Broadband Safety Guide

Spam protection tips

Spam, the electronic version of junk mail, is a nuisance to millions of people. See what you can do to protect yourself against email spam.

What is spam?

Spam is a generic term for anything that finds its way onto your computer screen without being invited, and is generally in the form of pop-up adverts or unsolicited emails. If you’ve got an email account, you’re probably familiar with spam emails, which come in two varieties: annoying but relatively harmless adverts, and viruses which can be extremely harmful to your computer.

What can I do to protect against email spam?

There are certain rules you can follow to protect yourself against receiving too much email spam and falling foul of spam viruses and worms.

• Avoid giving your email address out whenever possible – sometimes you’ll have to give an address to sign up for a service or buy something online, but you should never give your address out if you don’t have to.
• When you do have to give out your address, responsible websites will ask if you want to be notified of other offers “that might interest you”. Always tick the ‘no’ box.
• Don’t reply to spam email, or click on any links within it. This will tell the sender that your address is a valid one, and you’ll just get more junk.
• Don’t put your email address on a publicly-accessed web page.
• Make the most of your email account. Email services like Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail have built-in spam protection and some will block unfamiliar addresses or filter particular emails into a separate ‘junk mail’ folder. Unfortunately these aren’t yet foolproof, and you’ll have to check this folder regularly to make sure no important mail has slipped through the net.
• To avoid being caught out by email viruses, don’t open any emails from addresses you don’t recognise – delete them straight away. If you open one by mistake, don’t open any attachments or links.
• If you receive a chain email from an address you don’t know, don’t forward it – this is how many spammers collect addresses.
• Your email service might scan for viruses on any mail sent to or from your account. If it doesn’t, consider changing to one that does.
• If you register for lots of services online or do lots of internet shopping, you should consider getting a second email account for this purpose, which is more likely to attract spam. You can then keep your main account relatively spam-free.
• If you notice spam coming from an address you recognise, the sender could have been hacked – let them know. Equally, you should let the company know if you get any spam from a Yahoo, Hotmail or Gmail address, or an ISP you recognise – these companies should have a complaints procedure whereby you can report nuisance email addresses.

What can I do if pop-ups are becoming a nuisance?

Pop-up adverts are widely used now, partly because they’re hard to ignore, so it’s not surprising that many internet users are fed up of them. Sites like Google and Yahoo have developed their own pop-up blockers which can be downloaded as part of a Toolbar. Every time a pop-up registers, it will be counted on the pop-up blocker but won’t appear on the screen, and you’ll be surprised at the number of ads totted up in just a few hours of surfing.

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