What Is spam email

Dealing with spam email

Want dodgy viagra or a fake watch? Want to invest in non-existent shares or visit fraudulent pornography sites? Or do you just want to click on a fake email from your bank to have your password stolen (read the full Phishing article). You may think it unlikely anyone would say yes, but if that were true, they wouldn't bother sending out the e-mails.

For the rest of us, spam is time consuming to wade through and potentially dangerous. Sadly, while you can register to stop junk mail or phone calls (see Stop Spam Calls article) the same isn't true with spam e-mail. Yet there are a number of things you can do:

Use your e-mail provider's filtering. 

Most big e-mail clients such as Google, Hotmail and Yahoo have their own filtering system to stop spam. Check your settings and make sure the filter is switched on.

Use rules in your e-mail software.

If you download your e-mails to a computer eg using Microsoft's Outlook - you can create rules to stop common spam by entering key words, e.g. VIAGRA, so those e-mails are automatically filtered. The only problem with this is that spammers try to beat it through mis-spelling words or using numbers in place of letters (i.e. V14GRA), so you'll have to block out other combinations too.

Never post your e-mail address in a public forum. 

Only give out your e-mail address to people you know and don't post it on public forums or chat rooms (including this site's). Spammers often use software robots, or 'bots', to read all forums, store any e-mails and spam them.

Be careful what you agree to. 

When signing up for free offers or sites, be careful what you agree to. All sites should have a privacy policy which declares what they will do with the info they collect. If they don't have one, steer clear!

Use a spare e-mail address. 

Having a second e-mail address can be handy for special offers, newsletters or freebies if you don't want to clog up your proper e-mail address. Google's Gmail is especially useful for this, as at a later date if you change your mind and want those e-mails direct it can auto-forward them.
Yet do remember, Blocking spam's by no means an exact science, and thus important e-mails may also be blocked. For example, the term ‘mortgage' is commonly filtered out as spam, so you could miss an important note from your broker