One of the easiest things you can do to avoid spam is to never give out your real email address. Your real email address should only be used with trusted friends and coworkers. For all other types of email, and for situations that require an email address from you, you should setup and use a junk email account. A junk email account is usually obtained from a free web based email provider like Hotmail or yahoo.
A junk email account is used for all types of correspondence when the end-user can not be trusted with your real email address. So use your junk email account for entering contests, shopping, registering on web sites etc. When your junk email address becomes so full of spam that you get tired of managing it, you delete it and get a new email account. Spam problem solved, you start spam free with a new email address.
Don't open junk email. The safest thing to do with junk email is to delete it.
Bad things can happen by opening junk email such as; the impossible to close window scam, resetting of your homepage to the spam site, and loading of unwanted or hostile programs.
You should not even consider opening junk email unless your computer is thoroughly protected and you want to take action against the sender of the spam.
Never open email attachments unless you trust the sender and you expected an attachment. Computer viruses and other hacker software is mainly transmitted through email attachments.
Opening email attachments is dangerous. When you open attachments you are putting your computer at risk.
Unless you are absolutely sure an email attachment is safe, you should delete the entire email. If it was something important, it can always be resent.
Don't click on "remove" from mailing lists. If its a mailing list you subscribed to, or a store you trust, then you should use the email's unsubscribe feature. For any other type of spam, you shouldn't unsubscribe from it as this just invites more spam, nor should you be reading it in the first place.
Use your email program's spam blocking features. All email programs have spam blocking features. Take some time to figure out how to block email from spammers. With many email programs it is possible to specify exactly who is allowed to send you email. You can also download or buy programs that will block email spam, however these programs will take time to "train" on what is spam and what isn't.
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