Sec?

Getting tired of deleting all those unwanted emails from your inbox? Well, if you are, then instead of cursing those spammers and doing nothing, you should start acting proactively.

What can you do about spam?

Below, I give some important steps you should take if you want to save your time.

1. Do not open unnecessary e-mails. If you think that the email is from an un-trusted source, just delete it!

2. Don’t respond to spam. Replying to spammers is only likely to encourage them to send more unwanted emails.

3. Do not disclose your e-mail address unnecessarily. Do not put your email address in web sites where everybody can see it.

4. Turn off your e-mail program’s previewing capability. When you preview your email, you are actually opening it which is likely to tip off the sender that your email address works.

5. Use junk e-mail filters in your e-mail program. Programs like Microsoft Outlook have built in spam filtering capabilities. More about filtering rules will be posted very soon, if I get enough requests!

6. Use spam blocking software like SPAMBayes, Norton Antispam, Spamkiller etc.

7. Try using a unique e-mail address. Some spammers use dictionary attacks to mass mail imaginary email addresses. Using an email address which consists of alphabets and numbers is likely to save your email address from those attacks.

8. Use separate e-mail addresses for personal use and for newsgroup and chat room use. If you expose your personal email in newsgroups and chat rooms, you are only inviting more spam.

9. Check with your hosts what spam filtering services do they offer. Verify with your email host if they have good spam filtering software or hardware installed in their system. Most Linux based servers uses Spam Assassin.

10. Don’t buy anything from the spammer. That’s quite obvious isn’t it?