Internet help and guidance

SPAM email prevention

Unsolicited e-mail, or 'spam', is a pain, and it can often be very offensive. It generally comes from people or companies you do not know, who are often trying to sell you something.

The great majority of spam comes from overseas, especially from the USA and Russia, so it is very hard for the British police or other authorities to do anything directly to apprehend the culprits and put a stop to it.

However, there are a few things you can do to help yourself by following tips below:
· One of the best ways of dealing with spam is simply to delete it!
· Be careful who you give your email address to when you are online.
· Have separate email accounts for purchasing online and for receiving correspondence emails.
· Check companies privacy policies before purchasing online, it may be the case that they are in a group of companies that will share your email details after you have purchased.
· Do not give out your email address in chat rooms or make available your personal profile when chatting online.
· If you make your email address public on an internet site then the chances are that you will receive spam mail.  Many companies have ways to search the internet that will return email addresses from web sites.
· It is possible to restrict your email so that you can only receive emails from dedicated people that you know.  In this way you know that you are not getting spammed.
· The larger, better known free email service providers seem to attract a huge amount of spam whereas others do not. Check out how effectively different service providers keep spam at bay.
· There are various firewall programmes, anti-spamming software packages and other technical measures that can help keep your email address a secret from various unscrupulous web site owners, or others who harvest people's contact details.
· Lots of people now have more than one email address: one that they keep relatively private or only give to friends and business associates, and another that they might use if they go surfing or want to sign on for various Internet-based services. That's where the spam will end up.
· There's probably no point asking an individual who sends spam to remove you from their email list. This will just confirm that yours is a genuine and active e-mail address and you could end up getting a lot more. But do complain to your Internet Service Provider. We all need to press them to find better solutions. Fast.

Parents should take an interest in what their children do online generally, but perhaps particularly they should take an interest in whom they are sending emails to, and who they are receiving them from. And remember, if your child does receive a nasty e-mail, do not jump to any hasty conclusions. It's probably spam.