As the Internet has grown in popularity and convenience, it is being used by more and more people, which also leads to more and more emails being sent and received. You need to take control of your inbox and prevent unwanted spam. The internet is here to stay, which means spammers and malicious content are not going anywhere or ending anytime soon. With this being said, spam filters are absolutely necessary.

What is E-mail Spam?
Spam is electronic junk mail. An unsolicited message, often commercial, that is transmitted through the Internet as a mass mailing to a large number of recipients. It’s an email message that you did not ask for and do not want from somebody you do not know, who wants to sell you something.

How do Spammers get your email address?

• The easiest way spammers get your email address is by buying email addresses from a company. Yes, there are company’s out there that actually compile email addresses and sell them on a CD.
• Internet forums, message boards, blogs and news groups. Spammers can retrieve your email address this way, because people will leave their email address when posting or responding to these online communities.
• Spammers have also been known to create programs that will help them compile a list of emails. These programs will:
  • Scan websites for email addresses (corporate or public listings like your Domain listing)
  • Start sending mail to a valid domain and create a formula or go down the alphabet and send to every possible combination to find out which emails is legitimate. 
  • Software can be used to gain access to a user’s address book, which is then added to their list.
• As technology continues to grow, spammers learn to be more creative on finding ways to retrieve their email lists.

Outwit the Spammers:
There is no real way to avoid spam. While it is illegal in the United States, most spam comes from overseas. As long as there are businesses willing to pay spammers and people who can profit from it, we will always have a battle of fighting spam. Some ways you can protect yourself include:
 

• Use an Email Client that has a built in spam filter. Spam filters are installed on the email servers of every email service provider. Spam filters detect unsolicited and unwanted emails and prevent these messages from getting to a User’s in box. Most users aren't even aware of how much spam is sent to them, because it is trapped before it is sent out to their inbox. These filters use a combination of techniques to evaluate each incoming email, it will either delete a message entirely or place it in a special folder, allowing you to decide if it’s actually spam or legit.
• Do not open attachments from unknown senders.
• Try not to post your email address anywhere on the web. If you are part of a forum, blog or social network site, don’t use the same email id that you use for sending emails. Robots crawl the webpages and will store your email in their databases. You can also write your email address in a way so that humans can read it, but robots cannot, example, jsmith@example.com – jsmithATexampleDOTcom.
• Read the privacy policy before you join a mailing list, enter a sweepstakes, or complete a form on a website. Only deal with privacy policies that clearly state they will not rent, sell or give away your personal info to third parties.
• Never respond to a spam message, this will let the spammers know your email is active. Once this is known, more spam mail will be on its way.

Spam affects all of us to some degree or another and it feels that we are helpless in stopping it. There are no simple solutions to the spam problems. But I hope that the information above will help in reducing the number of unwelcome messages in your in box.