Commonly referred to as spam, unsolicited commercial e mail is becoming a big problem today. If youve ever had your e-mail address on a spam list, then you understand 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 everybody 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 title and many of them might 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 electronic mail 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 e-mail gets sold to a list, but most times it is harvested from a web page . If you have your e mail 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 e-mail address is out there you will not be able to acquire 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 electronic mail you are giving him incentive to send you more mail and possibly sell your electronic mail address to other spammers. Your best defense is to get a grand filtering software and filter out as much of it as you may.

Protect Your Email Address

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

Not answering spam emails
Never have your e-mail 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