Messages you receive
may include instructions (such as to reply with REMOVE in the subject
line) on how to remove yourself from future mailings from the
individual or organization. Unfortunately, many senders include these
instructions in order to try to confirm that they've reached a working
e-mail address, not to remove you from mailings. Unless you are
unsubscribing from a mail distribution list that you signed up for, or
you know the message sender, the best practice is to discard these
messages without responding. Some messages contain a phone number to
call, but many contain no information on how to stop future mailings.
Often if you reply to these messages, you find that the return address
or phone number is invalid or is that of someone other than the real
sender.
Alter your e-mail address when posting.
Organizations that
sell e-mail addresses use computer programs that scan Web pages and
newsgroups to harvest e-mail addresses. If you display an e-mail
address on a Web page or when posting to newsgroups, alter your e-mail
address in such a way as to trick search programs but not confuse
users. For example, if your e-mail address is pat@nwtraders.com, change
it to patNOJUNKMAIL@nwtraders.com. Most users will know to remove
NOJUNKMAIL from the address before using it, but search programs will
not.
Set up FILTERS on our email server.
If you have already made the mistake of replying to some junk mail and now it just won't stop....all is not lost.
You may create filters
to "screen" out known "spam", but you need to consider a few things
before you start to create filters. Many junk mailers don't use the
same email address twice, so filtering by sender may not work. You can
also create filters by content, so if you are constantly getting offers
for "cheap trips", you can create a filter to automatically delete all
email with the words "cheap trip" in the subject.
Remember that the email filter has no way of knowing what you want to
block or pass For example, if want to block hotdeals@yahoo.com, be very
specific. If you created a rule that blocked messages with yahoo.com in the "from" field, you
would not receive any mail
from anyone with yahoo.com in their address. By the
same token, you might really want to block ALL messages from any address that
has "hotdeals.com" in it.
For instructions on setting up filters click
here.