Choosing The Right Spam Software
One of the best reasons for going online is to download software and games that make surfing on your computer more fun. These days you can go to almost any website and find free software to try, and download. This can be very rewarding and entertaining at times, but there is a down side to doing this as well. Free software is, essentially, spam software.
For every legitimate download, there are plenty that are designed to get your personal information, which will eventually lead you to more spam. This is particularly popular from free trial software as well as free software.
Spammers use this method in a similar manner as they would use a gift promotion and contest sign in. You see, they will let you have their software under the strict regulation that you leave yourself open to receiving updates and notifications about their products. Many people agree to this because they are getting something out of the deal besides the software.
That is one of the most beneficial ways for spammers to get you on their hook. Usually you can check their privacy policy or terms of agreement policies before you install it. You should ensure that you check these before agreeing to sign up. If not just for the spam you may receive, then for viruses and worms. You should always check to see who their affiliates are as well before you download from a website, as sometimes you have to deal with their spam as well. Some free email service providers have some pretty good blockers' services to accommodate you a bit better. My favorite is the free version of Hotmail provided by msn. Don't get me wrong, plenty of the free email service providers are trying to get on top of the spam epidemic. With this free email service, you can set up your account to keep only your personal contacts in your email inbox. The rest of the emails automatically go to a junk mail folder that you can check out at your own time. If you don't check them within seven days, they are automatically deleted. The msn messenger, which is used to send instant messages to people, can be checked by right clicking the messenger icon. If you have received email from your contacts it will show you and you can go directly to your inbox by left clicking the messages text. If you have junk mail it doesn't show up. It is perfect. Of course your junk mail section can still receive spam, but now it is at your own leisure that you check them out. Yahoo has a similar system, but with the Yahoo messenger instead. This method is not fool proof, but it is still pretty good if you don't want to spend the extra money for new software.
Free email providers like Yahoo and MSN are very good providers because they are very intent on keeping spam out of your inbox. They are just as interested in protecting your account as you are because they want you to use them as your primary email address. Yahoo even has its very own site for you to look up that includes information about spam. To get this information see Most of the free email service providers have similar filters as MSN. They let you control the accepted content, which is exactly what I would advise you to have. They let you decide which mail to let through. MSN Hotmail is currently allowing you to combine the filtering system with a mail washer in their free version. This is how they plan to help you protect yourself from viruses and such; which is great for a free service. This, along with avoiding spam software, will help you greatly reduce the flow of spam into your inbox.
Block Spam
|