Spam is every
bit as unwelcome as circulars in your post box or telemarketers
who call at meal times. Fortunately there are ways to decrease or
eliminate the amount of spam you receive in your daily email.
The following
are straight forward tips to help you overcome or prevent spam
and viruses in your email.
1.
Be private.
Do not give out your email address in the first place. In many
instances if you are required to give your email address in order
to receive something off a website, give an email address that
you have set up specifically to receive junk. Some people then
choose "nospam@----" for their private address.
2.
You can also
set up a fake email address at such places as hotmail.com or yahoo.com;
these email accounts are free.
3.
Look for options to opt out of receiving promotional mailings
when you have to give your address.
4.
Preview all
email by reading their subject lines before opening the mail.
If you're using an email program, such as Outlook, use the "View"
menu to set the "Layout" to show only the subject lines,
so you can select what you want to delete without opening the
mail. Treat every email you preview as being of a suspicious nature.
Many harmless-looking emails with attachments may contain viruses.
Many people succumbed to the "I love you" email that
contained a virus.
5.
When you receive
a forwarded email asking for help or money from someone, and in
return you will have eternal good luck (or bad luck if you don't
forward it), do not forward it on. It is likely to be a hoax and
is a great way for spammers to cultivate email addresses. Many
virus warning emails are a hoax as well. You should research virus
warnings before telling your friends about it so you don't spread
the hoax to them. (Research only takes a minute; see "Viruses,
Legends & Lies")
6.
When forwarding
emails to groups of people, send them via the BCC field; this
shields their address from others. Ask others to send emails to
you this way, too.
7.
Use the filters function, if your email program or service provides
them, to filter out unwanted emails that do or do not meet certain
criteria.
8.
Keep your name off mailing lists, chat rooms and newsgroups by
not giving out your correct address in the first place. (The ones
used by Good News Ministries and its Good News Web Designers Association
keep your email address confidential.)
9.
If your email
address is on a website, ask your web designer to transform it
in to a picture or change the @ sign to @ so that it's
not recognized by the 'robots' that come to steal email addresses
for mailing lists.
10.
Many spam messages have instructions at the bottom of the message
asking you to reply to the message if you want to be removed from
their mailing list. Don't do this, as it will only confirm that
your address is valid and active and you will most likely be hit
with more spam. Use a program such as Mail
Washer Pro to bounce the message back to the spammer so it
looks as though your address is not valid.
11.
Check the
email address of the sender: Do you recognize it? If not, with
Mail Washer you can see a preview of the email.
12.
Watch out
for fake headers. These are in the subject line and are commonly
"Dear Friend....." or "Here's the information you
requested."
13.
Never buy anything from a spammer's email, even if it is something
you want, as it is likely to be fraudulent.
14.
You can complain to the spammers internet service provider by
sending an email to abuse@ [the domain] or postmaster@ [the domain].
15.
Don't reply to contests in your email or offers of free websites,
nor send money to anti-spam organizations, as they are most likely
hoaxes.
16.
Don't submit your address to Opt-out or removal lists, as these
are a hoax and you will end up getting more spam.
17.
Be sure to
have antivirus software installed on your computer. While you
may be able to recognize an email with a strange attachment without
opening it, a picture or Word document may harbor also a virus.
(See "Protect Your Computer from
Viruses & Spies")
18.
Use Mail
Washer to delete any unwanted emails directly off your
Internet service provider's server before you receive them into
your computer. Mail Washer is a product that I personally recommend,
as founder of the Good News Web Designers Association, without
compensation, because of its excellence. You can download it
for free; this version includes a scrolling message that asks
you to register for as low as $3, or $20 for full services and
no scrolling message. $20 is a very low price, and it's worth
much more for the great benefit it provides. With Mail Washer,
you can preview all the mail in all your mailboxes at one time,
then weed out the spam and viruses with one click of a button.
It's very user-friendly, very configurable for whatever your preferences
might be, and a big time-saver.
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