Email addresses can be obtained for free. Because they are free it is feasible to have a ‘throwaway’ email address: one which you will use for a few months then change. This  ‘throwaway’ email is perfect for when you must sign up for a service online with your email address.  Sign up, confirm the subscription, use the service or receive the product, then forget about it.  Once the spam starts to flood in (which it will, eventually) you can change the email address - cancel the old one and get a new one - and begin to use this in the same way.

Clearly using a ‘throwaway’ email address for everyday contact with friends and colleagues would be difficult, but for temporary usage a temporary address should work just fine.

The free email providers are doing a good job at filtering out spam (some better than others, it should be added), but there is still a way to go.  You may find that you need to swap email addresses less and less as time goes on. Either way with free, quick and easy setup there’s little point in tolerating any spam at all.

There are literally hundreds of different programs and utilities to assist in blocking spam from ever appearing in your inbox. These programs are not 100% effective, but some will do an excellent job at weeding out unwanted mail. Spam blocking software works by recognising patterns in incoming emails, and it uses this pattern recognition (along with tests for certain key words) to determine if an email is spam. Because this automated detection method cannot be guaranteed to be accurate every time, the odd spam mail will slip through the ‘net’. Likewise, and possibly more damagingly, the program might find ‘false positives’: genuine non-spam emails that are incorrectly identified as being spam. A quick check of your spam folder occasionally can uncover any erroneously filed emails.

There are also web-based services available that check the authenticity of the sender. When someone emails you they will receive an instant email back asking them to confirm that they are sending a genuine email. This approach works well because mostspammers do not use authentic email addresses, so they will never be able to authenticate themselves. Genuine senders can click on a link and be verified. Once verified emails from that source will be allowed through without further checking. A problem with this approach is that automated replies - such as purchase confirmations - may never be received.

There is no spam blocking approach that will guarantee an inbox free of unwanted mail. If you do choose spam blocking software or a service then you need to be aware of the draw backs of that approach.

Putting your email address on the web - whether it be in a forum, on your personal or business website, in a yellow pages type site or even on a free-ads site, means that it can and will be found and used byspammers. Spammers automatically ‘harvest’ email addresses from any type of website - they make automated tools that can process thousands of pages an hour - and they put these on their mailing lists and start sending out spam.

Sometimes it may seem absolutely necessary to place your email address online. This is never the case, even where you want to encourage direct communication from potential customers; there are ways around it. Read on.

You could try using a form mailer. Form mailers allow visitors to your site to enter their details into a form on your page, and then to submit this form. You will received the results in an email; happily the customer never needs to know your email address.

Encoding your email address as javascript may also help: many email harvesting programs do not recognise or read javascript, and an encoded address may stop the vast majority of collection attempts. This is not a foolproof methods, but it may help.

Representing your email address as an image in your web page will prevent it from being harvested, but it may also mean that customers find it more difficult to email you - especially the visually impaired.

There is no one perfect solution, but all of the above have been shown to help in the fight against spam.

‘Can Spam’ isn’t a cryptic question, and in this context it doesn’t refer to a delicious tinned meat product. The Can Spam bill was signed in December of 2003 by President Bush and was approved 97-0 in a Senate vote. The bill sets out the first national standards dealing bulk unsolicited commercial email;emailers of unsolicited commercial email are prohibited from using false addresses to disguise their identity (this process is known as ’spoofing’). The bill also requires that mailing campaigns have clearly accessible and easily usable opt-out mechanisms, and that emails transmitted must include clear and unambiguous subject lines. Taking addresses from websites for the purpose of bulk emailing is prohibited.Violations of the bill will land the violator with a misdemeanor charge, accompanied by up to one year in jail.

So what’s the problem? If this happened in 2003, why am I still receiving spam emails? Simple: many countries do not have laws governing the transmission of spam, and the US laws are unenforceable. While the Can Spam bill is well meaning it has resulted in only a few prosecutions; meanwhile spam continues to plague individuals and businesses daily.

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Reports (see OMA Public Affairs and Communications Department) show that around half of all email messages received is spam. Spam is defined as unsolicited commercial email, usually manifesting itself as emails sent to users which relate to products or services in which they have no interest, sent by companies or organisations with which they have had no previous contact. Once regarded as little more than a nuisance, dealing with spam now takes up considerable resources and time for everyone who uses email, and has lead to some crises of confidence from email users who see the medium of email as being dominated by unwanted messages.

In our series of articles examining spam, its (mis)use, and the various ways in which you can defend against it, we hope to provide you with some useful tips that will help your business or prevent your home computer being swamped with spam.

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Onwards and upwards.

Tip 9 in an occasional series. Keep visiting regularly for more Online Shopping Safety Tips.

… Then it is. Close your browser and walk away. In a capitalist society in which the internet fuels many fires, people are unlikely to give anything away to strangers. There is a catch, even if those offering the dream deal claim otherwise. Ask yourself: why would someone offer me this? The answer? Because they intend to get something back.

So shut down your browser, and take time to think about what you were about to do. Thorough investigation and perhaps a discussion with a friend or family member may help. If it comes to it, then you can return later and take the offer. We think the likelihood is that you’ll realize how close you were to being hoodwinked.

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Tip 8 in an occasional series. Keep visiting regularly for more Online Shopping Safety Tips.

This tip is perhaps an obvious one, but it’s certainly worth mentioning nonetheless. The problem isn’t perhaps the shopper’s willingness to transact only with reputable sites, but with the ability to spot those that are not so reputable. There are a few key indicators, though, that may give you a hint either way.

Big names – well known high-street names will usually be safe to deal with. It is very unlikely that national companies will risk their reputation by delving into the world of credit card fraud.

Companies with a street address and telephone number – of course this can easily be faked, but its absence should start alarm bells ringing.

Check around on the internet – if you’re unsure then a quick web search can provide both good and bad reviews. Read them and use them to make your judgment.

If in doubt… don’t buy – this is the most important rule. If you’re unsure of a company’s authenticity, then simply don’t give them your card details. Is it worth thousands in your hard-earned money? No, of course not.

Remember: being overcautious is better than being defrauded.

Tip 7 in an occasional series. Keep visiting regularly for more Online Shopping Safety Tips.

Some sites are verified by reputable third parties like VeriSign or Guardian eCommerce.

Naturally such certifications can be faked, and if a site’s owners are intent on stealing your credit card details then it’s unlikely they’ll be struck by their moral conscience when pretending to be certified when they are not.

While certification like this should not be viewed as the acid test (some very reputable companies are not certified, while some fly-by-night organizations will be), it can be used as one of the indicators by which you judge a site’s authenticity.

Tip 6 in an occasional series. Keep visiting regularly for more Online Shopping Safety Tips.

Reading an e-commerce site’s privacy policy (and if they haven’t got one this should start alarm bells ringing) to see what they will do with your information is a vital step in ensuring a happy and safe online shopping trip. Some companies use your address for their own nefarious marketing purposes; more sell your information to third parties. You may have no legal control over who these details are passed to – spammers, identity thieves, anyone – and a quick check of the privacy policy may throw up some interesting results.

While the privacy policy can easily be faked if a site was so inclined, it is likely that other indicators would point to dodgy dealings (and you should be well enough educated by now to know to steer well clear). The purpose of this tip is to prevent above-aboard companies getting your personal details and selling them on. Spam is the most common result of such sales, but with identity theft on the rise the consequences could quickly become more serious.

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