Learning Zone

I think you’re talking about spam, Marianne! It’s become a major problem worldwide and clogs up most people’s mailboxes. It costs virtually nothing to send, is almost untraceable and it only requires a tiny response rate in order to be profitable.

Spam generally consists of emails advertising pharmaceutical products, often those with sexual applications, if you follow my drift. Other advertise financial products or expensive watches which will almost certainly be fakes.

There’s no easy way to avoid it, but there are sensible measures you can take to limit it.

First of all, never, ever, reply to spam. If they get a reply, the spammers know that they have found a real mailbox and can sell on your email address to other spammers. They don’t stop – just the opposite.

Secondly, be careful who you give your email address to, and especially don’t allow it to be published on a website in case it gets harvested by the automated search programs (“bots”) used by spammers.

Many ISPs have very effective spam filters which are free of charge and trap 99% of it. They do occasionally trap genuine messages, so it’s a good idea to check the spam folder regularly in case something important gets blocked.

You can also download spam filtering programs and install them on your PC. Many are free. Take a look at http://www.freeantispam.org/ or http://www.mailwasher.net/

Hope that’s useful info for you.