Fighting Against Spam “Studies show unsolicited or “junk” e-mail, known as spam, accounts for roughly half of all e-mail messages received. Although once regarded as little more than a nuisance, the prevalence of spam has increased to the point where many users have begun to express a general lack of confidence in the effectiveness of e-mail transmissions, and increased concern over the spread of computer viruses via unsolicited messages.” Scott McAdams, OMA Public Affairs and Communications Department

The “Can Spam” bill, which set the first national standards around bulk unsolicited commercial e-mail was signed by President Bush in 2003. The bill, which was approved by a Senate vote of 97 to 0, prohibits senders of unsolicited commercial e-mail from using false return addresses to disguise their identity (known as spoofing) and the use of dictionaries to generate mailers. It also prohibits the use of misleading subject lines and makes it a requirement that emails include and opt-out mechanism. The legislation also bans senders from harvesting addresses off Web sites. Violations constitute a misdemeanor which are subject to up to one year in jail
  
Another important point is that spam is coming from other countries in ever-increasing numbers. These emails are harder to fight, as they come from outside the country’s laws and regulations.  The Internet opens borders and connects globally which makes it hard for these laws to stop the problem.

What can be done about this?

The Top 5 Rules to follow to be protected from spam.

1. Avoid having your email address available on the net

"Spam spiders”  search the Internet for email addresses to send email to.To find more information you can do a search on “spam spider” and you will be amazed at what you will find.  There is an open-source site, WebPoison.org, which is a project designed to fight Internet "spam spiders" and "spambots", by giving them false HTML web pages, which contain false email addresses

Some suggestions are:

use form emails, which can hide addresses
use addresses like info@company.com instead of your full address to help battle the problem.
use programs that encode your email, like jsGuard, which encodes your address on web pages so that spam spiders find it difficult or even impossible to read your email address.

2. Invest in spam blocking software

There are many programs designed to block spam.(see www.mailwasher.net or www.cloudmark.com for examples).  Professional versions come at a cost.However you should get some form of spam blocking software. It will save you time.  While the software is not infallible it really can do help.  Note that you often have to do some manual setting up to block some types of email.

3. Use the multiple email address approach

If you must subscribe to newsletters, it is good to have  “back-up” email addresses. There are a lot of free email addresses available. It is similar to giving your cell phone number to your friends and your business number to everyone else.

4.  NEVER open attachments from people you don’t know

Spam often has attachments and many of these attachments have viruses or trojans.Corporations typically have filtering software that doesn't let these nasties pass to you.  On the other hand, personal email is much more vulnerable to spammers.  The general rule is - if you do not know the sender, DON'T OPEN THE ATTACHMENT.You can also look for services that offer filtering. (Companies that sell firewall software tend to offer this type of service as well).

5. Make use of “bulk-mail” baskets

People you know can send you emails.If you don’t know them, their email gets sent to a bulk email pile and then you can “choose” to let them in to your circle.  If your current system doesn't supply this you may want to consider a new vendor. While spam blocking software typically uses this as well, it can be good to have extra layers of protection.