If you use the Internet and have an email address, then you are very familiar with what spam is. This unsolicited message is indiscriminately sent to multiple mailings, individual emails or other public groups. Quite simply it is junk e-mail. The type of invasiveness these unwelcomed emails bring is equivalent to the types of junk mail flooding regular U.S. Mail boxes.
Almost everyone online is affected by it. All spammers really need is an email address, or some type of web address where receiving any type of electronic mail is a prime target. Guest books, comment sections on articles and blogs, web forums and chat rooms are susceptible to spam. Spam can include anything from advertising dating sites, knockoff handbags, replicas of designer watches, pharmaceuticals, off shore brides or just about anything, that will peak the curiosity of unsuspecting recipients to lure them into the spammer's trap.
While it is reported that spam is not against the law, it is no doubt a huge annoyance. Some available encoding tools will protect your email address from harvesting robots, by encoding it using JavaScript. Munging, a technique created to modify an email address so that it can be decoded by humans, but not a spambot, was once effective when used. Unfortunately, there are ways however, that spammers are using crafty tactics to fool and get around these encoding tools.
Just as software programs are designed to help you navigate and communicate easily and efficiently online, there are individuals creating programs to rob and compromise the security of many email recipients, businesses, governmental agencies and organizations. One deterrent to help cut down on the amount of spam scouring your inbox is to activate your spam or quarantine folders and to be cautious about your activity while online. While this may not block all spam that is sent to your email, it will certainly catch and filter out a lot of that junk, electronic and unsolicited mail arriving in your inbox.
