Be Careful With Your Email

On this page we give you some advice on how to get the most out of your email services and avoid trouble.

Don't use your broadband provider's free email service

When you get a broadband connection, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) usually provides a free email account as well. Once you've told everybody this email address, you're less likely to leave the ISP for a better one. That is a clever marketing trick on their part to make you stay.

Even worse is that when spammers get wind of your broadband email, you can't avoid them easily. They got you for as long as you stay with that provider. Some providers let you change that email address to help reduce spam.

Stay independent

We recommend that you get one (or more) of the free email accounts from the various providers. Not only can you keep this when you move to a new ISP, you can also use their web mail service when you're travelling.

Your own internet domain

If you register your own internet domain, you can set up as many email accounts as you like and forward any incoming mail to your email provider. That way you never have to give out your real email address, but only the ones you have on your own domain. If an email address gets hit with a lot of spam, you can simply closed it, but still keep your main account.

Avoid Spam

There are two main ways how you can help fight spam:

First the easiest:
Ignore it, delete it, never reply to it, never click any links in it, and above all never buy any product from a spammer. Mozilla Thunderbird has a spam filter build in.

Second and the hardest:
You can complain/report the spam to the spammers service provider, you can complain and report to the police some spams, you can ask your ISP to employ blocklists such as the SORBS DNS block list.

How will deleting or ignoring do any good you ask?

The only way spammers make money is when you respond to their spam emails by going to the company who ordered the spam and buying (or just enquiring about) a spammed product from them.

Not only that, but spammers can make money by you just clicking on the links in an email. This works in the same way that people make money out of you visiting their web site and clicking on an advert on that page.

Never reply to spammers

This proves your existence to them and you become a "valued customer" who will now be put onto email lists and sold onto other spammers for good money. You'll get even more spam.