After I wrote a column about how to reduce the amount of spam (junk email) in Google\u2019s Gmail, Don Wenig of Tucson, Ariz., voiced the frustration of many email users.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just wish I knew how these creatures got my address,\u201d Wenig said.<\/p>\n
I took that to heart, and here is a list of the ways that spam producers get your email address and what you can do to prevent it.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Don\u2019t respond to an email from someone you don\u2019t know, not even to \u201cunsubscribe\u201d from an email list that sends you unwanted information. It only confirms that your email address is a good target.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Don\u2019t download any email images that weren\u2019t initially displayed by your email program. That also confirms that your email address is available to spam.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Don\u2019t sign up for any online service that says it will remove your name from spam lists. Chances are, the site is run or monitored by spammers.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Don\u2019t respond to attention-grabbing emails, such as a \u201cdelivery failure message\u201d for an email you didn\u2019t send, or a message that says you requested something that you didn\u2019t. They\u2019re just bait.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Don\u2019t let an automatic email response go to everybody. When on vacation, set your email to respond with an \u201cI\u2019m-not-here\u201d message only to emails from people already in your contacts list. Otherwise the automatic response may confirm your email address to spammers.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Don\u2019t be fooled by phishing emails that urge you to use an email link to a website where you can correct or confirm something about your email, bank account, credit cards or other personal material. These people are trying to steal your personal information.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Don\u2019t participate in online contests that offer cash prizes or free trips in exchange for your email address. This is a bit like giving out your street address and telephone number whenever you buy a lottery ticket, something most people would never do.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Don\u2019t use your main email address in online forums. Spammers scan these forums with programs called \u201cWeb crawlers\u201d that copy email addresses (typically they copy anything that contains the \u201c@\u201d symbol.) Protect yourself by adding phony details to your email address, such as inserting the phrase \u201cdelete(UNDERSCORE)this\u201d in the middle of the address. You won\u2019t fool any people, but you might trick an automated Web crawler.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t give out your real email address without considering two alternatives. You can set up a secondary free email address to give to websites; if that account becomes clogged with spam you can close it. Or set up \u201cdisposable email addresses,\u201d temporary addresses that forward email to your real address. See http:\/\/www.tinyurl.com\/youhjr\/.<\/p>\n
After I wrote a column about how to reduce the amount of spam (junk email) in Google\u2019s Gmail, Don Wenig of Tucson, Ariz., voiced the frustration of many email users. \u201cI just wish I knew how these creatures got my address,\u201d Wenig said. I took that to heart, and here is a list of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1401,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[9,59,61],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21260"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1401"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21260\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}