How to Prevent Spam

If you get a lot of spam in your inbox then you need to change the way you think about your email address.

Know how the system works.

Information is money.  Not power, money.  There is a whole business in selling information, and companies make money from it.  If you have ever seen anything offered for free, and “all” you have to do is given them your details, then they are making money by selling your information on.  Don’t believe me?  Click here.

So, remember that most businesses want your email address so that they can sell it to someone who’ll spam you.

Have a secondary email address.

Go to hotmail.com or some other free webmail account and sign up.  Use this email address when you have to give an email, but you don’t trust the person who has it.  This will probably be most of the time!

Then this email address will get all of the spam, and you won’t have to deal with it every time you want to check your emails.

Be totally paranoid about who has your main email address.

Don’t be a bit careful, or casually aware, be totally paranoid!  Never, ever give your email address to anyone unless you are totally sure that you can trust them with it.  If in doubt – use your secondary email address.

Be careful with your information on websites.

Websites like facebook and bebo are notorious for giving away information.  Make sure you check all your privacy options very carefully.  Your email address only has to appear in a website for spammers to get hold of it using things called “data harvesters” – automatic programs that go through websites looking for email addresses.

If you already get a ton of spam in your Inbox then it’s going to take a while for it to disappear.  You may even want to consider getting a new one. There are ways of eliminating spam, but they can be time consuming and require high levels of expertise.  In the long run it’s better to keep your email as private as possible, then the spammers can never get you.

If you have any questions please leave them in the comments box below.