Spam

It used to be if you heard the word spam, you'd immediately think of Hormel's luncheon meat. Not any more. If you use e-mail, spam immediately conjures up images of unsolicited e-mail - and tons of it!

It's hard to find anyone that hasn't been attacked by the barrage of junk mail that now arrives in our inboxes. It can easily get so out of hand that new only a new e-mail address will solve the problem.

There are a few things we can do, however, to stop this from happening.

· Use the junk mail filter
· Set up rules
· Have multiple e-mail accounts
· Consider an anti-spam program

All of our e-mail programs have some type of filter built in. Outlook Express uses Block Sender, AOL has XXXXX and Macintosh's OS X's Mail system has a feature that allows you to bounce your spam right back to the sender.

Our programs also have the ability to allow rules. These are sets of instructions that allow you to set up an action plan for messages matching certain criteria. For example, if the word "Free" appears in the subject line you can have it automatically deleted.

Multiple e-mail addresses are also an effective tool. Most Internet Service Providers allow us multiple addresses free of charge. Take advantage of this. Have one address specifically for web related activities, another for newsletters, instant messaging and chat groups, and perhaps a third as your personal e-mail.

Although you will still receive junk mail, it's muck easier to keep your real address clean. The others can be changed as necessary. Make sure you also read the fine print when using an e-mail address on web sites. Many of them automatically check "Receive future offerings" for you. You'll need to search their site to ensure that you're not creating your own spam.

I personally, don't like web sites asking for my address when I just want to look around. Interestingly, my errors in typing somehow seem to be quite high on these sites. It's amazing how easy it is to mistype your address and have it be accepted. Gee, all that perfectly good junk mail lost in cyberspace.

The one most important thing NOT to do is to respond to junk mail in anyway. Many of us will use "Opt Out" buttons that arrive on unwanted mail. Unfortunately, this is the about the worst thing you can do. More often than not you are confirming your address and will end up on even more mailing lists.

Anti-spam programs come in handy here. They allow you to send a response that implies your address is non-operational and allows you to report it. There are watchdog agencies that will let offending domains know that spam is being sent. The government also has it's own site at uce@ftc.gov that is monitoring how bad the problem is.

By the way, be careful how you speak of spam. The Hormel Corporation is quite sensitive about the issue. SPAM luncheon meat is a trademark. Only use lowercase when referring to junk mail. www.spam.com will fill you in.