Canning the Spam

Spam, only openly liked by Monty Python characters, is the natural enemy of the email inbox. Each day both inboxes and arteries alike are clogged by this vile substance. So where did this mystery meat of the inbox come from, and how did it get distributed to your inbox? Most people do not realize that they are actually contributing to the amount of spam they receive.

Spammers scour the internet looking for email addresses. Any place your email address appears on the internet can be harvested by spammers. Below is a list of ways your email address can fall prey to spam:

• Posts from message boards
• Mailing lists
• Online Subscriptions
• Newsgroups
• Guestbooks
• Chat rooms - AOL is notorious for this
• AOL & AIM Profiles
• Blog Profiles
• Online Personals
• Chain Letters/Mass Email Forwards
• Domain Registrar Info
• Web Pages

Tips on how to cut down on and fight spam

• Create a freebie email account to use especially for mailing lists, message boards, newsgroups and subscriptions.
• Pay attention when filling out online forms; be mindful of check boxes with "subscribe me to".
• If sending on an email that has been forwarded numerous times, cut and paste the desired text out of the email, and place it into a new, fresh email.