How can I avoid getting spam (unsolicited commercial e-mail)?
Spam, or unsolicited commercial e-mail, is something you can never really entirely get rid of, but you can at least reduce the amount of it that you get. Here are a few tips: • If you post on newsgroups or web discussion boards, alter your e-mail address slightly, perhaps by putting “nospam”in it somewhere, i.e. diva@spidersilk.net.nospam. That way, if someone wants to e-mail you individual, they can just remove the “.nospam”, but the “robots: (automated programs) that spammers use to gather e-mail addresses won’t be able to get yours. • If you put your e-mail address on your web site in a mailto link, use this handy mailto encoder to disguise it so that the robots won’t be able to recognize it. The links will still work just fine. (Note: lately, some of the spambots seem to be getting smarter at deciphering things like this, but at least it will cut out some of it.) • When you do receive spam, NEVER reply to the “remove” address they include. They just use that to verify that it’s a w
