Stop spam

Junk email, often known as spam, is up there with cold callers in terms of popularity and, along with viruses, is one of the most annoying parts of the internet. But although the days of email accounts being completely spam free have been confined to the annals of history along with people leaving their front doors unlocked, there are a number of simple steps you can take to reduce the amount of junk mail that lands in your inbox.

While internet service providers (ISPs) and email providers do their best to filter out as much spam as possible some inevitably still gets through, so there’s no reason not to put some of your own hurdles in the way of the spammers. In this feature we’ll explain some of the steps you can take to cut spam out of your internet diet.

Better than cure
Unfortunately, since first raising its head in the mid- to late 1990s, spamming has grown into a very profitable industry. Setup costs are low because spammers only really need a PC and a bunch of email addresses to get started and, as managing a mailing list isn’t exactly taxing or expensive either, ongoing costs are also very low.

Spammers usually get their mailing lists by buying or trading them with other spammers, but many also create them from scratch using email tools called ‘harvesting bots’. These are programs that roam automatically around the internet, jumping from page to page and recording any email addresses they find on their travels.

This is why, when it comes to spam, prevention is the best option. If spammers don’t know your email address and aren’t able to harvest it from the internet then you stand a better chance of avoiding being deluged with emails telling you how to get rich quick or coaxing you to buy suspect products that promise to make you a better lover.

The first golden rule of spam prevention, then, is to avoid posting your email address anywhere where a harvesting bot might find it. This includes w ebsites, forums, chat rooms and even your own personal home page. Many people think that simply replacing the ‘@’ symbol in their email address with ‘at’ or something similar will protect them, but in reality most spam harvesting bots are now clever enough to spot and compensate for this kind of trick.

Of course, there are occasions when you can’t avoid posting an email address online. In these circumstances the simplest plan of action is to either set up a dedicated webmail account for this purpose or to use a disposable email address. Webmail accounts from services such as www.googlemail.com, http://mail.yahoo.com or http://mail.live.com are free.

Another option is to purchase your own internet domain name, as this allows you to create an unlimited number of email addresses linked to it. For example, if you have a domain name called johnsmith.co.uk, you could create individual email addresses for different services that you use, such as tescos@johnsmith.co.uk, amazon@johnsmith.co.uk or ebay@johnsmith.co.uk. If one of these addresses becomes overrun with spam you can just delete it and create a new one. When buying a domain name, check to see how many email addresses are included: some packages include none, while others will allow you to create dozens or hundreds of mailboxes.