Online Spam has grown to such an extent that internet users have started to suffer from a lack of confidence in emails as a mode of communication and even the spread of the many computer viruses is another area of disturbance.

President Bush signed the ‘Can Spam’ bill, in December of 2003 which was the first national standard associated with bulk unsolicited commercial e-mail.

The First Steps In Fighting Online Spam

This spam bill stops senders of bulk commercial and unsolicited emails using misleading return email addresses which hide their true identities and using dictionaries to produce such emails – incidentally this bill was voted by the Senate at 97 to 0.

This is a serious subject and any email that is sent and that is legitimate must have an opt out provision which is a very important rule for the sender to follow.

The law bans senders from procuring email addresses from different sites and violation of the Can Spam act can result in up to one years jail for any that are caught.

Even with saying that there are email bots searching the internet constantly for unprotected email addresses so they can use them to send bulk email spam.

What is an unprotected email? If you visit a website and can plainly see a hyper-linked email address on the contact us page or in the footer of the site then that is considered to be unprotected.

Many countries one being Russia still has many Bulk Email Spammers sending out unsolicited emails many times  a day which is actually reducing the efficiency of the internet and is becoming a very big problem for everyone online.

Many Other Countries Now Have Problems With Online Spam

We need to remember that large numbers of spam are now arriving from other countries. Since many of these emails originate from other countries not just Russia, it is nearly impossible to control them.

Because of the global barrier and lesser environment and restrictions in which the internet works, these laws may sound fine but are incapable of handling the large scale problem.

So what do you do about this?

Here Are The Top 4 Tips To Protect You And Your Inbox From Online Spam

• The net is the last place for your email address to be advertised. There are products called “spam spiders” or “Email Bots” which are used for scanning the internet for the only purpose of collecting email addresses to build a large mailing list. If the word ‘spam spider’ triggers your interest do a search for this word on the net, the results might just shock you. To understand this menace more here is what Wikipedia has to say about Email Address Harvesting.

• Consider purchasing software that can block email spam.  For example, Paretologic Spam Control , PC Tools internet Security or what I have been using for more than two years Avg Internet Security. Remember however, no software is foolproof, but having some form of application installed really can help although you will usually have to carry out some manual set up to block certain types of email.

• If you can, it is advisable to use different email addresses. There are a number of free email services such as Gmail or even Hotmail you could choose from through which you could receive newsletters and have another address as a back up. Think of it as giving your private mobile number to your friends and your business number to all others.

• A common problem with spam is that they have attachments and attachments can have viruses. Most companies are equipped with spam filters which protect you. But your personal email account if unprotected is a free for all and the spammers know it. General rule of thumb: if you do not know who is sending you something, DO NOT OPEN THE ATTACHMENT. Secondly, look for services that offer filtering such as Gmail and Hotmail.

If you are running an online business then your hosting provider should have spam assassin installed to prevent malicious spam from ever reaching you. If what you are currently using does not support this, then you really need to think about moving to a new hosting provider. If moving is not an option for you then consider one of the applications listed above.

The concept of online spam is simple. It starts with someone who you do not know sending you emails. What they want you to do is click on the link usually found in the online spam email so that you will go to a website, once there you will either be asked to enter details or the site maybe installing some type of adware or spyware onto your computer.

This is why it is very important to not only stay away from online spam email but to also have some form of software or email client you can use for blocking spam as this gives you a few extra layers protection against online spam which could make a all difference between having your identity stolen or your bank account emptied.

There are stories all over the internet about the tricks online spam uses to get information from you, don’t be a victim be proactive and stay safe online.