If there is one thing that we have plenty of but we wish we didn’t, it would be SPAM or junk email. All of us, at one point or another, have had issues with unsolicited email finding its way into our mailbox. This can clog up not only bandwidth and disk space, but also make your system more vulnerable to malware and viruses. Although the task of eliminating all junk email is a virtually impossible feat, there are steps that can be taken to manage and prevent them from going rampant.
The first step in achieving this freedom from SPAM is to protect your email address. If spammers do not know you exist, they cannot SPAM you. This is easier said than done however. Using your best judgment is your best defense. As a rule, do NOT use your email to sign up for unknown/untrusted online mailing lists or contests. Many spammers use some kind of email registration as part of the process. It’s also a good idea NOT to list your email address in plain sight when posting comments on member boards. Keep your mailbox private as much as possible and give it out only to trusted parties.
Another strategy is to create a separate email account. If you find it difficult to keep your email address completely private, a separate account may be the answer. There are many free places to get additional email addresses such as Google and Yahoo. Use these to protect your primary email if you feel you need to give out an email address to a site that seems suspicious. In the event that the account gets infested with junk, you can simply walk away from it; with your primary still safe and secured.
In the unfortunate event that your primary email address has been compromised, beyond what the built in junk filter on most email client software can handle (Outlook, Lotus, Etc.), there are third party tools that can filter your account or the whole domain. These can be actual hardware or software that filters junk emails based on rules/policy and threshold that you create. These third party tools can also use data based on domains that have been blacklisted. So these spammers and their junk email are automatically filtered away from your inbox. A report can be generated advising you of what was marked and handled as junk so you can address them accordingly: keep as junk or release if it is from a legitimate source.
Though spammers and their junk emails will likely continue to target all of us, following the steps above can dramatically reduce if not closely eradicate them altogether. It is impossible to eliminate them 100%. But with a simple caution and attention, together with the tools available to us, spam can be easily managed.
