McAfee.com Gives Tips to Reduce Email Spam

June 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- McAfee.com today announced several tips for consumers and small businesses to reduce the number of unwanted messages entering their email inboxes. According to leading analyst firms, spam will account for as much as 25% of all e-mail messages through 2002 and nearly 76 billion spam emails will be delivered over the Internet in the year 2003.

The following practices will help users reduce the thousands of unwanted messages that pollute email inboxes:

• Beware of purchasing spam-advertised products. Aside from encouraging spammers, this makes more personally identifiable information (e.g. name, address, phone number, credit card numbers, etc.) available to them. It also can guarantee that you'll get more spam.
• Refrain from using the "reply or remove" option. Some senders may remove your address, but others may flag your email address as "live" and send you more spam or even sell your address to other spammers. Instead, forward spam to the Federal Trade Commission at uce@ftc.gov.
• Use a "public" email address while online. Setup and use a "public" email address, which may either be an additional address from your ISP or a free Web-based email address. Use this email address when participating in newsgroups, joining contests or anytime that your email is requested by a third party online. Potential spam will go to your "public" email address instead of your "private" email address.
• Don't post your email address online. You'd be surprised how often you use your email address for newsletter subscriptions, in chat rooms or to join online groups. Before you post your email address, know whether it will be displayed or used. Then use a "public" email address when necessary.

McAfee.com also recommends the use of a filtering program, such as McAfee.com SpamKiller. SpamKiller has thousands of powerful filters to identify and quarantine spam before it enters an email inbox. SpamKiller can also retrace the route of the spam message back to the mail server and automatically send a complaint on the recipient's behalf to the spammer's service provider, system administrator(s), or any other address the user chooses.

For more information on McAfee.com Spamkiller, visit http://www.mcafee.com/.

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