4 Tips To Minimize Spam In Your Inbox

Spam is one of the worst things that is happening in the internet. In the least, it steals our time, because we need to delete them everytime they come to our inbox. While spam may still be there until only God knows when, there are things that you can do to minimize the number of spam in your inbox. Here are some of them:

Use Disposable Email Addresses

Spammers usually collect email addresses by harvesting them from various online sources such as web pages, mailing list archives, etc. So if you need to post your email in public online places, don't use your primary email address. Instead, create an email address only for that purpose and set it up to forward received emails to your primary address. If you receive too many spam via this address, you can just disable it and replace it with a new one.

Obfuscate Your Email Address

Since spammers usually harvest email addresses using somekind of bots, try to obfuscate your email address when you post it in a public online place. Do it in a way that it's still comprehensible for a human reader, so that your addressee can read it. For example, instead of posting "abc@xyz.com," replace it with "abc at xyz dot com."

Use Long, Uncommon Email Address

Spammers may try to guess your email address by sending email to short or common addresses in the hope that it will reach some valid addresses. Because of this, using a long, uncommon email address might be safer then using a short or common email address. So, if you create an email address, try to get a long and uncommon, yet comprehensible, email address.

Don't Respond to Spam

When you receive spam in your inbox, don't respond to it in any way. Don't reply to the spam email or click any link on it, even if it looks like an opt-out link. It's likely that the opt-out link is a fake. Responding to a spam will confirm to the spammer that your email address is a valid one and you may get more spam because of it.

References:

"Anti-spam techniques" from Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-spam_techniques_(e-mail).

"Why Am I Getting All This Spam?", a research report by the Center for Democracy and Technology at http://www.cdt.org/speech/spam/030319spamreport.shtml.

By: Robin Sky