Do not open spam messages.
Some spam messages are built in html. Opening these messages is enough to send a confirmation that your address is valid.
Never respond to spam.
Spammers say they’ll take your name off the list or unsubscribe you but this rarely happens. Responding confirms that you have a live address. Also, if you respond, they’ll sell your address to every other spammer on the planet; this means you’ll soon be flooded with more spam.
Publish email addresses with precaution.
Take precaution in how you advertise your email address. When you publish your email address, you are taking the chance that it will be picked up by spam operators.
Use a second or forward email address.
If you like to use services such as discussion forums, review sites, etc., your email address may be published. Protect yourself by using a second, less important email address which you can remove easily without having to inform all your serious contacts. Set up your second email address to forward messages you want to your real email address. If you receive too much spam on your forward address, you can easily delete it and create another one. Your real email address will be untouched.
Never send back an email bomb.
Revenge does not pay. Don’t spam a spammer; spammers are not harmed by this method. There is also a chance that you will bother an innocent email user who’s email address the spammer may be spoofing. Karmic bonus: this puts you at risk of being blacklisted as a spammer yourself.
Do not participate in forward chains.
These kinds of chains are another source of email address picking because many people do not take care with the forwards they send to large lists of addresses.
But even after blacklisting and making many spam filter adjustments I still get so much spam!!!
Then you have a problem. The only real solution is the remove your email address and create a new one.
