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Consumer Reports recently released several suggestions as to how we can protect
ourselves online. It stated that we could help curb spam at the end-user level
through 8 ways, thus:
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“Don't buy anything promoted in a spam message. Even if the offer isn't a
scam, you are helping to finance and encourage spam.
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"Don't reply to spam or click on its “unsubscribe” link. That informs the
sender that your email address is valid.
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“If your email program has a preview pane, disable it to prevent the spam from
reporting back to its sender.
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“If you receive spam that promotes a brand, complain to the company behind the
brand by postal mail, which makes more of a statement than email.
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“Use one email address for family and friends, another for everyone else. Or
pick up a free one from Hotmail, Yahoo, or a disposable forwarding-address
service such as SpamMotel. When an address attracts too much spam, abandon it
for a new one. Instead of an address like janedoe@isp.com, select one with
embedded digits, like jane8doe2@isp.com.
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“If your Internet service provider is filtering your email and you still get
lots of spam, the ISP may not be filtering effectively. Check its filtering
features and compare them with those of competitors.
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“Report spam to your ISP, so that it can do a better job of filtering. To help
the Federal Trade Commission control spam, forward it to spam@uce.gov.
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“Don't post your email address in its normal form on a publicly accessible Web
page. Post it in a form, such as “Jane AT isp DOT com,” that can't be easily
read by the harvesting software many spammers use to collect e-mail
addresses.”
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