"That Annoying Spam! "

by Jennifer Atkins, Administrator
McCrory & Associates Co., LPA

     There is nothing worse than checking your email and in between messages from clients and the Bar Association you find "EARN BIG MONEY" and "GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS". Most are annoying and some are downright embarrassing. Is there anything that will stop these intrusions? Compounding the problem are "spambots" trolling the Internet for email addresses in newsgroups and message boards. While there is no absolutely foolproof way of reducing unsolicited email, here a few suggestions from Internet.com:

1. Don't respond or opt-out of any unsolicited email you receive. Opting out confirms that your email address is "live" and you will wind up on a multitude of other lists. (Yikes! Bet you thought this really worked!)
2. Set up filters for incoming mail. Microsoft Outlook has a customizable rules system for filtering mail. Yahoo! mail immediately sorts bulk mail into a separate folder and has a block sender feature, also found in Outlook.
3. Establish multiple e-mail accounts, each with a separate purpose. Use one for family and friends, another for business associates and create a separate one for e-commerce purchases and opt-in newsletters. Don't get too attached to any of them since you might have to abandon it if the spambots catch up to you.
4. Consider using a professional filtering service. Yahoo! identifies 26,000 matches for "spam filtering."
5. Just delete the messages and move on to the email from your law school buddies.
6. You can also report spam senders to your ISP and their ISP. Check with yours on how to lodge a complaint.

    If there is any consolation, at least the spam doesn't kill trees like the mountains of junk catalogs you probably receive. Happy filtering!