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No email user is immune to spam. Hardly a day goes by when your inbox is not filled with spam. Spam is nothing but junk mail that advertisers use to publicize their business. Sometimes spam can even harm your computer because they are filled with viruses and bugs. To protect yourself against spam emails, use the following ways:
- Yahoo and Gmail offer disposable email ids. When you sign up online for newsletters or subscription mails, use the disposable email id.
- Spammers use software programs to discover email ids of people. Create an email id that is very difficult to crack.
- Every major email provider offers spam filtering and blocking software. Enable or activate the spam blockers and all the spam sent to your email id will be blocked and sent to the spam folder.
- If you do not recognize any email id and suspect it to be spam, never even open the email and if you do, don’t reply. Also, sometimes spammers hack into email ids and use the email id to send virus mail to those people in the contact list. If you see an email from a known person but its content looks dubious, delete it instantly.
- Never display your personal email ids online. For instance, if you have a small business website, activate a contact form instead for people to contact you. If it is necessary to leave an email id then get a disposable one.
- The best way to avoid spam is to report it. If you can track down the ISP (Internet Service Provider) of the spammer, report it with the email providers. Alternatively, you can file a case with the Federal Trade Commission.
Avoiding spam emails is necessary if you want to keep your computer or laptop safe from viruses and phishing sites. Use the spam blocking key to filter all the spam messages into a separate folder and delete them regularly.
