Spam Prevention

What is spam?

Spam is essentially junk email which clutters up your inbox and comes from all manner of sources. Different types of spam can include:

spam pic1. persistent email adverts for anything from computers to share tips

2. emails attempting to solicit user details from you, including your name, password or even bank details

3. viruses and other chain emails which may even be passed on innocently from people in your own address book

Most spam is just advertising, hoping you will buy some product or service. However, a small percentage of spam can result in expensive or potentially hazardous consequences. One of the most common spam scams, is one which informs people that, for a small administration charge, someone will place a large amount of money in your bank account. Most people will tend to ignore these types of emails, however there are a few who, tempted by the large sums of money involved, stupidly hand over their bank details, and suffer the consequences as a result. For more information on these types of spam scams please visit http://www.potifos.com/fraud

Other spams may appear to come from your bank, your online auction site or some other supposedly legitimate companies asking you to confirm your username, password or your bank details. (this is usually known as phishing). Be wary, no legitimate company will ever ask for these details by email (it is not a secure enough method). Therefore, NEVER give out sensitive information in this way, even it it does appears to come from a legitimate source. To read more about this and the effects of other types of spam head over to http://www.met.police.uk/fraudalert

How to prevent spam?

As mentioned above there are several spam blockers available to weed out those annoying messages which litter your inbox. However, the old adage prevention is better than cure applies very well to spam. There are several ways in which you can try and reduce the build up of spam in your inbox which may enable you not to use a spam blocker at all:

1. Use your main email address sparingly and only give it out to those you trust will not abuse it.

2. Use a free webmail address such as one from yahoo mail or hotmail for use in forums and discussions etc.

3. If you only need an address as a one-off, for example receiving a username and password then visit http://www.pookmail.com for a completely disposable address.

4. Never reply to spam, it lets spammers know your email address is active and will lead to more spam

5. Don't publish your main address on your websites, scrupulous spammers scan websites to add addresses to their database.

6. Whether filling in forms online or offline always tick the box which says you don't want your email address passed on to third parties. Alternatively, use your webmail address instead, as often ticking the box is not thorough enough.

7. Try and take up a strategy of having three email accounts, a personal one you only give out to close friends and family, one for work related matters and a throw away address which you only use to register for forums, websites etc.

If it's already too late to prevent spam then it may be necessary to use a spam blocker. However, even if you do install a spam blocker you could also try to prevent the build up of any further spam by using your email address sparingly and perhaps in the future a spam blocker may not be needed.