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How To Stop Spam (Especially If You're Already a Victim)
Spam. Those annoying, time-consuming emails that clog your Inbox and ruin your day. You wonder: How did it ever get so bad? While it's not possible to completely eliminate spam, there are quite a few things you CAN do about the problem to reduce your burden. Spam is defined as an unsolicited email trying to get you to buy something. In addition, it's email that tries to get you to give up something: your credit card number, social security number, login ID, etc., by pretending to be a legitimate email. Here are some tips for stopping the current spam you're getting, and avoiding getting on new spam lists. 1. Maintain two email addresses: a Personal Email Address (that you give to family, friends and business associates), and a Safe Email Address (one you use whenever you're ordering something online, signing up for an email newsletter, or creating a profile on a website). For instance, I use a Hotmail account for my Safe Email Address. If a spammer were to get a hold of that address, fine. All the spam will go into my Hotmail account, which I only look at once a week. Hotmail has a great anti-spam filter built in, so it's easy to see what's spam and what's not. This practice leaves my personal email account relatively spam-free (maybe I get two spam emails a day to my personal account). Some free email services include Hotmail, Yahoo and GMail (Google's new email service). 2. Use your Safe Email Address to send emails to companies who might be harvesting email addresses from incoming emails. For example, say you want to write to a company to ask them about their products. Some companies will harvest your email address from the email you send to them, and put you on their mailing list. By using your Safe Email Address, you can avoid seeing messages from these companies come to your personal email address. 3. Stop giving your email address to everyone who wants it. Does your local bank really need your email address? Does your grocery store need it? Just because someone asks for it doesn't mean you have to give it to them. If it's a non-local company, or you are signing up for a mailing list, then they probably do need it. But it's okay to leave the email address blank when filling out forms. Always ask yourself, Do I want to be contacted by this company via email? (Speaking of mailing lists, make sure the companies you subscribe to have a public, posted Privacy Statement on their website.) 4. Do not put your Personal Email Address on your website. Instead, use a form so that your email address is hidden. However, some spammers use special software that looks at the HTML code hidden in the form to steal your email address, so using a form by itself isn't always the safest route. Better yet, use a free Form Processor so that your email address is never even in the HTML coding on your pages. The service I use is Bravenet's Form processor (www.bravenet.com). You can see ours in action here: http://www.passionforbusiness.com/send-email.htm 5. Never buy anything that's sent through a spam email. First, it just encourages them to continue to spam. Second, it tells them that your email address is accurate, and they can then sell that address to someone else. 6. Never reply to spam and ask to be unsubscribed. They'll just ignore it anyway, and it tells them that your email address is accurate, which just keeps you on the list. Note: many legitimate emails newsletters and mailing lists use automated unsubscribe links at the bottom of their emails, and you CAN use these to get off of mailing lists. 7. Use anti-spam software, like Norton Internet Security, on your own PC to filter spam as it comes into your email system. You still receive the spam, but it gets filtered to a Junk Mail or Bulk Mail folder, and segregates the spam from the legitimate email. Most anti-spam filters need to be trained, however, so you'll have to occasionally tell the filter that something is NOT spam that it inadvertently put into the Junk Mail folder. Many of these anti-spam filters work on the principle of White Lists (legitimate email addresses that you DO want to receive email from) and Black Lists (spammer email addresses that you do NOT want to receive email from). Learn how to train your anti-spam software and it will work wonders for you. 8. Check to see if your ISP or hosting company has anti- spam technology in place, to catch spam before it even hits your Inbox. Be careful, though, because sometimes these filters are over-zealous and you have to train it to accept emails from mailing lists that you have subscribed to. 9. Do not use a catch-all email address. A catch-all email address is set up if you have your own website, and it is intended to catch all of the incoming emails sent to your domain even if there is no legitimate mailbox by that name. For example, your email address might be mary@mydomain.com. If that mailbox is set up as a catch all, and someone sends an email to marie@mydomain.com (with a spelling mistake in the email name), it will be forwarded to mary@mydomain.com. However, spammers know about catch-all email addresses, and will take your domain name mydomain.com and add common prefixes to it, like info@ or admin@. If you have a