Spam – No Longer Confined To A Tin

I remember the day, many moons ago, when Mom tried to sneak Spam onto our plates for dinner. “Darlings, it’s just like meat loaf.” She never tried again. The spam you receive in your e-mail inbox is equally unappealing.

Spam is another name for junk mail. In the same way that you get bulk junk mail in your mailbox at home, this is bulk junk in your e-mail inbox. You can often look in the “To:” area and see that the same e-mail has been sent to many other people.

Unfortunately, there is no telling how you got on the spammer’s e-mail list, but there are some ways to minimize your future exposure:

1) Establish a secondary e-mail address that you give out when making purchases. Take advantage of the free web-based e-mail accounts available – i.e. www.hotmail.com, www.gmail.com, or www.yahoo.com. Here you can have an e-mail address for free to give out to the general public and save your other e-mail address for friends only.

2) Check if your e-mail provider can block Spam. Many services will offer to detect bulk e-mails and place them in a “Junk Mail” folder for you to view and delete. Some providers will, if you choose, prohibit the receipt of all bulk e-mail. The latter is a bit dodgy as you might get sent bulk mail from a friend or company that you want to receive. Be sure you understand how your service block the e-mails.

3) Visit chat rooms and message boards incognito. Chat rooms and message boards are a great resource for spammers to add to their mailing lists. Do not use your “friends only” e-mail address when visiting either.

For those of you that like the meat in a tin, more power to you. But you don’t have to put up with it in your inbox. If you get really objectionable spam, please contact the Network Abuse Clearinghouse at www.abuse.net.