Ok, so what can you do if you do not host your address on a website but you are still getting spam? You already have the problem. Now what?
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Don’t Buy Anything
Never buy anything from a spam message. Ever. The simple fact is that spamming is a business. Its about making money. Spammers are not evil guys out to get you and screw up your day. They are simply in the advertising business. They employ the marketing method of sheer numbers. Email millions in the hopes that a few stupid people will respond to it and generate some business. If nobody ever bought anything, spam would stop cold. They only do it because it works and they can. So, do your part in tackling this problem from the supply side. Do not buy anything from spam promotions.
Not only does this help alleviate the motivation to send spam, but it also reduces your risk of being cheated. Anybody who operates their business in such a fashion that they see absolutely nothing wrong with spamming is probably also the kind of person who you should not trust with your money. I’m sure there are exceptions, but this is just a safe assumption. There are enough scams out there in spam messages to assume they all are.
Don’t Ever Reply
Do not send reply messages back to spammers. This includes any email asking to unsubscribe, following the opt-out instructions, or just sending them a flame email because you have just had enough. Bite your tongue. While you might enjoy telling them where they can stuff their computer, the spammer doesn’t care about that. All they then know is that your email address is valid. You can count on the fact that spam will continue and that your email address will be sold to other spammers.
Keep Your Cool
Some people just WAY overreact to spam, threatening lawsuits, “mail bombs”, denial-of-service attacks and the like. Despite the fact that these people are usually just blowing hot air (they don’t know how to do what they are threatening), its just a bad idea. In many cases, it can get you in more trouble than the spammer. Just do what you can to battle spam, but do not get emotionally involved.
Don’t Open It
If a spam message makes it to your inbox, do not open it unless you want to read it or report it. If you can tell from the subject line that it is spam, just drag it to your Trash folder without opening it.
Report Spam
If you are getting spam from one source often, you can report it to the companies involved. I will address this in more detail below.
Read Website Privacy Policies
Before giving any website your email address, review their privacy policy to ensure they will not provide your address to any third party. Of course, some sites might proceed to break their own policy, but most sites will not.
Check the “Do Not Mail” boxes
When filling in a web form, if they offer a checkbox that tells them not to email you, check it.
Secure Your Email Client
At full security levels, your email client should not automatically load images in emails, should not run embedded javascript code or other code, should not start up any other programs on your PC automatically, should not launch attached files automatically. You should review your email client and try to enable as much of these settings as you can. If you find that your email client is lacking in security features, you may want to consider migrating to another email client.
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