GMA Spam Fighting Tips

On a recent Good Morning America segment, I was asked to list my top spam-fighting tips, here they are:

Guard your email address with your life
*Treat it like phone number.
*Have a private and a public account- the public for all newsletters, online purchases, and sign-ups.
*Never post on a website or if you do use the word ‘at’ instead of the @ symbol.


Turn off HTML graphics in your email
*Spammers plant graphics in their emails that load from the spammer’s server- sounds complicated but it’s basically an alert to the spammers that the email has been opened and the graphic has been viewed. The options feature in your email client or web based email will guide you through the process of turning off graphics in email.
*Turning off graphics also prevents those shocking pictures that load when you get a porn spam.
*Never try to unsubscribe- It’s just another way spammers know that they have a live one.

Use an email blocking program like Mail-Washer http://www.mailwasher.net/ or Qurb http://www.qurb.com/ or use an email service like Yahoo, that blocks and filters spam before it ever get to your Inbox.

Help stop Spam for every one-
*Use an up to date antivirus program: 1/3 of all spam is sent from zombie machines that are infected with a virus. These viruses help the real spammers hide their identities and use your bandwidth to send out spam
*Never ever buy from spammers. Jeremy Jaynes, the spammer recently sentenced to 9 years in a Virginia prison was making $750,000 A MONTH selling to people through spam. If it weren’t a lucrative career, spammers would have to do something else.