Tips on Preventing Spam
November 12, 2006 | By Kevin Zolkiewicz
Spam is an annoyance that plagues mostly anyone with an e-mail address. To help fight against it, most e-mail software comes with built-in junk mail filters and just about all businesses have high-end spam filtering technology in place. However, even with the best filtering system, odds are a few messages will still sneak by.
Often times one of the best ways to reduce or completely prevent spam is to take a few measures to assure that your primary e-mail address stays off spam lists. In this post, I’ll outline some of the methods I use to prevent spam. By using these techniques, I’ve managed to keep my company e-mail address free of spam for over a year now.
- Don’t post your e-mail address publicly on the Internet. Many people don’t realize that they’re opening the door to spam by simply listing their e-mail address on a Web site. One of the primary ways spammers build their distribution lists is by using automated programs that search the Internet for e-mail addresses. If you must post your e-mail address on a Web site, one low tech way of hiding it from spammers is to disguise it. For example, instead of displaying myname@example.com, considering using myname [at] example [dot] com. While most humans will understand this, automated spam programs will not.
- Use multiple e-mail addresses. Another very effective way to prevent spam is to use a separate email address when making a transaction or registering with a lesser-known Web site that may share your e-mail address with others. You can use free e-mail services like Gmail or Hotmail to create extra e-mail addresses for this purpose. If one address begins to receive spam, simply stop using it and create a new one. The key here is to only give your primary e-mail address to people and companies that you trust.
- Use disposable e-mail addresses. Many services like dodgeit.com allow you to make use of a temporary, disposable e-mail address. This can be very helpful if you come across a Web site that requires you to register and provide an e-mail address to view content. Disposable e-mail services like dodgeit.com don’t require any signup—simply send mail to any alias, such as wisdom@dodgeit.com. If you need to retrieve an e-mail sent to that address, enter the alias on the dodgeit.com homepage and you’ll see all messages that have been sent there. Keep in mind that since these accounts are public, you won’t want to use disposable addresses if personal information might be sent to them. Also remember that most disposable e-mail services will automatically delete mail after a few days.
Using these techniques may help reduce the amount of spam you receive each day. However, keep in mind that once your e-mail address is on a spam list it will likely never be removed. Therefore, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll ever eliminant spam at an e-mail address that already receives it. If you’re luckily enough to have a spam-free e-mail address, the best advice is to treat it like a baby. Following the techniques in this post are one way to do so.