Return to Support Index

Spam (junk email) is unwanted email that is sent out to the masses that markets various products and services. While spam does not harm your system nor collect personal information it is a nuisance that clutters your email inbox.

These steps will help keep spam out of your inbox.

1. Set up disposable email accounts. These are secondary email accounts used anytime you have to give out your email address on a website (shopping, forums, sweepstakes, etc). By not posting your primary email account spammers are less likely to capture your true email account. Disposable email accounts are not a fake email account. They need to be an account you access on occasion to pick up your shopping receipts and other confirmation messages.
    
2. Delete or unsubscribe. The law says that email spam must provide a link to unsubscribe from future emails. However, there is no way to ensure they actually remove your email address from the list and this method is often used to confirm that your email address is valid...therefore target for additional spam. Therefore, you'll need to decide if you should just delete the unwanted email or follow the unsubscribe link. Normally, if the spam you received comes from a reputable company (because of signing up for a newsletter or due to an online purchase) you can safely unsubscribe from their mailing list by following their unsubscribe instructions.
    
3. Avoid email for the masses. Spammers tend to focus primarily on email providers with millions of subscribers (AOL, Hotmail, Comcast, Yahoo, etc). This is because spammers often use computer generated scripts that send email to all possible combinations of email usernames for a given email provider. This gives them a high probability of successfully finding a valid email address. MyNetWire email packages are a perfect solution to email for the masses.
    
4. Check privacy policies before posting your email address. Each website will normally post their privacy policy. Read this to determine if they are committed to not selling or sharing your email address with third parties.
    
5. Don't post your email address on websites. Robots crawl websites all day long trying to find email addresses to add to their spam list. Therefore, don't post your email address on a website (unless it is your disposable email address) that will be viewable to others. This includes forums, newsgroups, bulletin boards, guestbooks, ec.
    
6. Avoid "free" websites and services. If it sounds too good to be true, then it just might be. On the internet there are an unbelieveable number of websites that will offer you free services and all you have to do is sign up. Be cautious because like any business they must have a means to make money to support their "free" services. This is often in the form of advertising or by selling your personal information or email address. So, be careful before you sign up with these services.