I just wanted to share some tips and techniques that can restrict the availability of your e-mail address from harvesters and spammers. These are things that you, the end user can do.
1. Just use some discretion! Limit who you share your email with, and you will have less spam. Please don’t forward email messages to people you don’t know without removing the emails off the list! This practice helps reduce the likelihood of computers with email address harvesting malware distributing your email!
2. Another way to avoid email harvesting is to post anonymously, or use a fake name or email. This is called “Address Munging.” Just make sure you’re not using someone’s real email, or they will get the spam!
3. Avoid responding to Spam in the first place! All a spammer needs is a confirmation that an email address is valid. Avoid this temptation to reply with “Don’t Spam me” comments!
4. The use of HTML, URLs and images in the Web Browser can expose the user to offensive images. This kind of Spamming can contain something called web bugs. These web bugs reveal that an email address is valid. Email users who do NOT download and display HTML, attachments and images have less of a risk. It’s just safer not to do it.
5. Sometimes an email user is required to enter their email at a site, without knowing if the owner of the site will use it for spam. One way to keep safe is to use a disposable email address that links to your real email. Disposable address forwarding is provided by many services now a days, and an excellent way to prevent spam.
If you follow these five tips, you will have less spam in your inbox. Hope this helps you!
If someone you don't know sends you an email, it is natural to want to know who the person is, even if the email is not spam or unfriendly. Knowing a sender's identity can tell you whether or not you want to reply to the email. Some emails contain the name of the person who sent it, and even if it doesn't, some email programs will tell you the name the email account is registered under and include the information in the same line as the email address. If this information is not available, sometimes you can learn more by looking at the email address itself.
While an email address like catlady@emailprovider.com may not give you a name, the domain name (the word between the @ and the .com part) can give you a clue. Major email providers like yahoo and lycos won't tell you much, but the domain is something unusual like 'rockhounds.com' or 'businessname.com', you can perform a simple Google search for the domain name. This can narrow down the possibilities quite a bit. If someone you don't know is sending you email from a business email address, you can contact the company for more information. It could be that the person had a legitimate reason for contacting you but is unaware of proper email etiquette.
Spam email, on the other hand, can be nearly impossible to trace for the average citizen. Most people choose to simply delete these emails or mark them as spam so that they don't have to deal with them anymore. On the other hand, mysterious or harassing emails warrant more attention and can be quite a headache to track down.
It can be difficult if not impossible to find the owner of an email address if the person has used a false name to register the email account. If someone has chosen to use a bogus name and address to register for an email account with a major provider, you have little power to find the information as a private citizen. In these cases, where someone is harassing you and you need it to stop, it is advisable to enlist the help of a reputable company to find out who is doing the emailing.
There are a few companies on the internet that will allow you to do a reverse email search to find out who the account is registered to. These companies generally charge a small fee per search, or you can register for a membership and conduct as many reverse email searches as you like. However, if you are able to find out the true identity of a harassing emailer, it may not be a good idea to try to handle the problem yourself.
If you can find out who owns an email address through one of these services, you next step should be to report the person to the proper authorities. Be sure to save any harassing emails to use as evidence. Companies that conduct these searches can sometimes help you with the legal process required to put a legal stop to unwanted internet behavior.
RSS Feed
