Geegee
Your email address can get on spammers’ mailing lists by several routes;
(1) The most common is posting a reply to a newsgroup on an Internet website.
(2) Spammers also use automated programs that crawl through websites and newsgroups harvesting anything that looks like a valid email address.
(3) Another common method is by people subscribing to email lists or filling in forms on websites that do not have proper privacy policies in place.
(4) Many spammers also have automated programs that guess the email address of the recipient.
(5) Finally there is a lucrative market where spammers exchange and sell their list of email addresses to each other.
Never reply to a spam email, even to unsubscribe, as this simply confirms that your email address is an active address and more spam will subsequently be sent.
The following steps can help reduce the amount of SPAM you receive;
(1) Never reply to a spam email, even to unsubscribe, as this simply confirms that your email address is an active address and more spam will subsequently be sent.
(2) Never open a spam email. These emails often have hidden scripts or programs in them that acknowledge back to the spammer that your address is active and real.
(3) Never post your real email address on an online web site or bulleting board. People who send SPAM scour these sites to collect legitimate email addresses. If you do have to include your email address, try using the format “youraddress at somewhere.com” rather than “youraddress@somewhere.com.”
(4) When filling in any form on the Internet read very carefully the conditions upon which your personal information, such as your email address, will be used. Ensure that you read carefully the website’s privacy policy and make sure to check or uncheck the boxes that allow emails to be sent to you.
(5) Use a filtering solution, either supplied at your ISP level or by installing software on your PC. If you are using Outlook 2003 as your mail client it has an inbuilt SPAM filter that puts suspected SPAM email into a dedicated folder.
With regards to what can be revealed when surfing depends on a lot of things that are probably too much to go into here. Suffice it to say you should
(a) Have up to date antivirus software installed. Grisoft provide free anti-virus software called AVG that is quite good at
www.grisoft.com
(b) Install anti-spyware software. Adaware from
www.Lavasoft.de has a free version that is very good.
(c) Install a firewall on you PC. Zonealarm from
www.zonelabs.com has a free version for personal use and is a very good tool. If you are using Microsoft XP, you could alternatively use the firewall that comes free with Service Pack 2 from Microsoft.
(d) If you are using Internt Explorer you can alter your settings to provide better protection to your privacy. However be careful as some sites may not work if you increase the protection of your browser.
(e) Finally make sure that you have installed all the latest patches for your operating system, email client and web browser.
Regards
C