Thursday Special: Cut the SPAM from your inbox

If you are a public person or a celebrity and have a website and/or e-mail address, most likely you get spam mail by the tens of thousands each day. Of course, this doesn’t happen only to well-known people or companies, but also to home users (although less spam is received). So, this week’s special we shall discuss ways of limiting the spam email that you get in your inbox.

Do you frequently subscribe to newsletters, discussion forums or any other thing which requires your e-mail address for information purposes ? Consider creating a separate e-mail for such cases. This way, if the website will share your e-mail, it will not clog your main address.

People wanting a bit more privacy and control can get into more detail than the above mentioned, like having an account for forums, one for newsletters and one for family/friends/etc. Of course, this is no set rule, it all depends on your willingness to have multiple e-mail accounts and how many they will be.

Another option is a disposable e-mail address which can be deleted if it attracts unwanted mail. You can use the same tips as above, for forums, newsletters, discussion groups and the rest.

If you have a website and need to put contact information, never let it in plain view for the spam harvesters to find it. Try masking it using Javascript code.
Other options could be:
spell your e-mail address (e-mail at gmail dot com)
use a contact web form (like Response-O-Matic)
create an image of your e-mail and post it on the website
Of course, this can also be applied for discussion forums, web groups and more.

If you do get spam e-mail, do not open it. Some have a hidden code which will let the spammer know that your address is active and so, you will receive MORE spam. Better delete it on sight. Not to mention that the products or companies advertised are fraudulent. The same thing applies to unsolicited newsletters stating that if you want to unsubscribe, you need to click on the following link and ask for removal. This can result in a message stating that your address isn’t in their system but you will STILL get spam from them.

Suppose you get spam from a person several times and you don’t want to keep deleting it over and over. Use a filtering service to avoid that. Simply place the spammer’s e-mail in the filter and so all the mail received from that address will be forwarded to the spam area and not your inbox.

Better yet, consider subscribing to a spam prevention service like SpamCop. It can’t guarantee that you won’t receive any spam from that address, but at least you will have reported the spammer’s e-mail and (hopefully) if more complaints are received, actions will be taken.

Of course, these methods don’t guarantee a spam-free life, but they will certainly reduce the ammount of junk mail you receive daily.