Preventing Spam

When it comes to stopping the spread of spam, the key is to protect your information. If spammers cannot find your email address, they can’t send you spam. So how do you protect your information? Try these five preventative steps.

1. Never post your email address on the web. Try this activity: search Google for your email address. If you find it in a search, then so can a spammer. Even if you don’t, be aware that posting your email address on the web—in chatrooms, usenets, newsgroups, discussion or bulletin boards, or on web pages—makes that email address available to anyone, anywhere.
2. Read the privacy policies when registering with a website. Check to see if the privacy policy states whether they do or do not sell your contact information to list subscribers. Most companies do not sell your information, but some do. Watch carefully and consider the risks. Even if the policy states that lists are only available to subscribers doesn’t mean that a spammer isn’t subscribed. If you are on a legitimate email publisher list, check to see if you can gain access to that list. If you can, so can a spammer.
3. Be extremely careful when forwarding messages. If you forward a message, then someone else might as well—and then the next person, and the next, and the next.…Eventually, that message could end up in a spammer’s inbox, and, lucky day, look at all those legitimate email addresses in the message. If you are going to forward a message, delete the email addresses that are already displayed there and make sure that those you are forwarding to do the same. Don’t make a spammer’s job easier.
4. Never click on anything in a spam message. This includes any unsubscribe or opt-out buttons. More often than not, clickable options in spam are just a means of verifying email addresses. Certain programs used by spammers create random email addresses and then send out messages to those addresses, whether they are real or not. By clicking on a link in the message, you are effectively telling the spammer that not only is this a legitimate email address, but you also read your messages—a prime candidate for spam. Even if the spammer does remove you from their lists, they now know that your email address is valid, and thus worth much more when they decide to sell their emailing lists.
5. Turn off the “fetch” option. Many email programs have a “fetch” option that tells the computer to go out and fetch any images that appear in the message. These images are often a means of once again verifying legitimate email addresses. When your computer goes out in search of the images, it tells the sender to send the messages to your address—giving the spammer a valid email address. While it may not be visually appealing to not have images retrieved automatically into email messages, it will hamper the efforts of spammers. A simple right-click will retrieve the images from legitimate messages if you want them.