What is SPAM and how do spammers get your email address?

1. When you sign up for a mailing list online you never know what they will do with your email address once you have given it to them. They may sell it to advertisers or simply give it away to companies.
   
   
2. Someone else may have signed you up for a mailing list, or given away your email address to a company as an incentive for a contest.
   
   
3. Using your email address to sign up for “free” or pay services online can get your email address added to a spammers list. Always check the fine printer, and their privacy policy to make sure your email address will remain private before offering your email address.
   
   
4. You have replied to spam or clicked the “Unsubscribe” button on the button of a spam email. By doing this you have simply confirmed to the spammer that your email address is real and that you are listening, and have encouraged them to continue sending you MORE spam. This practice was actually outlawed by “The Can Spam Act” (January, 2004) which required that all bulk email provide an opt-out feature.
   
   
5. Spammers can use software programs to scan newsgroups, chat rooms, even web pages for email address that have been posted publicly. These programs are called “spiders”. Spiders collect email address that have been posted by unsuspecting posters and use them to send unsolicited bulk mail.
   
   
6. Spammers may also send you email by simply guessing your address. The first way they do this is by using the hit-and-miss method. That means they use common domain names such as yahoo.com, or gmail.com and guess at the first half of the email address. The other way they guess is by using a computer program to do the guessing. The computer program is given a list of common domain names and then the program adds common beginning names to them to send the spam messages to.

So now that you know how spammers get your address, what can you do to prevent SPAM??

1. The best this you can do is keeping you computer free of viruses. The #1 cause of spam right now is viruses. Computer hackers use a network of virus infected computers called “bot-nets” to send thousands of spam messages per hour through those computers. If you do not have anti-virus, purchase good anti-virus software and install it on all your computers. If you already have one, make sure it is updating once a week, and run a full system scan once a week.
   
   
2. Never post your email address on a newsgroup, website, bulletin board or chat room where a spider or spammer can collect it.
   
   
3. Consider making an alternate email address so that you use 1 as a primary address that you only give to friends, family, and business associates. The other one you can use for shopping online, and signing up for online surveys, etc. This second email address will most likely receive spam since it is used online and susceptible to spammers, the address used to contact your friends, family and business associates should be relatively safe.
   
   
4. Never reply to unsolicited email, or click the “Unsubscribe” link at the bottom.
   
   
5. Express your desire to friends and family and business associates to keep your email address private and not share it.
   
   
6. Check your “Sent Folder”! If you have a virus, or have been hacked, you should see suspicious messages in your sent folder from the virus sending messages. If you see this, you will need to disconnect your computer from the internet immediately and run a full-system scan with your anti-virus.

Turn off the Windows Messenger Service pop-up:

Windows 2000:

1. Click Start, go to Settings, and click Control Panel. When the Control Panel opens, double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Services.
2. Scroll down and highlight Messenger
3. Right-click the highlighted line and choose Properties.
4. Click the Stop button.
5. Select Disable or Manual in the Startup Type scroll bar
6. Click OK.

Windows XP (Home):

1. Click Start, go to Settings, and click Control Panel.
2. Click Performance and Maintenance.
3. Click Administrative Tools
4. Double-click Services
5. Scroll down and highlight Messenger
6. Right-click the highlighted line and choose Properties.
7. Click the Stop button.
8. Select Disable or Manual in the Startup Type scroll bar
9. Click OK.

Windows XP: (Pro)

1. Click Start, go to Settings, and click Control Panel.
2. Click Administrative Tools
3. Click Services
4. Double-click Services
5. Scroll down and highlight Messenger
6. Right-click the highlighted line and choose Properties.
7. Click the Stop button.
8. Select Disable or Manual in the Startup Type scroll bar
9. Click OK.