Unsolicited e-mail, commonly known as spam, is a growing problem for Internet users. Sometimes it
                 can seem like the junk mail that inundates your e-mail box far outnumbers the authorized personal
                 and professional messages you receive.

                 Besides being unwelcome and frustrating, spam can also take up storage space and be difficult, if
                 not impossible, to stop.

                 There are measures you can take against the relentless messaging by spammers, experts say.
                 Dealing with unsolicited mail comes with a list of recommendations that can keep your account out
                 of the hands of the spam address collectors and the marketers that use their lists.

                 How to minimize spam

                 You should ignore spam messages. If you aren’t familiar with the person or company who sent the
                 message, don’t click on a Web link to remove your address. And never respond to an e-mail’s
                 instructions to reply with the subject "Remove." This only identifies your e-mail address as being
                 valid and will intensify the amount of spam mail that you receive in the future.
                 Reputable Web sites offer legitimate ways to join and leave mailing lists for newsletters and
                 announcements. However, removal instructions from unsolicited spam are almost always a ruse.
                 Your response is a signal to the spammer that your e-mail address is being read by a real person.
                 You should resist the temptation to respond to unsolicited messages.

                 Protect your e-mail address

                 Spammers usually rely on finding your e-mail addresses on Web pages (message boards) or
                 published in Web directories. One of the best ways to defend against spam is to avoid having your
                 e-mail address appear as a clickable address link on a Web page (using an HTML "mailto:" link).

                 If you must post your e-mail address online, it is best to use pure text, like johndoe at yahoo dot com.
                 This is something a human can read, but a Web spider (a program that reads Web pages and looks
                 for links) can’t collect as a valid e-mail address.

                 Alternatively, if you have your own Web site, consider using a feedback form rather than an e-mail
                 address link to have people send you a message. It’s less convenient, but this helps prevent the
                 online harvesting of your e-mail address by spammers.

                 Starting over

                 The sad fact is that if you are on a bunch of spam lists now, you can’t remove your address, and
                 you won’t be able to block all the new domain names (bogus or otherwise) that spammers will use.
                 If the load gets to be too much, you may need to get a new
                 e-mail address or user name from your Internet service provider (ISP).

                 You can limit future spam by being careful with whom you share your new e-mail address.

                 Consider getting a secondary e-mail address from a free service (Hotmail or Yahoo!) for use with
                 unfamiliar sign-up forms and Web services you might not trust. Most free Web e-mail services also
                 include some form of spam blocking.

                 By using a secondary e-mail address (johndoe@yahoo.com), you can test unknown Web services
                 while preserving your main e-mail address for communications with personal friends and trusted
                 companies.

                 It is usually best not to use a free e-mail service address for sensitive communications, like online
                 banking.

                 If you sign up to use a free e-mail service, don’t list your name or e-mail address in any of their
                 online directories. Opt out of being listed in anything. Otherwise, you’ll get spam right away as
                 people find your address published online.

                 One additional advantage of using a free e-mail service is that you can access your e-mail from
                 anywhere you can get connected to the Internet using a Web browser.

                 Read the privacy policy

                 You should be careful to only provide your primary e-mail address to trusted companies and
                 reputable Web sites that specify they won’t sell or share your personal information.

                 Companies are becoming sensitive about being identified as spammers, and most larger Web sites
                 now have clear privacy policies that will tell you if they sell mailing lists to others.

                 Be aware of how your e-mail address might be used after signing up for online services, and be
                 careful not to allow your e-mail address to be published as an active link on the Web. These two
                 steps can eliminate being targeted for spam and narrow the odds of being included on future spam
                 lists.