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Spam can be reduced by using multiple email accounts, not posting email addresses online, and using commercial tools. Limiting the availability of your email address online and avoiding replying to spam messages can also help. Email providers offer tools to block spam, and setting up a second email account for registering with websites can limit the effects of spam. Commercial services can also intercept incoming messages and filter out spam, but may irritate legitimate senders.
Spam is unsolicited email. There are a number of techniques that can help reduce the amount of spam a person receives, although it can be very difficult to block it altogether. In most cases, using a variety of techniques together will have the best results. These may include using multiple email accounts, not posting email addresses online, and using commercial tools.
One method of blocking spam is to limit the availability of your email address online. This is because spammers can set up their machines to scan websites for email addresses. If you need to publish your email address, it might be safer to write it in a format that can be understood by humans but not detected as an email address by machines. An example of this is “nospam AT wisegeek DOT com”, which a human can translate into the standard email address format.
It’s best to avoid replying directly to spam messages. This is because many spammers simply send messages to every possible combination of letters and numbers that make up an email address. Reply lets the spammer know that your address is genuine and check your mailbox. This makes your email address much more valuable and can increase the chances of them selling your address to other spammers.
Many email providers offer tools designed to block spam. Look for a provider that has a simple one-click button that allows you to report a message as spam. Usually this means that future messages coming to you from that address, or sometimes even similar addresses, will be filtered so that you don’t receive them. In some cases, if multiple people report messages from the same address, your email provider can block all messages from that address from reaching their customers.
Some techniques don’t block spam, but limit its effects. This includes the practice of setting up a second email account, usually a web-based email service, to be used solely for registering with websites. This means that the resulting spam is not sent to your main account. If you use this technique, it’s best to forward any legitimate emails, such as those confirming your registration or login details, to your primary email address. This will make it easier to locate and retrieve the details later, rather than having to wade through spam on the second address.
There are some commercial services that aim to stop spam. They work online and will effectively intercept your incoming messages and filter out anything that appears to be spam before passing on your other messages. Whether these offer more protection than the best email providers offer as part of their service is debatable. Some of these commercial services work by replying to the sender asking them to confirm the authenticity of the message and to type in a code shown in an image, which prevents a computer from automatically replying. While this technique will stop spam, it will irritate many legitimate senders and won’t be useful for automated messages that aren’t spam, such as email newsletters you sign up for.
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