Advice for Consumers

If you have an Internet e-mail account, you've probably received an unwanted solicitation for some get-rich-quick scheme or an adult site. How do these shady characters get your e-mail address in the first place?

Many spammers operate Web robots that scrape e-mail addresses from various web sites and chat rooms, including your personal web pages and different Internet white pages. Other spammers use software to generate random e-mail addresses and spew spam across the web.

There are a few steps you can take to try to slow the volume of spam to your inbox. You should refrain from posting your e-mail address in chat rooms and on web sites, where possible. Just as important, never reply to a spam message, even to 'unsubscribe,' as this lets the spammers know that your address reaches an active user. And it goes without saying that you should never actually do business with a firm or individual that uses an unethical practice like spamming.

Anti-spam technology is pretty lacking. Most Internet providers have some type of filtering options for their users-- check with your ISP's customer service/support to find out what they offer. Some industry players, such as Microsoft, support the non-profit Mail Abuse Prevention System, which is compiles a real-time "blackhole" blacklist of known spammers. A similar for-profit blacklist service is Brightmail, which primarily services corporations and ISPs. Earthlink and AT&T both offer Brightmail to their users. Brightmail also has its own service for individuals.

The most aggressive course of action in the war on spam is to deploy anti-spam software on your home computer that attempts to filter out the spam. The leading program is probably Novasoft's SpamKiller. However, these programs might also block real e-mail that you want to read. The bottom line: until anti-spam technology evolves, unwanted e-mail is here to stay and must simply be managed.

Novasoft's SpamKiller Software

Brightmail Free Anti-Spam E-mail Service