Spam, The four-letter word of the internet. It is a problem we all face. This article deals with the issue of Spam and gives you some helpful tips and tools to deal with it.

Well, if you have been online for anytime now, you most definately have experienced the unpleasant experience of receiving Spam.

How do these spammers get your e mail address in the first place ?

One simple method they use is Robots which scour the internet looking for mailto: tags. This is simply a hyperlink created like this: mailto:anyone@aol.com .

When it is clicked on it opens your mail code with the address inserted ready to send.

I admonish you to never utilize your electronic mail address in a mailto: tag anywhere online. If you do you are just asking to be found and receive some more junk mail.

When you forward a message that contains others e-mail addresses in the message, did you realize that spammers might harvest and send spam to them ?

Please cut and paste the communication to eliminate the many e mail addresses included in some of these messages that have been forwarded around the world two or three times.

There are some programs around that will help a lot in the Spam battle.

McAfee offers a neat piece of software to stop spam for a price:

http://www.mcafee.com/myapps/msk/

As an alternative, here is one that is Free: http://eliminatespam.com/

Personally, I have included the utilize of a mail filter to combat the problem of Spam. I use a Free filter called MailWasher that is easy to download, install and use:

http://www.mailwasher.net/

There are many more of these type mail filters available. Just go to any large search engine and search for "mail filters". You will get a bunch. A lot of them are free of cost.

Finally, if you want to learn more about Spam, here is a great resource page with lots of links and experience:

http://spam.abuse.net/

Fighting Spam is a battle that we all face. Although it is difficult to eliminate it entirely, you may utilize the available resources to greatly reduce it and make life online a little simpler for all the people.

Larry Johnson, author
http://www.BizSiteBiz.com/

(This article can be freely published in your newsletter or internet site by including the resource box below.)