What should I not do with spam?
- Never open a spam message (or any message from a sender you don’t recognise) unless you are blocking images. Image blocking defeats the confirmation “hits” that spammers receive whenever one of their images is viewed. Since a "view" can include the moment you click to open a spam message, selecting "Initially block all images" is your safest choice. Here's how to do it:
- Click Options in the upper-right corner of your Mail page and select Mail Options.
- Under Spam, click Spam Protection.
- At the bottom of the page is the "Image Blocking" section. You'll see three choices with three radio buttons. Select (click inside) the one that sounds right to you:
- Always show images, except in Spam folder
- Show images only from my contacts and certified senders
- Initially block all images
- Never respond to spam. To the individuals who send spam, one response or "hit" among thousands of mailings is enough to justify the practice.
- Never respond to the spam email's instructions to reply with the word "remove" unless you trust or know the sender. Many spammers use the "remove" or "unsubscribe" links as a ploy to get you to react to the email. This may alert the sender that your email address is open and available to receive mail, which greatly increases its value. If you reply, your address may be placed on more lists, resulting in more spam.
- Never click on a URL or web site address listed within a spam email. This could alert the site to the validity of your email address, potentially resulting in more spam.
- Never sign up with sites that promise to remove your name from spam lists. Although some of these sites may be legitimate, more often than not, they are address collectors. The legitimate sites are ignored (or exploited) by the spammers, and the address collection sites are owned by spammers. In both cases, your address is recorded and valued more highly because you have just identified that your address is active.
