How to stop spammers and their ads
From porn to dodgy get-rich schemes, spam flood our mailboxes leaving little room for genuine emails. But how do these faceless individuals get your email addies in the first place – and how can you stop them from sending in more junk? Here, some spam-busters:
Some spammers try their luck by sending emails to addresses they think are valid, and wait for a “bounce”. For instance, if they have janew@hotmail.com, it stands to reason that there might be a janew@yahoo.com out there. Counter it: Don’t reply emails from people you don’t know. If they are fishing, replying would only validate the address and open the floodgates!
They buy mailing lists of unscrupulous organisations with a huge online subscriber base. Others obtain it by signing up at discussion forums. Counter it: Open one mailbox specially for subscription purposes. This way even if that mailbox gets spammed you have another for your real emails.
More sophisticated junk peddlers will have scripts trawling webpages in search of anything resembling email addresses or mail to URLs. Counter it: Hide your address! You can either download freeware off the Net that will convert your email address into indecipherable characters, or use an address-hiding service that will act as an intermediary between you and whoever sends you email.