Rachel C: How can I stop scam emails from finding out my information and sending me emails?
Everyday I get an email using my first name that someone needs my help to put millions of dollars into an account. If I do this they say they will send me money. They are usually from different people in Africa. I know this is a scam because I saw an episode on dateline about this. How do these people find me and know my name?
Answers and Views:
Answer by jibbarjabar
Once your email address is on a spammers list it is almost impossible to get off. Right now, your e-mail address (along with millions of others) is on a CD being sold from the back rooms of software shops from Bangladesh to Botswanna and from Norway to the Netherlands.
However there are several things that you can do to prevent even more spam (junk mail).
1. Start by removing your e-mail address from your Yahoo profile,if it is on it. The spam-industry has automated programs (bots) that are continusously crawling the web looking for the “@” symbol which is a sure sign the the word before it and the domain name after it is an actual e-mail address! These addresses are then “harvested” and sold to spammers.
2. Use a longer address. The spam industry uses programs that try sending e-mail to all known domain names. Example: a program might start trying to send out e-mails to everyone starting with [email protected] and continue down to [email protected]. Using a longer e-mail address will make this harder to do.
3. Never click the “Unsubscribe Link” in any spam e-mail. This will only confirm to the spammers that your e-mail address is indeed real and that you are reading their garbage. In fact, do not even open any e-mail from anybody you don’t know or trust. Many spams are not only annoying but contain viruses of other malware. Just delete ’em without opening ’em!.
You can however click that “Unsubscribe Me” button from businesses that are well known and that you trust. Walmart… yes. Someone selling Viagra…no.
4. Open up a second e-mail account. Whenever, a website requires you to register using your e mail address, use this secondary address. There are many unscrupulous websites that will sell you address to others or bombard you with spam themselves.
5. Download a free copy of SiteAdvisor. SiteAdvisor will alert you when you search (Google, Yahoo, MSN, search only) of websites that are known to send out spam. This can help you avoid registering with any sites that are known to spam people.
https://www.siteadvisor.com/
Treat your e-mail address just like you would your telephone number or home address….only give it out to those that you absolutely trust!
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