SPAM: Electronic junk mail. Some people define spam even more generally as any unsolicited e-mail, although spam usually refers to unsolicited e-mail advertising that arrives in your Inbox.
In addition to wasting people’s time with unwanted e-mail, spam also eats up a lot of network bandwith. The generally accepted version of the genesis of the term ‘spam’ comes from the Monty Python song, “Spam spam spam spam, spam spam spam spam, lovely spam, wonderful spam…”
There are many ways to control, and even eliminate, spam.
First step: NEVER, ever give your e-mail address to anyone you have not met face-to-face, and trust implicitly. If you must submit an e-mail address in order to purchase a product, correspond with someone with whom you are not intimately familiar, or register with in order to gain access to a website or product, ALWAYS use a Yahoo (preferred) or a Hotmail account for these purposes.
To sign up for a Yahoo e-mail account, go to Yahoo.com, and under Personal Assistant top right, click on Sign Up Now. In the Free Yahoo! Mailbox which comes up next, click Sign Up Now.
Fill out the Yahoo E-mail form, and when complete click on the Submit Form button. Voilà. You’ve signed up for a Yahoo e-mail account, just like that.
Second step: when friends send cc: e-mail to you, ask them to cease this egregiously unsavoury activity. By allowing your friend(s) to include your e-mail address in a cc: broadcast, you have given tacit permission to robotic programmes across the Internet to ‘harvest’ your ‘live’ e-mail address, for sale (and re-sale) to a large number of spam companies. Always a no no. Ask your friend(s) to “Please, and always, use bcc in future” when sending you e-mail sent to a group of people.
Third step: change your e-mail address, from time-to-time. If you’re receiving a great deal of spam, simply apply for a new e-mail address, and send out a mass bcc e-mail to your friends advising them of your new e-mail address. Have your ISP (Internet Service Provider) kill your old address, once all of your friends have been notified of your change of address, and the incidence of spam you receive will be dramatically reduced. Note: when applying for a new e-mail address, include a number in the username, as in “djenkins44@provide.ca”. Placing a number in the e-mail address thwarts automatic posting of spam to common surnames.
Fourth step: Block spam. Webopedia gives this advice. Outlook Express has a reasonably effective spam control filter (the advice works in Windows XP, even if the article is directed to Windows 98 users). Eudora — the first, and best e-mail programme — employs a very effective spam control filter.
