You can dodge spam by using these 4 tips consistently. Make sure that you employ these strategies so that you won’t have to deal with that annoying spam that pops up in your inbox or webpages on a daily basis. While they can prove to be irritable, they can lead to bigger problems for your computer’s well-being.
The Art of the Throwaway Email
Create an email address that you can give out to the general public. Use this email whenever a store wants to put you on their mailing list or give it to an organization you think might share your email. Don’t give out your personal email address every time you get asked to sign up for a newsletter. Leave that for your throwaway email. Ideally you want to give your junk email address a funny name, but something memorable and short so that it’s easy to ramble off in front of a salesperson while you’re checking out at the Cracker Barrel.
Use Unroll.Me! Please!
Most spam emails have unsubscribe links you should steer clear from. By clicking on the attached link you may be confirming your email address rather than unsubscribing. Unroll.Me will send you an email everyday allowing you to unsubscribe automatically from lists your email gets put onto by individuals or companies. If you don’t want to unsubscribe from a listserv, you can choose to keep the emails in your inbox or have them “rolled up.” This means that you will receive certain emails nicely packaged for you in bulk. Within the span of a few months, it’s very possible that you will have more than 100+ subscriptions removed for which you were unknowingly signed up at some point over time. You become the master of your domain, and you control which emails to keep and which you don’t want.
Be Guarded With Your Email
Be careful who you give your contact information to, including your email address. It doesn’t matter where you are, you don’t want to give your contact info away to people you don’t know or don’t trust. As a failsafe, always use your throwaway email. When engaging in online conversation, never include your email address. That’s like leaving the key to your house under the doormat. Spammers will take advantage of this information and send you harmful things that could create additional problems for you and your computer. Be smart with your information and don’t trust colorful, vibrant sites that appear to be safe. Remember, it is better to be careful and distrusting of most things on the internet rather than assume they will do no harm.
Use an Anti-Virus
Always be cautious when opening files from unknown emails. Viruses can hide and attack through email making it difficult to target the problem once it’s embedded into your computer. There are countless virus protection software programs available for your computer so you can focus on being productive online versus being cautious with everything you encounter. Software like McAfee, Windows Firewall and pop-up blockers are all designed to keep you safe from harmful content and do all the protecting for you.
The first line of defense in combating spam is educating yourself on the different techniques spam uses to get your personal information or harm your computer. Remember to routinely perform data back-ups to ensure that your information is secure. Always update your computer to the latest security releases to keep yourself safe.