How to Stop Spam

eVerity uses a number of different strategies to stop spam before it ever reaches your account. However, this is article is about what YOU can do to avoid spam.

In a nutshell, the best way to avoid spam is to keep spammers from getting your email address. Here are a few tips:

1. Never send anyone an e-card, and ask your friends not to send them to you either. Most web sites that offer e-cards make a profit by selling your email address to spammers. The same goes for "click here to email this article to a friend" links. If you want to email a link to someone, just copy-and-paste it into your email client and mail it to them.
   
   
2. Some web sites require an email address. If I don't trust those sites, I use a free email address from a service like Yahoo, Gmail, or HotMail just for that purpose. That particular email address, because I use it for just about anything, gets tons of spam, but my business email address is almost spam-free. (I have had my business email for 8 years, by-the-way, so this seems to be a pretty effective strategy.) Once you've dealt with a company for a little while and they have proven trustworthy, provide them with your real email address, the one you check more frequently.
   
   
3. Some people say that its a bad idea to publicly post your email address on your web site. I disagree. Yes, you'll get a little more spam as a result of this, but the whole idea of your site is to get people to contact you. There are many people who prefer to use email, as opposed to filling out forms and/or calling you. They are your potential customers, and if you hide your email address you risk losing their business.
   
   
4. You might also consider enabling Whois Privacy Protection for your domain name(s). Personally, I think this is a terrible idea if you run any sort of business. Having your whois info public may result in a little extra spam, but that is a small price to pay for the increase in credibility that comes from not trying to remain anonymous. Your whois info should show the name of a person, a company name, a valid email address, and above all, your organization's physical location. This shows that you are a real organization, and not just a web site.