1) Use an e-mail client with superior spam guard filter. 2) Keep separate e-mail accounts for official use and personal use. Try to use a disposable account for giving at websites where you are unsure of the privacy of your e-mail address. 3) Do not display your e-mail address on a public website. If you e-mail address is digen.verma@freemail.com, display it as digenDOTvermaATfreemailDOTcom. This way spambots won't be able to read your e-mail address, but humans won't have any problem discerning your e-mail address. You can also use services like http://tinymailto.com or http://contactify.com to prevent your e-mail address being available publicly. 4) If you use GMail, you can supply creative e-mail address to actually find who compromised your e-mail account. For example if your e-mail address is digen.verma@gmail.com and ICICI bank asks for your e-mail address, you can provide them with an address like digenverma icici@gmail.com. Because of the way gmail treats e-mail addresses, the mail will still reach your e-mail account; and by looking at the e-mail header, you can find out who compromised your e-mail account. 5) Lastly, try to discourage your friends from mass mailing you e-mail forwards. Since your e-mail address is embedded in the body of the mail, even if the mail reaches a spammer after a dozen or so forwards, he can still extract your e-mail address from it. If it is absolutely essential for you to receive them, instruct your friends to add you as a BCC contact.
RE:Ways to deal with spam
by Ambuj Saxena on May 30, 2007 05:01 PM Permalink
In point number 4, the address I suggested supplying is digenverma(plus)icici@gmail.com. Because of the limitations of the text parser used by rediff.com, the "plus" sign did not get displayed.
RE:Ways to deal with spam
by kartar saxena on Jun 03, 2007 08:29 AM Permalink
Hey Ambuj, ur point 4 is very interesting ... tried it myself & it worked ... Thanks 4 sharing !
RE:Ways to deal with spam
by Ambuj Saxena on May 30, 2007 05:22 PM Permalink
More to point number 4...If you use Yahoo! and can afford to pay for a Yahoo! Mail Plus e-mail account, you can choose up to 200 different disposable e-mail addresses to deal with spam. Once you find out a specific disposable e-mail address has started receiving spams, you can disassociate it and spam will stop automatically.
6) Use e-mail addresses that are at least 6~7 characters long. Often spammers use common combination of alphabets to spam. 7) Actively report the spam messages you receive in inbox to your mail service providers by making them as "spam" or "bulk" depending on the service provider you use. 8) If any spam mail comes with a "unsubscribe" link, be wary of using it. A return mail from an e-mail address only confirms a human present and reading the mail. Only use the unsubscribing link when the service provider is a reputed website. Even then there is no guarantee that it will work. 9) If your spam filter is routinely missing to mark an e-mail as spam, use customized e-mail filter (or message rules) to dump them to trash without requiring repeated intervention.
If you follow these rules, there is a good chance that you won't be troubled by spam any more.
RE:Ways to deal with spam
by N.S.Shah on May 30, 2007 05:44 PM Permalink
Mr. Saxena, You have taken pain to guide the rediff friends. Thank you very much for all the pain you have taken.
