ that appears in email addresses in order to "harvest" them for their own uses. The email addresses are added to the program so that the spammer can use them with mass emailing software to send the messages to thousands of email accounts at a time, worldwide.

This is why it is important to never publicly publish your email address. This applies to any area of a website accessible to the public, like forum postings, newsgroups, and your own personal website. If you own a website and want to give visitors the ability to contact you, add a simple form that the visitor can fill out with their inquiry. Once they hit send, your website will automatically route that message to your email address without having to share your email address with others, while still being able to receive communications.

Many websites offer free web-based email accounts for free. Use these to receive emails from mailing lists or other subscriptions that you're interested in. Because it's free, if you end up receiving large amounts of unwanted emails, you can simply close the account and open a new one. Reserve the use of the email account provided by your ISP for receiving messages from your family and friends and never share it publicly. This should reduce the amount of spam you receive in your primary account.

Make good use of the filtering capabilities of your email account by adding friendly email addresses to your safelist. You can then set your filtering to its highest setting without worrying about having legitimate emails filtered out or deleted altogether.

Ignore the unsubscribe links in spam emails. The spammer has no intention of unsubscribing you. They use this link to figure out whether the email account is in use or has been abandoned.

Spam Videos

Stop Spam Headlines

Monday, January 05, 2009 (Erie Times-News)

A Springfield Township teenager remains lodged at the Edmund L. Thomas Adolescent Center after smashing a vehicle into a house Friday night while eluding Pennsylvania State Police.

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Have you heard? Gossip can be good for you (Chicago Tribune)

Sure, it can be mindless, but it has an evolutionary basis: Survival Item: Which A-list celebrity is attempting to bed the most attractive starlet he has ever seen in an attempt to pass on his genetic material?

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BBB Reports on Top 10 Scams of 2008 (ABC 7 Chicago)

Consumers throughout Chicago area and northern Illinois were targets of scams in 2008 that grew in complexity and sophistication.

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Twitter authority frenzy led to Twitter phishing meltdown (ZDNet)

Folks like to know where they stand, and in recent weeks people on Twitter have been, well, all a-twitter about the idea of Twitter Authority. They want to know who is most influential—a repeat of the phenomenon that swept the blogosphere a while back. It's a human thing, but it is also the kind of self-absorbed thinking that attracts scammers and theives who sense people's guard is down. This ...

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Top 10 Scams of 2008 (WIFR Rockford)

The Rockford Better Business Bureau releases its list of the Top 10 Scams of last year.

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