Commonly referred to as spam, unsolicited commercial email is becoming a big problem today. If you've ever had your email address on a spam list, then you know how annoying it is to have to wade through dozens of advertisements to get to the mail you want to read. Although there are laws in place, it is unlikely that people who send spam will adhere to these laws so your best defense is to filter as much of it as you can through software and protect your email address from being added to more lists.

What Spam Looks Like

Usually the emails are from some fake looking name and many of them may have subjects that try to lure you into opening them by promising a stock tip, pretending to be your friend or acting like they need information for an application that you never filled out. When you get an email like this that seems suspicious it is best to just delete it.

How Did They Get Your Address In The First Place?

Sadly enough, most spammers got your email address because you gave it to them! Sometimes when you order something your email gets sold to a list, but most times it is harvested from a web site. If you have your email listed in an online advertisement, on a website or have published it in a forum, it is likely that it will be harvested for one of these lists.

Unfortunately, once your email address is out there you will not be able to get it removed from their “list”. There is no point in replying to the spam or trying to use the unsubscribe button as the spammer has no intention of removing you from his list and in fact, by acknowledging that you received his email you are giving him incentive to send you more mail and possibly sell your email address to other spammers. Your best defense is to get a good filtering software and filter out as much of it as you can.

Protect Your Email Address

One thing that you can do is get a second email and only give that out to people you want to receive mail from. Reserve the original email for use if you need to have an email to order online or subscribe to a site. Other things you can do include:

Not answering spam emails

Never have your email address visible on any web page

Do not use an auto-responder when you will be away from your computer

Do not pass along chain emails