Spam Email & Objectionable Web Content

Unsolicited email, or “spam”, can be considered the digital equivalent of flyers that clutter up your mailbox at home.

What can I do to avoid receiving spam?

Whoever provides you with email services, be it your Internet service provider (ISP) or a third party such as Microsoft (Hotmail) or Yahoo, that service is essentially the “gatekeeper” of your mailbox. That service has the ability, to implement basic screening of totally unsolicited email. Most ISPs offer spam filtering as part of their service.  

Other tips to avoid receiving spam:

• Use an alias email address (other than your personal address) if you post messages to newsgroups or bulletin boards.
• Avoid opening unsolicited email. The message may contain a virus that can damage your computer.
• Do not buy products from or reply to a company that spams – it only encourages them to continue spamming.
• Report spam to your ISP.
• Do not reply to or forward “chain-letter” email.
• Consider buying filtering software to block spam and junk email.
• Do not reply to any spam, this includes not clicking on any “unsubscribe” links. All you are doing is confirming to the spammer the existence of an active email account.