It's official. There are now three things certain in life: death, taxes and spam!

Simply put, spam is electronic junk mail. It takes the form of an email message sent to a large number of people without their consent, and is usually sent to promote a product or service.

No doubt you already know that spam is a big nuisance and it is not likely to disappear quickly. This is despite government regulations (e.g. USA’s CAN-SPAM Act) and the increasing use of spam filter software.

What you may not know, however is that spam and unsolicited email messages account for over half the traffic on the internet globally, and costs businesses an average of $2,000 per employee per year in lost productivity alone. This figure does not include other factors such as additional hardware, anti-spam software and the cost of IT staff needed to install and manage these assets.

It is virtually inevitable that you will receive at least some sort of spam in your lifetime. How much you receive largely depends on your emailing habits. The best way to spare yourself the headaches associated with spam, is to practice safe emailing techniques.

Here we provide our "Top 10" techniques to minimise spam in your life:

1. Never, never, never reply to, or try to unsubscribe to spammed messages. This will only increase the amount of spam you receive, as spammers will know they have hit a live mailbox. Spammers often include an "unsubscribe" function to look like they are upholding privacy laws and regulations, however it is merely a means to capture the fact that your mailbox is live.

2. Screen messages before viewing them, and delete anything that appears suspicious - don't even read them. Do any of them come from people or addresses you don't recognise? Do the subject lines have words with too many spaces, or long random numbers? Do they seem too good to be true, or somehow odd? If so, it's probably best to just delete the message along with any attachments.

3. Be suspicious of messages you receive from people you know if the text of the message does not match their usual writing style or subject matter, especially if the message contains an attachment.

4. Consider using a "disposable" email account (such as a free account from Yahoo or Hotmail) for online shopping and posting to online discussion boards. You should not disclose this address to anyone, and use it only for these potentially unsafe circumstances. If the account starts to receive spam, then close it down and open another. Don't use your everyday email account for these purposes.

5. Disable the Auto Preview Pane in your email application (if it has such a function). This function automatically opens the email message without giving you the ability to delete it beforehand. With the use of a special hidden graphics file in the email message, spammers can tell if you have simply opened the message, again alerting them that they have hit a live mailbox.

6. Don't open email attachments unless you are absolutely sure of the contents and the identity of the person that sent it to you.

7. Keep up to date with Microsoft's hotfixes and updates. Spammers will look to any security hole they can find to get their messages through to you.

8. Keep your anti-virus software up to date. Ensure it is configured to check for virus updates daily.

9. Consider purchasing a reputable anti-spam filter application. Your existing anti-virus software may already have this capability, so enable it and learn how it works. Alternatively, your ISP may provide a similar service that runs on their email servers, thereby stopping the spam before it gets to you. This is well worth considering, as their anti-spam implementations are very robust, and may only cost a couple of dollars a month (some ISP's provide it as a free service, but it may need to be enabled first).

10. Don't perpetuate the problem! Be a good internet citizen and uphold the following:

• Don't forward on or send unsolicited email and attachments.
• Don't forward chain letters. Spammers can get hold of these forwarded letters (including the long list of previous email addresses that were included), and use them in their campaigns. If an email you receive says something like "send this to as many people as you know" …don't!
• Don't respond to or participate in email hoaxes.
• Don't send attachments that use "unsafe" file types.

If your inbox is buckling under the strain of hundreds of spam messages a day, your only choice for managing this problem may be to delete your existing email account and open a new one. Remember to notify your friends, family, business partners and colleagues, and above all, practice these safe emailing techniques to eliminate spam from your new email account.

There are plenty of ways to minimise spam to an acceptable level, however just like taxes, it is almost impossible to avoid it altogether. As for death...our advice is; eat your fruit and veggies, get plenty of exercise and don't get too stressed by all the spam in your inbox!

© Copyright Newpath IT Pty Ltd, 2005.