If you receive an email you think is spam, follow these guidelines:

• Never open a spam message unless you have blocked images in spam messages. This setting will prevent spammers from being alerted that you have opened the message.

• 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 active, 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.