Spam is UCE – unsolicited commercial e-mail. Or any e-mail sent to your e-mail address that you did not request, from somebody that you did not have a prior association with. They do not have your permission to send you advertising by e-mail and you did not ask to be added to their mailing list. Spam is usually sent to thousands of people at once. Much of spam is sent to invalid e-mail addresses.

America, Australian, Canada and all the countries of the European Union have passed laws that specifically target spam. However, these Legislative efforts to curb spam have been ineffective. Spam averages 78% of all e-mail sent. According to the Message Anti-Abuse Working Group, the amount of spam email was between 88-92% of email messages sent in the first half of 2010. Spam is now coming from other countries in ever-greater numbers. These emails are harder to fight, because they come from countries which do not regulate Spam.

What Should You Do?

Never Reply To Or Buy Anything Offered In A Spam Message.

You don’t want the spammer to know that you have received their message as this will only encourage them to continue sending spam, and it will also keep your e-mail address as ‘current and deliverable’ on their mailing list.

Do Not Click Any Unsubscribe Links in A Spam Message.

Most of these links are false or will again confirm to the spammer that a live person owns that e-mail address.

Do What You Can To Avoid Having Your Main Email Address Out On The Net.

Spammers use software programs that scan web pages and newsgroups for any word or piece of text that contains an ‘@’ symbol. The software collects these addresses and stores them in databases on the spammer’s computer, which are loaded into bulk-mailing programs to send out the spam messages. If you join a newsgroup, use a throw away email address.

Get Spam Blocking Software.

There are a number of programs available. I use Cloudmark Pro to protect my emails and it has captured over 6,000 spam emails in the last three months (www.cloudmark.com). The software is not foolproof, but it helps. I still have to manually block some emails

Use The Multiple Email Address Approach.

Use a free e-mail account for signing up for newsletters, free offers and also for downloads. Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail are free email accounts. If the amount of spam starts to get out of control you can start a new free account and cancel the over-spammed one. Only give your personal e-mail address to trusted people.

Attachments From People You Don’t Know Should Not Be Opened.

Spam often has attachments and this is used as a method to get a virus onto a system. A general rule of thumb is if you don’t know who is sending you something, do not open the attachment. Use an anti-virus program which scans your email attachments

Be Suspicious

Your bank or financial institution will never ask for your Internet banking password or credit card details in an e-mail message. Neither will they ask you to update these details through a link to a web page. Messages like these will always be spam and should be reported to your bank. Never reply or click any links in these types of messages.

Hopefully, these hints will help you control your Spam problem. While you can not totally eliminate it, you can minimise its effect.