This is a comprehensive treatment of spam reduction techniques. If you don't have the time for this, consider the Spam Reduction Guide (Quick) and make a note to revisit this entry when you do have time.

These steps will not only reduce spam for you but also reduce virus, malware, spam, and other unwelcome mail for your friends, family, co-workers, and other contacts.

1. Don't Send Spam. Don't forward chain letters; unexpected mail from senders you don't recognize; get-rich-quick schemes; must-forward-or-else... letters; and other mail which when forwarded will eventually give spammers your e-mail and your contacts' emails.
   
   These e-mails also frequently contain virus or trojan-infected Powerpoint, Word, or other files that can threaten your computer's security and grant hackers access to your personal information.
   
   

2. Start using BCC: . When e-mailing more than one contact at once, enter all the addresses in the BCC field, instead of the To: or CC: fields.
   
   Your mail will still reach your contacts, but this stops you from advertising your contacts' e-mail addresses to spammers. Consider this: Once one contact's system is hacked or infected, every e-mail that comes in is a source of new targets. You can reduce your contacts exposure by stopping this cycle.
   
   

3. Use a personalize alias or use a context-specific alias: When you need to provide your e-mail address to an organization or website, instead of using one e-mail address for everything, use an e-mail alias specific for that use. For example, if your primary e-mail address is abc@xyz.com , and you register an account with ACME Sprockets Company, use the e-mail alias acme@xyz.com or acme@abc.xyz.com.
   
   Central-B Medias' UnBOXT E-mail product offers unlimited aliases that can be used for this purpose.
   
   If you begin receiving spam at one of these customized aliases, you can determine where the source of the problem is, and notify the organization to fix their information leak or spamming practices.
   
   

4. Use your e-mail service's spam filters: Your e-mail service probably offers you a way to customize how your e-mails are checked for spam and control how strong that filtering is. Use it. Occasionally, you may need to check your spam folder for legitimate mail that gets labeled as spam.
   
   Central-B Medias' UnBOXT e-mail product allows you to customize server-side filtering through the secure web-based mail portal.
   
   

5. Use your e-mail client's spam filters: If you use an e-mail program such as Mozilla Thunderbird, Qualcomm's Eudora, or other client, be sure to enable and configure your spam or "junk mail" filters. These allow you to quickly and conveniently "train" your e-mail program to understand what spam means to you--then automatically filter your mails.
   
   

6. Use secure e-mail access: Whether you use webmail or an e-mail client (or both) use secure access. This is a simple and effective step you can take to prevent your personal information (including e-mail address) from being intercepted by others using your network or sharing a nearby wireless connection.
   
   For webmail, ensure to use https:// instead of http:// in front of the webmail address
   
   For e-mail clients, enable SSL or TLS features for encrypted, more secure access.