Unfortunately, SPAM (which is a computer term for junk e-mails) is a fact of life today. Every time you give out your e-mail address to someone you run the risk of it being sold or forwarded to ‘spammers’.

People often find they start getting spam soon after they:

• Buy something online and give their e-mail address to the supplier
• Sign up for an internet service that asks for an e-mail address
• Reply to a spam e-mail (this simply confirms to the spammer that your e-mail address is valid)
• Give out their e-mail address on a website or post a message on a newsgroup

Unfortunately, once you're on a spam list it is practically impossible to escape. But avoiding these traps may help you avoid getting more of the same in the future.

How can I avoid spam?

Now you know how valuable your e-mail address is, think about whether internet sites that ask for it really need it.  If the site doesn’t need your e-mail address to contact you or send you a password, you could always ‘accidentally’ misspell your e-mail address.

Steps to avoid getting on a spammers list:

• Never reply to a spam e-mail
• Change your personal e-mail address and only give it to people you know and trust
• Use a second e-mail address (such as Hotmail or Yahoo) when purchasing goods online

Two websites which offer free spam filtering software are : www.mailwasher.net and www.spambully.com , both of which might be worth a try.

Most reputable internet service providers now offer a spam identification service which will put the word ‘SPAM’ in the subject line of the e-mail.  If you are using an e-mail programme such as Outlook Express, you can set up a Mail Rule that re-directs e-mails with certain words (e.g. SPAM) in the subject line to your Deleted Items folder.