Keeping your mailbox clean
1) Always have an up-to-date anti-virus package and ideally use at least one spam filter.
2) Don’t accept mail with attachments even from relatives if you can help it (unless you are specifically expecting something) – and not ever from strangers!
3) Use different emails as appropriate: One for family and friends, the others for web business, another one (you never give out) for banking etc and another you use for newsletters and the like.
I’d also recommend another if you register for freebies – it almost certain lists like this will be sold to spammers.
It is a nuisance, but if you only use the only box box for everything, sooner rather than later it will become unusable due to the volume of undesireable junk mail.
4) Always have your email software set NOT to display images, there’s usually a link to see them if you want, but it saves unpleasant surprises – visual or embedded.
5) Never use your mail email address to opt-in for anything you aren’t sure about, once you are on spammers lists, within a very short time it can be unusable
6) Never put your email address openly on a web page. Spammers bots are likely to harvest it within a matter of hours, probably less.
7) Remember to use signatures. Putting a link there is a good way of promoting your business or blog.
8) Remember the subject line! Incomplete messages like this can be flagged as spam and deleted before they even arrive.
9) If you are writing a long or detailed message, use a text editor, wordpad or similar, saving as you go, then paste it over. Saves tears if you loose it, plus you have a copy if you need it.
10) If the subject is blank or non-sense it is almost certainly spam, don’t even think of opening it, just delete it.