Desktop Anti-Spam Configuration

Following these guidelines can greatly reduce the amount of Spam you receive. Spammers "harvest" addresses from the Internet. Keeping your e-mail address as private as possible can help keep it away from Spammers.

• Avoid posting your e-mail address to mailing lists, newsgroups, etc. Lots of mailing lists now have Web archives. These archives are havens for Spammers and can publish your e-mail address for years!
• Consider not putting your e-mail address on a Web site! Automated Web crawlers search the Internet looking for anything with an '@' or 'mailto:' in source html to harvest.
• Don't give out your e-mail address to random Web sites. Some sites will sell your address to Spammers. Read privacy policies carefully!
• If you do sign up for a service on the Web, don't use your University e-mail address. Use a free address (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.), or even a fake one if a response is not important.
• Beware of free offers, services, contests, etc. can be a ploy to gather valid e-mail addresses to be sold to Spammers. Even on the Internet, not much is really "free".
• Never reply to an e-mail that promises to take you off a list. This is just a gimmick used to determine if your e-mail address is valid. If you respond, you may receive even more Spam!

Last Updated: February 21, 2006