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Articles: November 2002 - Evalto Newsletter
SPAM e-mail: How to beat it out of your inbox
If your e-mail inbox is like most people's, you probably get e-mail messages with subjects like these:
"Make money from home"
"Free something or other"
"Celebrity pictures"
Wouldn't it be great if you could prevent some of these annoying messages from being sent to you in the first place? These unsolicited e-mails are called SPAM, and they're becoming more of a problem for us to avoid.
What's the problem?
It's extremely cheap for anyone to send out these SPAM ads compared to the costs of telemarketing and direct mail. Their return on investment is pretty good compared to those other marketing strategies, so that's why they keep on doing it. They either buy e-mail lists or hire a company to do it for them.
How do they get my e-mail address?
There are many ways companies can get your e-mail address. For example, have you ever:
- Signed up for a sweepstakes or for anything that is "free"?
- Tried to get your web site on search engines?
- Bought anything online?
- Forwarded joke or chain letter e-mails to friends?
- Listed your e-mail address online on a web site?
- Unsubscribed from a "shady" e-mail list?
These are just a few of the ways companies can get your e-mail address. Many companies sell their customers' e-mail addresses to "list brokers" for a quick buck. If you forward jokes on to your friends who in turn forward them on again, sooner or later it will end up in the hands of one of the employees of these companies. If you unsubscribe from some of the shady places, it only verifies that your e-mail address is valid and they send you more SPAM!!
What's the solution?
One solution is to have multiple e-mail addresses for various situations:
- A personal address used only for family and friends
- An online purchasing address for companies that want your address
- A junk address for "free" things and other shady organizations
Here are some other pointers:
- Don't give out your e-mail address to everyone.
- Don't forward jokes or chain letters-- DELETE them!
- When forwarding messages, always delete the e-mail addresses and BCC everyone to keep their e-mail addresses safe.
- If you no longer wish to receive newsletters or updates from reputable sources (Microsoft, Sears, etc.) simply use their "unsubscribe" feature, which is usually found at the bottom of most e-newsletters. This will stop the e-newsletters and will prevent the companies from sharing your e-mail address with their affiliates.
- Use the "Junk E-mail" or "Spamblock" tools found in most e-mail programs.
- Contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to see if they can block e-mails for you. (Evalto's request form)
- Reputable companies should have their privacy policy readily available for you to review. Read them carefully and make sure they won't sell your information or share it with other affiliates. You can read Evalto's Privacy Policy here.
Protect your information
Give out your e-mail address as you would your cell phone number. With some of these tips, you can fight SPAM head-on.
This article was published in the November 2002 issue of the Evalto Newsletter and was written by Douglas Campbell.
Evalto Articles -> SPAM e-mail
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