E-Mail:
Get my new Windows 7 eBook (PDF) for $7 with 70+ Tips. Download Now!

How to Avoid Spam (Junk Email)

Add to iTunes | Add to YouTube | Add to Google | RSS Feed

Community member Zachary is the Webmaster for RuneTomb, INC. Here are his top tips for stopping Email spam if you are a website Developer or IT person.

  • Download a good Email client. Personally, I find it is harder to block junk and spam on any of the Microsoft email applications. We use Thunderbird, the free client from the folks at Mozilla.
  • Never give your email address away via the Internet in text form. If you do, you are absolutely bound to have a bot from a search engine pick up that address and email it to a reseller. Try to give the email address in image form. For added security, “fuzz” that image just a bit using a program like Photoshop.
  • If you are a company, split up the different departments, and assign them their own email address. This makes it easier to destroy spam that eludes your filters, and is much better for organizational purposes, as well.
  • Don’t use common words for the name of the email address, such as help@example. Common words such as help, support, department, billing, webmaster will all be tried (and quickly found) by search engine spiders. Avoiding simple words like these will seriously diminish your spam email.
  • Always have two email accounts: one for personal use, and one for business use. Only give out your personal email address to family and close friends. Make sure those people know not to send dozens of “forwards” to your business account.

Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video:

24 Comments

Tech Interviews Being the Perfect Techie How Can Software be Perfect? Protect Yourself from Getting Hacked How to Buy a Hard DriveHow to Avoid Spam (Junk Email)Homemade Gifts Undertow for Free on Xbox 360 Marketplace Arcade Fun Tips for Girl Gamers Insert Coin: Game Over!

care of your email addresses, but not all people around you share your techniques. Now lemme think what I would do to my “free” email list from MERALCO. Hmmm.. how about sign them all up for my blog’s email subscription? :~) EDIT: Chris Pirillo’s gotsome tips to avoid email spam. *Computer end log* Click to Read Full Entry Posted by Jepoy @ 15:55 Backlinks | Technorati Links 0 comments | | Globe Telecoms terminates IMEVRYWHR Captain’s Log Stardate -315074.06

care of your email addresses, but not all people around you share your techniques. Now lemme think what I would do to my “free” email list from MERALCO. Hmmm.. how about sign them all up for my blog’s email subscription? :~) EDIT: Chris Pirillo’s gotsome tips to avoid email spam. *Computer end log* Click to Read Full Entry Posted by Jepoy @ 15:55 Backlinks | Technorati Links 0 comments | | Globe Telecoms terminates IMEVRYWHR Captain’s Log Stardate -315074.06

Do you have a daughter named Nina? >.>.

thanks for the advice

waste of 8 mins.
it should of been a top 1 list of how to avoid junk mail and the item on that list is gmail.hands down.

gmail ftw.

Okay, these top 5 lists are getting really really old. If these keep being the videos placed on youtube, I will have to unsubscribe.

Use the 5 videos for something else.

Seriously, you don’t have to watch what is Chris top 5! There are other videos to see.

No, lately there has not been.

I have an isp address for personal, a gmail address for companies that add me to their own list and hotmail for mega spammers

I make use of several e-mail addresses with the same domain. All addresses start the same, with my first name. One is on my website, in plain view, and it never has had spam. It uses a dot to separate my name from the rest of the mail address. The e-mail address that has received the most spam, by far, is one I used only to send to a specific group of friends (high school classmates). Some of these addresses are at government facilities, some at businesses, and some are personal. The others get spam that is often addressed to a goup of similar e-mmail addresses, thus the dictionary method.

I found out where the spam word came from. It is Monty Python, but it’s not The Holy Grail as someone said in the chat. Here you go, it’s a youtube video so it might be taken down at any time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ7YedEopp4

I get a lot of spam, or at least I used to. What I do for spam blocking is to funnel all of my e-mail through a Gmail account. Their spam blocking is top notch (I mean hey, they’re Google). The account is then set to forward to my main mailbox.

i use gmail and MY BRAIN

Thank you Thank you this is one of my most horrifying situations since i have been hacked in the past when i first started

I use 2 emails , one for websites and the other for personal use, user to user.

can i have some ones email address :P

Starting with Microsoft Outlook 2003, MSFT has included a spamfilter that gets updated every month with the normal Windows Updates. In the event that you get a spam/junk message that gets past it, you are able to blacklist single email addresses and even whole domains. You are also able to whitelist important email addresses and domains so you always get email sent from that address.

Great idea re Google filter ;)

Top Notch – thank you :)

Dam you guys are bitches, I write a list and I just get GWIZ I HATE TOP FIVE LISTS AABABAA

Fuck you.

1)SAY THE NAME OF THE BOY OR GIRL U WANNA BE WITH FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE 2TIMES
2)SAY UR BEST FRIENDS NAME 5 TIMES TO UR SELF
3)THEN POST THIS TO FIVE VIDEOS AND THEN PRESS F8 AND YOU WILL SEE UR CRUSHES NAME ON THE screen

The key to defeating spam is decoupling your inbound email address from the location where you pick up your email. You put a routing system like Maileable in the middle, and it is amazing how you are no longer at the mercy of the lowlife creeps who spam and phish.

What Do You Think?