TIPS FOR REDUCING UNSLOCITED E-MAIL

December 9, 2003

By the Associated Press Filed at 3:03 a.m. ET

Tips for reducing the amount of unsolicited email:

• --Don't display your email address in public. Spammers use automated tools to collect valid addresses from Web pages, chat rooms and online directories. Consider using a second email address for public correspondence.
  
  
• --Consider using software to filter emails. Some are free and some work better than others. Most can be customized to allow personal email from family members, for example, but block many advertisements. The most prominent antivirus vendors are increasingly building spam-filter utilities into their security products.
  
  
• --Check a Web site's privacy policy before you submit your email address to see whether it permits the company to share your address with online marketing companies; if it does see whether it's possible to "opt-out" from such an arrangement.
  
  
• --For years, experts have discouraged Internet users from replying to unwanted emails with requests to be removed from future mailings because that verifies that spam was sent to a valid address. Under the new law, however, marketers are required to honor such do-not-send requests after the first unsolicited advertisement.
  
  
• --The government wants your spam. Forward unwanted or deceptive emails to uce@ftc.gov, where federal regulators are creating a huge spam database to go after the most egregious marketers