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Spam, Spam Go Away -- How to prevent spam

Not all anti-virus software is perfect. Making smart choices while online can protect you against growing threats. Here are some tips to get you started.

• Don't reply to spam - ever.  Replying to any spam message confirms that your email address is valid. Spammers in turn sell the lists of confirmed email addresses to other buyers.
  

• Don't click on any links in spam messages. Doing so confirms that you've received the email. This in turn proves your address is valid and brings more spam.
  

• Avoid posting your email address on any website. If you do decide to post your email address, attempt to encrypt it by adding a few extra words in the domain. For example: myemailaddress@myDELETETHISPARTwebsite.com . Then tell the users to delete the portion in upper case.
  

• If you are unsure about websites requiring registration or if you're signing up for mailing lists or newsletters, then sign up for a free e-mail account using Yahoo or Google, for example. This way most of your spam will be sent to your junk account, where you can easily delete it.
  

• You can also use a free service like Spam Gourmet which lets you use free disposable email addresses that route your mail to the same email address but allows you to mask your real address.
  

• Get anti-spam software that integrates with your email software. Most security software offers a toolbar and as emails come in, you can train the software to recognize and delete the spam.

Despite much interest in the problem, spam is not going away. Save yourself the annoyance and possible harm of spam by following these steps. You -- and your PC -- will be glad you did.