Avoiding Spam
What is spam?
Spam is something you have to deal with when it comes to using internet. Spamming is basically a type of marketing activity but because of its annoying and insecure characteristics, it has been tagged as an illegal online activity. But unfortunately that doesn’t secure your inbox from getting flooded with hundreds of spam mails.
Who are spammers?
Spammers are basically a group of people who get paid by a company or some other institutions for sending mails to internet users in order to promote their products, web sites or any other offers. These spammers are equipped with variety of software to forward hundreds of thousands of unwanted, time wasting mails all over the world.
Also spam mails are potential source of viruses. So it is important for you to take necessary precautions to avoid spam. The best way to do it is by minimizing the possibility of your e-mail address getting enlisted in the spammer’s data base because if it gets in then it will be quite difficult for you to stay away from spam mails.
Techniques to avoid spam
Here are some effective techniques that you can use to avoid spam:
1. Avoid posting your e-mail address in websites. There are many websites that asks for your e-mail address to provide follow ups or for registration. This is a gold mine for the spammers to get contacts of active internet users.
Go through the site carefully before posting your e-mail address there. Normally a reputed website does ensure the users that their E-mail address will be kept confidential. This actually binds the site under the obligation not to sell your e-mail address to the spammers which some particular websites does. Make sure that the website where you are posting your e-mail address is coming up with such assurance.
2. Many spammers use their common sense and simply develop their database depending on the commonly used form of E-mail address. For example, if your name is Mike Anderson, then there is a good possibility that you will have your address like mikeanderson@(the domain name).com. This is why you will find it quite hard to get your user ID available according to your exact name as maybe it has been taken already by someone else with the same name. The spammers know this very well, so they get thousands of mailing addresses in their list only through assuming e-mail addresses.
To avoid this, you can use a particular sign or some digits in your e-mail address. Like instead of mikeanderson@(the domain name).com, use mikeanderson(some digits)@(the domain name).com. This will make it harder for the spammer to guess your e-mail address.
3. Another way of avoiding spam is using multiple e-mail accounts. You should keep a primary account only to receive important mails from people whom you know and institutions that you are associated with. When you are in need of registering in a site then it is better to use another e-mail account. This way you can avoid getting your main e-mail address being traced by spammers.
4. Spammers usually scan through internet to gather e-mail addresses by using software that looks for the symbol ‘@’ since this is the common part all internet users have in their e-mail address.
If you have your own web page or a web site then never post your e-mail address there in the actual form. Remove the sign ‘@’ with AT when you are mentioning your e-mail address. Like if your address is mikeanderson@yahoo.com then state it like mikeanderson(AT)yahoo.com. This is very much effective to hide your E-mail address from spammers.
5. Be cautious about downloading free software or trial versions of any programs from the Internet as this free software can expose your contact address to the spammers. In fact many spammers uses this technique to get e-mail addresses by offering free downloads and trial versions of software.
So never download any free software from sites without checking its authenticity. The renowned websites are very much cautious to protect the information of the users. So you should download free software only from sites that are popular in the arena.
6. There is some effective software available in the market that are capable of preventing spam mails filling up your inbox. This anti spam software filters the incoming mails and transfers the spam mails into a separate location.
Norton 360 includes a top rated anti spam program that can free your inbox from spam. This software are regularly updated to always remain one step ahead of the spammers.
Conclusion
So follow the above techniques and use a good anti spam software. Say goodbye to spam and save your valuable time.
