Spam has become a major nuisance to e-mail users and computer technology experts. Sending irrelevant and inappropriate messages, basically for advertising purposes is a bane on the Internet. But yet, people feel they are part of Internet and that it is something you just have to accept as one of the negative aspects of electronic mail.

But you need not think spam is unavoidable. There are many different ways of avoiding and fighting spam. And it is also very necessary that you fight it and eliminate it from your system. One way of doing it is by having dummy email addresses using Spam Gourmet or Yahoo’s disposable addresses. This will effectively help you to fight spam as you will be providing this address to little known websites instead of your primary email address. If you get spam in your dummy address, you can just stop using it and not worry about it anymore. And you have to click the ‘This is Spam’ link if you have one in your email inbox. This will help in developing newer anti-spam filters to combat even the latest spam.

Another very simple way of avoiding spam in your inbox is by having a secondary email just for your web transactions. Use your primary email id only for very personal and professional purposes and share it with people you know. You can even choose not to put it on your personal website as spam users may pick it up and use it to their advantage. And once you receive spam mail, clicking the ‘Remove your email address’ is extremely ineffective as it only confirms that your email is active.

It is very important not to open emails from people unknown to you. Even if you do open an email from an unknown person, and discover the content to be useless, please do not reply to the message.

If after all these precautions, you are still getting spam mail, let your ISP know immediately and register a complaint at the spammer’s ISP. And install anti-spam software in your system without further ado. The combined efforts of your software and the ISP tracings of the spammer will stop the spam flow into your inbox.