Since the introduction of the Internet to the public, spam has been in existence and has become more and more of a growing concern and problem. Everyone who uses the Internet, especially with an email account has probably experienced a form of spam. I don’t actually think it is possible anymore to have a email account where no spam is received without the help of a spam filter.

The problem of spam on the Internet has reached a sorry state of affairs and drastic action is needed before the situation escalades even further. By just changing a few Internet ‘habits’ you could prevent a certain amount of spam from reaching your inbox.

For many of us Internet use is part of our daily lives. Many of us work in an environment where using email and the Internet is part of our job description. Due to this it is important that you follow some ‘guidelines’ of how to use the Internet and especially email without opening yourself up to the chance of receiving more spam.

These ‘guidelines’ should include the following:

Use more than one email account

Many of us find the need to regularly post in forums and newsgroups etc. This is a problem straight away as putting your email address anywhere on the Internet means the likelihood of it becoming flooded with spam is extremely high. If you do need to use your email address on the Internet you should set up numerous email accounts to stop your actual main email account from being overload with spam.

It is suggested that you set up an email account for use of friends and family as well as being the mail account that you use for your msn. This email account will probably be classed as your main email account. You should then set up another account for use at work to ensure that your work email account doesn’t get loaded with spam messages, meaning you can easily access the emails that you need direct access to. Also if you shop regularly online why not set one up primarily for your shopping needs.

Never make contact with a spammer

When you start to receive spam emails a spammer will look for signs that your email account is active, meaning that you use it on a regular basis. There are certain actions that you take that demonstrate to a spammer that your account is being used. If you reply to a spammer stating that you do not wish to receive any more emails or if you ‘unsubscribe’ all you are doing is giving a spammer more fuel to send you emails. You should never make contact with a spammer, they don’t care if you want to unsubscribe they will just spam you more as you have read their email, which brings me to my next point don’t even open an email message off a spammer, if they think for a second that you are reading the emails that they send you, you will simply get sent more.

Another point to be aware of when it comes to bulk mail is the use of viruses. 65% of unwanted emails contain a virus emphasising the fact that you should never open attachments from email addresses that you don’t know. Due to this growing number of computer viruses due to unsolicited mail it is important that, if you don’t already have one, you install an anti-virus on your computer and regularly keep it updated.