I’ve been reading about some of the things that Microsoft and other computer companies want to do about the increasing amount of spam. One of the suggestions is paying for e-mail, as in a fee per each one sent. So basically there would be electronic stamps for e-mail, how long would it take before the price continually rose on that like it has on paper stamps?
I personally do not receive a ton of spam and the little I do get is usually filtered out by Mozilla Thunderbird. I do have a few ways of avoiding spam.
- Do not give out your e-mail address to every website you go to.
This is probably the main reason people get spam. You go to a site, they ask for your e-mail, and you start getting spam. So how do you get around this? I have a dummy e-mail account just for such situations. There are also free disposable e-mail accounts available from sites like http://jetable.org and Mailinator.
- Don’t use the “Click me to unsubscribe” link.
All these links usually do is report to the people that are spamming you that you are receiving the mail they are sending and to keep on sending it. Just ignore spam, trash it. Most e-mail programs have filters you can turn on to help fight spam.
Well that’s my $.02 for the day…