The basics of email spam and what you can do to prevent it

Spam, also known as "Unsolicited Bulk Email" (UBE), consists of the unwanted email that we all receive in our inbox daily. It typically is promoting products or websites and sometimes even tries to trick unsuspecting recipients into passing along personal information.

While individually, spam may only impact each of us at a very minor level, collectively it becomes a major concern. Below are several statistics that help us understand the true scale of spam throughout the United States:

• As of June 2007, it is estimated that there are over 100 billion spam messages sent daily.
• According to Spamhaus, 90% of incoming email traffic in North America, Europe and Australasia is estimated to be spam.
• A survey conducted in 2004 estimated that lost productivity from spam costs Internet users in the United States $21.58 billion annually.
• The United States is the highest producer of spam (19.8% according to Sophos).
• Microsoft founder Bill Gates receives four million e-mails per year, most of them spam.

What can we do about all of this spam? For those that want to go above and beyond the Microsoft Outlook junk mail folder, there are several premium solutions available to help deter the amount of spam we receive in our inboxes.

For those with a larger budget, there is Cloudmark (http://www.cloudmark.com). This software has been around since 1998 and is one of the largest antispam firms in the world.

For those with no budget, there is a free antispam solution called MailWasher Pro (http://www.mailwasher.net/). According to the MailWasher website, the software is used by 8 million people.

No matter how much spam is traveling around the internet these days, it is important to note that with just a few preventative steps, we can drastically reduce the amount of spam we receive.

1. When registering for sites, don’t use your home or business email. Instead, set up a free email address on Yahoo or Hotmail.
2. Never click on the links in any spam messages
3. Never reply to any spam messages
4. Don’t forward chain mail messages
5. Keep your junk mail folder activated