Junk Email Spam-- How to Slow it Down

Email is a fact of life. Along with email is another fact of reality-junk email or spam. Junk email and spam is any email that is not from a friend, a relative or an organization or business you specifically authorized to contact you by email.

Recently when my husband's computer died and we waited word whether it was worth fixing or not (It wasn't.) I regularly checked his email for him on my netbook. (After doing it himself once, he decided my netbook wasn't for him and preferred I checked his email and pass on whatever was important.)

I discovered tons of junk email spam not only in his junk email box, but also in his Inbox. Before I could uncover the important email from family, friends, bookclub and church, I needed to get rid of all that spam, which I did with ruthless abandon.

My own email is much cleaner because I try to keep on top of getting rid of junk email and spam. One thing I do is to make sure to weed out junk email/spam from my Inbox. I delete it and mark it as phishing or spam junk email.

I go into the options, find the filtering and sorting available. Now many use these sorting filters to divert mail into friend, family, etc. folders. I use this sorting primarily to make sure the right mail goes into my Inbox (in my case if the subject has a key word I give out, it automatically goes into my Inbox) and that spam junk email is deleted or goes to junk. This takes a bit of ingenuity since spammers, those determined to get your attention through spam junk email advertisements and enticements, change tactics as regulations, servers and filters change. This is why you need to periodically check and change your words used to filter and sort your mail to the Inbox, to other folders and to junk email.

Check the subject lines of email you consider spam junk email. What sort of spam junk email are you receiving? Are you getting a lot off XXX? Filter out XXX by using it as a sort word and divert it to trash. Getting too many junk email spam from companies trying to sell you insurance? Use insurance as a sort word to filter out these companies. Sometimes the subject will have misspellings (often purposeful to defeat filtering) or extra * or even hidden enhancements.

Still, if you choose your filtering words/letters, etc carefully, you can substantially cut spam junk email. But this is an ongoing process. Maybe next month you have a spat of enticement spam of cars for sale. Add new filtering. Filters and sorting are not unlimited. Once you reach the limit you'll need to to switch sorting words, delete, add, and keep up with what is overwhelming your email at any given time.

Besides diverting email to different folders, you can filter another way as well. You can set your filtering to Low, letting in almost everything, to high or exclusive, where the only thing getting in to the Inbox are those emails with addresses in your address book. Save addresses of those you wish to receive email from and set the filtering high to help filter out spam junk email.

When you are on a web site, be careful you do not sign up for emails you don't want. Most web sites offer a place to sign up for newsletters or notifications. But many of these places include emails from sister organizations or businesses with which they are connected. Be sure not to click OK for email from partner organizations. Be aware that charities and non-profit organizations also have partner tie-ins. Be alert to what you agree.

Sweepstakes may seem fun, as do games and other on line adventures, but many of these are so interconnected that signing on for one opens you to a Pandora's box of similar spam junk email. Be aware, before you click OK.

Opening one spam junk mail and responding may open your email account to a flood of spam junk email. Always go directly to a web site rather than replying through an email link-even from business or organizations with which you regularly do business. Some email that looks legitimate may, in fact, be a clone site meant to deceive and steal your passwords and/or identity. Again, do not link to the web site through the email, go directly to the site by keying in the web site address.

While you'll never totally eliminate spam junk email, you can seriously decrease spam junk email by staying alert, by changing sort words often and by using common sense precautions.