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Avoid spam by protecting email addresses

One of the best ways to avoid spam is to stay off of a spammer’s mailing list in the first place. Removing your e-mail address from a spammer’s list is difficult once you are on it. Here are some tips to help you keep your e-mail addresses out of a spammer’s grasp

Mungle through the jungle

Usenet newsgroups and Web site discussion forums are notorious havens for spammers. People often (and are sometimes required to) include an e-mail address with their post, making it easy for spam merchants to use harvesting software to collect junk mail targets.

Learn to combat this collection method through a technique called “mungling”. Simply insert a recognizable word or phrase into your e-mail address that a human will know is not actually part of the e-mail address. For example, john.smith@isp.net would become john.smith@don’t-spam-my-isp.net. Adding the text "don't-spam-my" points to a non-existent e-mail account, which is a dead link for the harvesting software. This method won’t work in cases where a Web site requires a confirmation e-mail to be sent to you.

Beware address collection sites

You should also learn to recognize Web sites that exist for the sole purpose of collecting e-mail addresses. Of course, many sites ask for an e-mail address when you sign up (and you should always check their policy regarding sharing their lists), but some sites do little more than harvest addresses.

For example, a user might receive an e-mail indicating that someone has expressed a romantic interest in him or her. They’re invited to visit a Web site to discover who that person is. (We’ll ignore for the moment that visiting this sort of site would violate our Internet acceptable use policy.)

Upon arriving at the site however, the user is not told who expressed the interest. Instead, they’re asked to guess who it might be by entering the e-mail addresses of likely prospects. Instead of finding true love, the user is actually helping the spammer collect junk mail targets.

Use throwaway e-mail accounts

Spammers often send mass mailings from disposable e-mail accounts from free online services such as Microsoft Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail. They then delete the accounts before any complaints are made. You should do the same thing. Create a free e-mail account and use that address when registering for anything on the Web. If that address winds up in the spammers' hands, simply cancel the address and create a new one.

No one leaves

Finally, avoid any opt-out address or link within the junk e-mail. Just as buying from a telemarketer can result in more telemarketing calls, replying to a spam message simply alerts the spammer that the specified address is active. The end result is more junk e-mail.

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