catch- all, then those spamming emails will come to you, even if you don't have a legitimate mailbox of info@mydomain.com or admin@mydomain.com set up with your hosting company. See how easy it is for spammers to get to you? 10. Finally, if spam is really bad, create a new personal email address for yourself, tell everyone about the new address (give them several reminders that you are changing email addresses), then delete the old personal email address. This may seem a little drastic, but if you receive 200 spam emails a day, it might be time to time this final step to eradicate it. You are not powerless against spam. But you do have to take action to fight back. Don't let them bully you into accepting hundreds of unwanted emails a day! Take action now to reclaim your Inbox! About The Author Karyn Greenstreet is a Self Employment expert and small business coach. She shares tips, techniques and strategies with self-employed people to boost clarity and focus, create sustainable motivation, and increase sales and profits. Visit her website at www.PassionForBusiness.com
MORE RESOURCES: Stop Unwanted Robocalls and Texts Federal Communications Commission How to stop spam calls on your Android phone Android Police Phone apps that filter spam for Hong Kong users found to expose their data South China Morning Post How to block spam callers on your phone XDA Developers AT&T ActiveArmor Offers Features to Control Spam Texts AT&T Newsroom How to Protect Yourself from Quishing, the Newest Email Scam Reader's Digest 10 best apps to block spam calls on Android phone and safeguard your privacy The Times of India 5 easy ways to avoid spam phone calls Fast Company How To Stop Spam Calls for Good Clark.com - Clark Howard How to Detect and Block Spam Calls on iPhone (2024 Guide) The Mac Observer Two spam call blockers upload users' contact lists into databases: Consumer Council Hong Kong Standard KT develops AI-based spam filter Mobile World Live How to block spam calls USA TODAY How to block emails on Gmail: Multiple methods explained Android Authority How to stop spam texts with your favorite messaging apps Popular Science Is "Scam Likely" Calling You? Here's How to Block Them MUO - MakeUseOf 10 Best Call Blocking Apps MobileAppDaily How To Block Spam Messages on Android — Direct Methods and Third Party Apps Digital Information World Stop the Madness: How to Block Spam Calls and Robocalls PCMag Middle East How to block spam calls on your Android phone Android Authority New Truecaller feature uses AI to detect and block spam calls: Here’s how to enable it The Indian Express Hiya: Spam Blocker & Caller ID by Hiya AppAdvice How To Block 'Scam Likely' Calls Parade Magazine Block spam calls and texts with Robokiller Cult of Mac 16 Best Call Blocker App Options to Prevent Spam Calls to Your Small Business Small Business Trends New Report: The #1 Phone Scam in America Clark.com - Clark Howard WhatsApp now lets you block spam right from your lock screen Android Police AI-Driven Scam and Spam Call Blocker, Genie, Is Seeking Investment To Better Protect Seniors International Business Times How to Block Scam Likely Calls on Your Phone Trend Micro News Detect and block spam calls with Truecaller's new AI feature; know what it is and how to use The Times of India Tired of WhatsApp spam? New update allows blocking users directly from lock screen; here's how The Economic Times WhatsApp: How to block, report, and delete spam Android Police How to block a phone number on your Android phone Android Authority How to report and block spam in iMessage Android Police Google Search update brings better spam filter to improves search quality The Times of India Comcast Introduces New Advanced Spam Blocker Feature for Xfinity Voice Customers Comcast Corporation Here’s how to stay safe from spam calls on WhatsApp The Times of India How to block unwanted emails in Gmail Android Police How to Block Unwanted Text Messages on Your Mac (and iPhone/iPad) The Mac Observer WhatsApp Now Allows Users to Block Spam Directly From Lock Screen: Here Are Steps to Enable Feature Gadgets 360 Whoscall app launched in the Philippines to block spam calls, messages manilastandard.net Tired of spam calls and messages on your phone? Here’s how to enable DND on Jio, Airtel, and Vi The Times of India Spam-blocking app launched in the Philippines Philstar.com Stop spam calls on iPhones and Android devices with these simple steps The Indian Express How to Block Spam Calls on Android & iPhone Devices | Reviews by Wirecutter The New York Times Spam blocker proves costly – The Florida Bar The Florida Bar No more spam & scam text messages Trend Micro Mobile phone users to get option to block overseas numbers as part of new anti-scam measures The Straits Times Spam calls and messages: How to activate DND on Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone The Economic Times How to block and report text spam The Verge How to Stop Spam Calls The New York Times Is This Number a Scammer? Here's How to Check MUO - MakeUseOf How to Keep Spam Away From Your Smartphone samsung.com How to stop spam calls on iPhone and Android phones Digital Trends How to Stop Spam Calls and Block Robocalls Business Insider The best ways to block scam calls New York Post |
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