Email spam is a big problem, and it’s getting worse. According to a study by the Anti-Spam Project, spam volume increased by more than 50 percent between 2009 and 2010. There are a few things you can do to keep your email spam-free and tidy. First, make sure you have an effective anti-spam filter installed on your computer. This will help identify and block spam emails before they reach your inbox. Second, be careful about what you send in email messages. Don’t send unsolicited advertising or promotional materials. And don’t send large files that could take up too much space on someone’s email server. Finally, be patient with email recipients. Some people may not be able to stop receiving spam emails immediately, so don’t get frustrated if it takes some time for them to get rid of them all. ..
HTG readers are serious about beating back SPAM. While some readers such as TechGeek01 took a fairly laid back approach to junk mail:
For other readers it was outright war. ArchersCall uses a system of layers and whitelists:
Layers and obfuscation were a common technique deployed by readers to cut down on SPAM. Many readers, perhaps in a bid to avoid that level of investment in their anti-SPAM measures, turned to commercial tools. KB Prez writes:
FIRST – I use Earthlink’s white list option. This means, if you’re not in my address book, you automatically get sent to the suspected spam folder. The sender gets sent an automated response about this so they know and get an option to ask to be added to my white list. Spammer never use this option so I don’t get a ton of “Please add me requests”. I get requests from real people who know me, or legitimate businesses who need to contact me.
SECOND – all email from my earthlink account is then forwarded or captured by gmail, where gmail does it’s own spam check and I can flag anything that comes in as spam as well. Gmail does a good job of filtering all on it’s own and it’s a great secondary system to the white list I use.
THIRD – If the email gets past Earthlink and Gmail, it’s then passed through my many gmail filters to be sorted and organized or trashed as the case may be.
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TIP #1 – I don’t give out my gmail address. I use it as an online “outlook” type system where I have Earthlink going to gmail as explained above. Even if you were to know my gmail address and sent a message to it, it would automatically be trashed, forwarded, and an automated response from my spiffy secondary “you can’t email me@gmail.com” address would tell you, you can’t contact me through that address and if they reply to that, they get trashed again the automated response again until they get the message. I NEVER see the emails.
TIP #2 – I use my very old Earthlink address as my very public address. It can be given to almost anyone because no matter who I give it to, if they send me email, they wont get through unless I add them to my address book. So I don’t need a separate spam address. White lists are the best way to avoid spam!!!
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My elaborate system that helps me do two things really well.
I get no spam at all (99.9% of the time)
If I dont want to communicate with someone or they are stalking me etc… I can easily never be bothered with seeing their email with a few clicks.
This system give me ultimate control over who contacts me.
—————— Drawbacks
I must remember to add a new person/business to my address book before they send me an email otherwise they get the spam blocker message from Earthlink. Sometimes I don’t always know what email address I’m going to have to add to my address book, so I occasionally have to look in my suspected spam folder on Earthlink to see if my new friend or business got blocked, and then add them to my address book. This is pretty simple since Earthlink has a button for this in their UI. Most smart people who get the spam blocker message simply hit the request link and i don’t have to go through this, but occasionally dumb/lazy people ignore the message and I have to dig them out of my spam folder.
