Spam

Sick of getting spam in your mailbox or spammed by the messenger service? Sick of pop-up ads? Want to play a few games on the web without getting ads flashed in your face?

	eMail Spam There is only one real way to effectively deal with e-mail spam. Commonsense. If you provide your personal details and/or e-mail address to websites without first reading their privacy policy and then you get spammed, who is to blame? If you post into Usenet with your real e-mail address then you can also expect to get bombarded with spam from that too. If you have a website and include your contact e-mail address, expect unscrupulous spammers to spider and crawl your site looking for it. In short, if you cannot exercise commonsense, then really, if you get spammed, you deserved it.
	Anti-Spam Tip #1 Not reading what is written on the screen is probably the most common form of getting caught in a spam trap. When signing up for anything, always look for already selected checkboxes that say, "Yes, sign me up" or similar. Also look for unchecked checkboxes that try to trick you with negative statements such as "No, I do not wish to receive e-mail". If there is an opt-out option for email alerts or newsletters, take it. If the website says you must accept their spam, don't give them your email address.
	Anti-Spam Tip #2 Get a free and use it for communicating with organisations over the web. If your ISP gives you an email account, use that email address only for trusted friends and, perhaps,  for companies you know are bound by your local privacy laws. Don't post your regular email address on notice boards, bulletin boards, blogs or comment pages.
	More Anti-Spam Tips If your ISP provides spam filtering, enable it, and if spam gets through, tell your ISP so they can tighten their filters. If you post messages to Usenet, use a throw-away email address. Do not share any of your Internet login details with anyone. Do not reply to spam, and especially never respond or action any email purporting to be from a bank, financial institution, credit card agency, eBay, PayPal or any other well-known Internet site asking you to confirm your details, even if it looks real. If you think the email is genuine, look up the organisation's contact details in your telephone directory and call them direct. If you are burdened by masses of spam, get a new email address. Do not click links in spam, even unsubscribe links, because this is how spammers identify your email address as valid so they can send you more spam. Read a website's privacy policy before you feed it your email address. Make sure your details will not be shared with other companies or used in marketing campaigns.