Do you want to minimize the amount of spam you receive? Here are 7
essential tips:
- Don't click
on unsubscribe links.
The most important point to remember when unsubscribing from spam is
that if you didn’t originally sign up to receive the mail, or
if you don’t recognize the sender or company sending the
email, then don’t unsubscribe.
Trying to unsubscribe from one email can start a flood of mail from
other sources. So if you are unsure, it is best to block the mail in
other ways. When unsubscribing from mail, always check that the links
in the mail go to the correct company site and not to a phishing
site.
- Don’t
publish your work email address on any web site or
discussion forum.
If you have to include your email address, obfuscate it (for example,
write it as “myname at mycompany dot com” rather
than “myname@mycompany.com”), or include it in an
image file. This makes harvesting your email address much more
difficult.
- Use a
separate email address to sign up for newsletters, online
posting, and trade shows. Then, if the mailbox starts receiving an
overabundance of spam, you can delete the mailbox or more aggressively
filter it.
- Purchase anti-spam software,
which blocks 97 percent to 99 percent of spam to significantly reduce
the amount of spam you receive.
- Don’t
unsubscribe immediately.
Copy the messages you want to unsubscribe from to a separate folder.
Leave them there for a few weeks, so that you can review them and look
for common traits in the messages.
Spammers and unscrupulous companies typically change the information
that you could use to block the mail (for example, the
sender’s email address) each time they send an email
campaign. Keep a collection of mail you want to stop receiving to
determine which email addresses or phrases in the messages
don’t change and can be used to block further mail.
- Do not reply
to spam.
The McAfee Avert Labs Anti-Spam engineering team maintains a large
number of spam traps (email addresses used to attract spammers). We
frequently see people getting frustrated and replying to spam.
Answering spam is a waste of time, and it only adds to the amount of
unwanted mail that others receive because the spammer will not match
the “From” address in the email. It is very easy to
forge the sender of an email, as well as include an alternative
”Reply-to” address.
- Don’t
buy anything from spammers.
Because spammers send millions of messages per day, usually using
stolen bandwidth, they require only a few people to respond to their
spam to make it profitable. If no one bought things from the spammers,
they would quickly put a stop to this practice because it would become
a waste of time and money for them.
The full McAfee "Say
"No, Thanks" to Unwanted Email" article (PDF).
