you wouldn't give a stranger your phone #, would you?
Apr 03 '01
The Bottom Line Have separate addresses for correspondence and web activities so you can ignore SPAM. Don't give it out!
SPAM mail is a definite hassle to those of us who heavily rely on email as a daily communication device. With the expansion of the internet to what it is today, spam mail continues to grow.. and grow.. and grow, much to our demise. So what can YOU do to prevent spam/junk email? I have a few tips for you...
1. Keep your email address sacred. You wouldn't go handing out your phone number to just anyone, would you? Often I see information cards that are now including spaces to fill in your email address. Do you really need to put it there? No. Only put your email address on something REQUIRED.
2. Those internet newsletters and freebies. Those require email addresses. Those are also highly likely connected to SPAM you receive. When registering, read the privacy policy carefully. Also, look over the registration carefully and look to see if any boxes are checked. Check back every month are so, since policies are changing fast as web companies try to make a quick buck. Also be careful of sites that say they will not sell your information, but these sites often have partners, and the partners don't hesitate to share!
3. DO NOT REPLY TO SPAM! Even if the undesired letter has a "remove me" link. Clicking this or replying asking to be removed verifies that behind your address is a living, breathing person who obviously read that annoying SPAM. If you have an AOL email address or anything like that, there are programs that can send email to all SIMILAR addresses to the one typed in a "To" field. (so if someone wants to send email to anything similar to "SPDRCR" my email address, SpdRacer81 will get the email.) You trying to remove yourself from that list only verifies your address and your email address can easily be moved to another list that you've not been asked to be removed from.
4. Use filters if possible. Anything helps. Certain services can block you from recieving emails from some domains, like Hotmail or Anglefire.
5. If you have the luxury, use seperate addresses for correspondance and transactions, newsletters, etc. Ask your friends and family to not give out your email address under any circumstances ("refer a friend" and the like) or use it for forwards. If something absolutely must be shared, they can paste it in a genuine email, after some genuine words. Use a free email account for all your newsletters, website information, Napster, etc. That way you can easily determine what is SPAM, and you can easily see if you have email you actually WANT to read.
6. If you have AOL/Compuserve/etc. don't go into chatrooms, and if you must, create a new user just for that purpose. Also, don't have a profile. These options let your name be easily copied and pasted and having a profile will allow you to be a targeted recipient. (If you have "dentist" on your profile, you are more likely to receive "special offers for dentists only!" type emails.)
7. Keep a notebook of everything you have signed up for. Things such as MyPoints, Memolink, AllAdvantage, etc. keep your username, web address and password so you can easily stop recieving the "reminders" they send you.
So, in short, these are my few tips. A few of the essays I've seen on this topic were related to forwards, and while that is a big part of junk email, I think SPAMming is a larger part. My apologies if I have misinterpreted the subject!
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Epinions.com ID:
Linds81
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Member: Lindsay
Location: taking a big, long break...
Reviews written: 40
Trusted by: 9 members
About Me:
Your typical college student.. too busy to write many epinions!
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