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Anti Spam Measures

by Bill Brine

Before the era of email, spam was called junk mail. Every day, even today, we would go to pick up our mail and all the offers would be there. These offers ran the spectrum from pizza to eye glasses to credit cards to clothes to home repair. Most of the time, these offers would go straight from the mail box to the garbage can and they would be totally ignored.

Spam is the internet version of junk mail. The amazing thing is that I still get a lot of junk mail, and now, I get a ton of spam too! Go figure! I am an anti spam person. I don’t want it and I don’t need it. I didn’t need to worry that there would be offensive junk mail in my mailbox or materials in my junk mail that would be offensive for my children to see. There were laws to keep that stuff away from my home.

Spam however is a different category. The laws are just starting to catch up, and until they do, all sorts of offensive junk in the form of electronically delivered email finds its way into my email box and into my home. My anti spam measures are designed to keep me focused on only the email I want to see.

I use several anti spam measures. I have found some to be more effective than others. One common tool today is to use anti spam software. Anti spam software can be purchased as a stand alone product or bundled in with internet products that include anti virus software and firewalls. Many anti spam software programs have plug-ins to integrate with popular email programs such as Outlook. When an email arrives that seems to be suspicious and could be spam, the program moves it into a special spam folder. Now, you do have to check the folder once in a while to make sure the filter did not catch some email that is not spam. No anti spam software is 100% perfect. Untouched, these emails can be automatically deleted after a specified period of time. Even the free email accounts such as Yahoo and Gmail now also provide some anti spam measures.

If you scroll to the end of most spam emails, you will usually find a link to click on to remove yourself, or an email address to which you can reply to remove yourself from their list. Don't do it! Clicking on the link or emailing a reply is a signal to the spammers that your email address is active, and you may start to get even more spam! Your best bet is to add that email address into your spam filter so that you never see email from that address again.

I also am careful of where I use my email address as an anti spam measure. I have created an email address that I use for personal correspondence and an email address that I use for subscriptions and other web based activities where I am asked for my email address. This anti spam measure helps to keep unwanted emails or spam from my primary email account and directs the spam to my secondary email account. And if you own a website, be aware that your email address, once published on the site, WILL be harvested by spammers. So be sure not to use your primary email address...

About the Author

Bill Brine is a recognized author of diverse articles on a wide range of topics relating to internet marketing and online business. At his website www.brincom.com you will find more free articles, and lots of useful tools, advice and services which will assist you in building a successful and profitable online business. Personal consultation and coaching is also available.

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