Why do I get Junk Mail? How do I stop it?

A.There are some steps you can take to help reduce the amount of junk mail reaching your inbox.

You can configure your email program to filter your email as you receive it. Email filters will place unwanted email into your Trash folder. In order to do this, you need to identify key words within the unwanted email and then have your email program filter all messages containing these criteria to the Trash. The next time you check your email, your email program will search each message looking for the words that you have specified and move the offending message to the Trash. Although this feature can be extremely useful, you need to be very careful in selecting specific words for your filters, as you may unknowingly filter out mail from your family, friends or business contacts.

B.One of the most important ways is to NOT reply to spam messages.

Spam programs are intelligent. They are programmed with standard dictionary languages and even understand last names. Therefore, if you use your last name in your email address these programs can easily find you. What these programs don't know is whether the address to which they are sending is valid. Once you reply to a spam, you have confirmed to the spammer that your email address is real and is actively in use

C.Use discretion when giving out your email address

while visiting other sites or registering for on-line contest prizes and other promotions. You should use the same judgment that you use when providing your home address and consider how it may be used. Finally, you need to watch out for the opt-in check boxes. These boxes are usually placed next to questions that ask if you would like to receive information from the Web page owners or their partners. By leaving the box checked, you are agreeing to receive promotional emails from the promoter and possibly other parties.

D.Don't post your email address on your web site.

If you own your own web site, do not use your email address either in the text of the page or in the source code as a mailto: link. Spiders, such as Email Siphon, are constantly scouring the web looking for email addresses. Instead use a cgi script or unicode to disguise your email address on your web site. This applies to those posting to guest books or blogs as well. If you want to post an email address on a blog or guest book, use one that you don't care about so much - like a free Hotmail or Yahoo address.

I just use thunderbird and have the junk email filter. It's kind of a bitch, but its' better than having 100's dumped into my inbox each day