Q What is Spam?
A Spam can be defined as all unwanted electronic mail sent out in bulk to individuals and organisations that have not given permission to receive it.
Tips for Reducing Spam
1) Never reply to spam email
Only reply if the sender of the email is trusted by you. If you reply to an email that is not trusted then it only confirms that your email address is active and you will continue to get spam. Also if an email that you receive asks you to reply with certain personal details, don’t do this. This is known as “phishing”. The address could be disguised as a company that you trust, but still don’t send your details. Contact the company in the usual manor and check if they have actually sent it. NEVER GIVE PERSONAL DETIALS TO ANYONE VIA EMAIL.
2) Never forward chain email messages
An email chain can go out of control. You never know who sees your email address
3) Review web site privacy policies
When signing up for online banking, shopping and newsletters etc, read the privacy policy first. If a web site does not display any information on how your personal information will be used, then I would not reveal your personal information.
4) Use a spam filter on your email
Who ever provides your email, make sure you use a spam/junk mail filter. If you use common email providers like yahoo and hotmail, they provide a junk mail filter. But if an organisation hosts your email for you then they should
5) Reduce the amount of places that you post your email address
If you post your email address on web sites, forums and any other public sites there is a high chance of a spammer picking up your email address and sending you junk mail.
6) Watch out for already ticked checked boxes
If and when you shop online, sometimes the check boxes that give the organisation permission to share you email address are already checked. As a majority, people don’t tend to read the T&C’s etc as they just want to buy what there on the site for, they tend to get a lot of spam from lots of different companies. So make sure you read any information that
7) Choose an ISP that blocks spam at server level
Many ISP’s these days filter spam at server level. This means the ISP that provides your Internet use gets rid of your junk mail before it reaches your email account.
8) Report Spammers to your ISP
To report a spammer to your ISP, first you need to find out how they want you to report it, this is usually via email. Send the email message to that address and the ISP will be able to add that address to the filter list.
9) Change email address
If you are receiving a lot of junk mail then consider changing your email address.
10) Use an uncommon name for your email address
The name you choose for your email address may affect the amount of spam that you receive. Spammers use a tactic known as “dictionary attack”. They sort through all of the possible combinations for email addresses and all ISPs and send spam to them. | 
