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SPAM is the Internet term for junk mail. These messages have subjects like "Great mortgage rates", "Increase body part sizes", "Visit my porn site", "is your septic tank in need of repair", etc. For most people Spam is one of the Internet's little annoyances. For some people, it is a major problem. The good news is, there are ways to avoid it altogether. In order to understand how to avoid Spam, it is necessary to understand how you get it in the first place.

Some common ways of getting on spammers lists:
Email address is a common name Email address is on a web page Email address is used in a news group Email address is used to enter a contest Email address is used to join a FREE newsletter Email address is used to register a product Email address is used in an open chat room You send or receive an electronic greetings card.
Free is almost never FREE. A free newsletter probably gets income by selling your Email address. A free contest is normally free because they make money by selling your Email address. Register a product online and you might find that they sold your Email address to supplement income. Spammers have programs that scan chat rooms, web pages and news groups for email addresses. Place your Email address on your web page, post to a news group or post it in a chat room and you will almost guarantee yourself a place on the spammers lists. Free greetings cards are pretty, and nice to send and receive. But they are almost always free because they get two email addresses to sell for every card sent...yours, and the person you are sending to!

Common problems associated with being on spammers lists:

The first and most obvious problem is the fact that once you are on these lists, the junk mail tends to be much more than the real Email in your box. It could be 100 junk mails for every "good" email message. Some people are on so many lists that 1000 to 1 is not unusual. The time it takes to download may be minimal compared to accidentally deleting a message from a loved one or a client because it was in the middle of 100 Spam messages.
Another major problem is that spammers tend to use a random name from their list as the "reply to" address for the thousands of Emails they send per day. If your Email address is lucky enough to get picked, you could get thousands of bounced Emails (Spam sent to invalid Email addresses), and thousands of complaints asking YOU to stop sending Spam.

Most computer viruses use any email addresses they can find to send copies of themselves. When spammers get viruses (yep...they too get viruses) you are sure to get a copy...If you were listed as a reply address on a spammers run, then anyone they send to that has a virus, will get you a copy of the virus.


How to avoid getting on Spammers lists:

It actually is very simple to not get ANY Spam in your Email box. Follow these 3 simple rules and you should NEVER get ANY Spam.
Use an Email address that is complex. If your Email address is simple, like joe@somedomain.com, hotrod@somedomain.com or nurse@somedomain.com spammers WILL guess it. They know people like to use their first name, last name, hobbies, titles, professions, etc as an email address, so simple addresses are always included in most lists. Your email address should be complex. Using joe1847@ instead of joe@, or nurseeyeam@ instead of nurse@. A complex email address is one that contains multi-digit numbers, a gross and uncommon misspelling or multiple words run together in an unusual manner. Using a complex email address will prevent spammers from using this simple method to obtain your email address. If you need to change your email address, contact your ISP. Obtain "Throw Away" Email addresses for all non-essential communications. A throw away email address is an Email address that is FREE and you almost never open. Normally your ISP will allow you multiple Email addresses free of charge when you meet certain conditions, or you can obtain FREE addresses from hotmail, juno, etc. Use the throw away addresses to register products, sign up for contests, FREE newsletters, chat room posts, news group posts, etc and only give out your real email address to friends and family. Even companies you know and trust may sell your Email address to spammers in order to supplement their income, so don't take a chance. Use a throw away address. Please remember to instruct friends and family to NEVER send Greetings cards to your main address. Give them one of your throw away addresses to send these types of things. You may want to setup a signature in your Email program that tells friends and family what address to send Greeting cards to. A signature will be sent at the bottom of every Email you send out. If you need instructions on how to create a signature, contact your ISP. If you have a personal or business web page, use a Java script to hide your Email address. A more detailed description of how to do this is below. If you happen to get on a spammers list, Never ever ever reply to any Spam you get. DO NOT UNSUBSCRIBE and do not click on any links they provide. Just delete it! Clicking on a link, replying or "Unsubscribe" verifies to the spammer that there is a living breathing person at this Email address! This will get you on even more lists!!! By not replying in any way, you will at least keep from making the problem worse.
By following the above rules, you will keep from adding yourself to the many lists that exist. But beware! If you Break one of the rules ...just once... your email address will most likely be on spammers lists forever!

Web page Email Addresses: Spammers commonly use programs to scan web pages for Email addresses. If you put your Email address on a web page, you are just about guaranteeing you will be listed to receive lots and lots of Spam. There are java scripts you can use to hide your Email address on the page, so the user can email you, but the spammers scan program can't see it. One such Java script can be found here.

Using Your Email Address In A Chat Room: If you are using chat and send your Email Address to a room full of people, you will most likely begin to receive Spam. It is not that the people in the room are spammers, it is that the spammers have programs that scan the public chat rooms for Email addresses. So, if your going to give someone your Email address, do it in a private chat room, not a public forum.

How to get off spammer's lists: This is easy. YOU CAN'T! If your Email address is on a Spam list, it will soon be on just about every Spam list out there. Spammers often merge their lists together to cover more people. NOTE: If you get email that states something to the effect: "To be removed from this list click here or reply with unsubscribe in the subject, etc" DON'T DO IT!. By replying in any way to their Spam, you are confirming there is someone reading it. This will get you on even more lists. If you get Spam, just delete it!

I Get More Spam Than I Can Stand! Unfortunately, there is no way to fix the problem aside from changing your Email address. This means notifying everyone you want to have Email conversations with that your address has changed. Follow the rules above and you should not get Spam to your new address.