Slaying the spam monster takes cunning

The overwhelming majority of e-mails I receive (aside from offers from Nigeria, sales on Viagra and porn) is questions about spam (junk e-mail) and how to stop it.

I have my own strategies, which I will share with you, but keep in mind that there is little you can do to stop spam if your e-mail address is already on a list.

First of all, don't look to legislation to stop spam. Many legislators (most well-meaning) are introducing bills in state legislatures and the U.S. Congress to either ban or regulate spam mail. The bills range from fines to making spammers put correct return addresses in their mails to requiring that all spam have "ADV" in the subject line.

Trouble is, that won't work, for several reasons. One, spammers inherently don't follow the rules. The threat of fines won't change people who intentionally mail porn to children.

But more importantly, the Internet is not something American. One of the strengths of the Internet and the Web is that it is a global party line. Anyone can play, worldwide. So as soon as America passes strong anti-spam legislation, spammers will either ignore it or simply mail their junk from servers in Romania, Italy or any number of countries without such legislation.

So what can you do?

The goal is to keep your e-mail address off the spammer's list. To do that, you need to know how they get your address in the first place. Most spammers buy lists of e-mail addresses from companies that collect them. One can obtain tens of millions of addresses for less than $100.

You end up on that list if your address is ever posted to the Web. There, "harvesters" troll the Web and collect addresses. So if you have signed a guestbook, posted a message on Usenet newsgroups, made a family Web page or otherwise posted your address, you will end up on a list.

Second, you can get on the list by a sheer guess. Spammers will put common first names with common last names, use all the words in the dictionary, and put nonsense words together. Then they combine those with common Internet Service Providers and you end up with the cyberspace equivalent of telemarketers dialing sequential phone numbers when you are trying to eat dinner.

Third, some merchants will sell your e-mail address, but that is becoming far less common. Check a site's privacy policy before you give them any information. Every commerce site is required to have one posted.