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Introduction

Spam can be significantly curbed by following a few key tips. Installing software and creating stronger email names will free up your inbox for your important messages.

Tips to Stop Spam

The following tips can help you significantly curb spam, freeing up your inbox for essential messages.

• Install spam filtering/blocking software. Antispam software separates spam from legitimate messages.
  
  
• Do not respond to suspicious emails. If you suspect an email is spam, delete it. Do not click on email links asking to be removed from the sender's list. Sometimes unsubscribe links don’t work, and any sort of response only confirms your email address and may result in more unwanted messages.
  
  
• Set up a disposable email address. Have a secondary address for public use, such as online registration and e-commerce sites. Set up the secondary address to forward emails to your primary account.
  
  
• Create an email name that's tough to guess. Research shows that email addresses containing numbers, letters, and underscores are more difficult to guess and tend to receive less spam.
  
  
• View emails in plain text. Spam written in HTML can contain programs that re-direct the user's Web browser to an advertised page. Spammers use images in emails to locate active email addresses for future spamming. Consider disabling the email's preview pane and reading emails in plain text.
  
  
• Create a spam filter for your email. If your email program does not have a filter, create one that checks for messages that do not include your email address in the TO: or CC: fields. This is a common tip-off for spam. Have the filter transfer possible spam messages to a junk folder. Email filters are not 100% effective, so review the junk folder before deleting it.
  
  
• Do not post links to email addresses on Web sites. Spammers can locate email addresses on Web pages, so consider displaying email addresses in a way their 'spambots' can’t recognize. For instance, instead of John_Doe@company.com, publish the email address as John_Doe[at sign]company.com.
  
  
• Watch out for check boxes. Before signing up for services or newsletters on the Web, carefully read through everything. Watch out for text at the end of the registration forms, "YES, I want to be contacted by select third parties concerning products I might be interested in." Sometimes the checkbox next to the text is already checked, so you need uncheck those boxes.
  
  
• Safeguard your privacy with mobile antispam software
  
  
• Report spam. Most Internet Service Providers forbid users from spamming. Track down the spammer's ISP and report the offense. If the user is found to have spammed, the ISP will terminate their service. Another option is to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) about any spam email that you receive. Visit FTC online to file a complaint or forward the email to the FTC for investigation. You can also report the spam to Symantec.