[From our archives] Getting rid of spam by Emily Wilska Remember when spam was simply a food you could find on your grocer's shelves? Now we know spam as something much less tasty: unwanted e-mail from unknown people peddling products and services we don't need. Spam clutters our Mail lists and makes it harder to pay attention to the e-mail messages we actually want to read.

Though it's near impossible to stop spam entirely (spammers pride themselves on staying one step ahead of the technologies and laws designed to stop them), there are some quick and painless ways to decrease the amount you get.

Don't unsubscribe!
Most spammers try to make their messages look legitimate by including a note about why you're receiving their messages (they'll often claim you've subscribed to some sort of mailing list) and including a link that allows you to unsubscribe. But beware! Choosing that "unsubscribe" link is usually the worst thing you can do.

When spammers send out their e-mail, they often guess about the e-mail addresses they're sending to. Many of these e-mail addresses might not even exist. Spammers also use blind carbon copies (or BCC) when sending out messages, which is why you might receive a piece of spam even though your address isn't actually on the "To:" line. The spammers' goal is to find addresses that do exist, and then spam those addresses again (and again and again).

When you choose the "unsubscribe" link in a piece of spam, you're simply sending a message back to the spammers, letting them know that your e-mail address is legitimate. Far from leaving you alone, the spammers then add you to the list of real addresses to which they'll send even more unwanted mail. Bottom line: don't give spammers the satisfaction of knowing they've found a live one. Don't unsubscribe!
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Use the known senders feature
As you've probably seen, MSN TV recently added a new feature, called known senders, to Mail. When known senders is turned on (which it normally is, unless you choose to turn it off), e-mail messages from senders in your Address book or on your approved senders list appear in your Mail list with a green dot next to them. This can help you quickly tell the difference between e-mail you probably want to read and messages that may be spam.

To make the most of the known senders feature, it's a good idea to add the addresses of people and companies you know to either your Address book or your approved senders list. Each time you open a message from an address that isn't on one of these lists, you'll get the chance to add it to your Address book or approved senders list.

For more information on using the known senders feature, check out Mail Help: Read more about known senders
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Don't look: just delete, delete, delete
As with junk mail you get in your mailbox at home, the best thing to do with spam is throw it out, ASAP. Your very best bet is to junk it even before opening it. To delete e-mail without opening it, follow these steps:

- From your Mail list, choose Clean up.
- You'll see a list of all the messages in your Mail list with an empty check box next to each.
- Put a check in the box next to each message you want to delete. The sender's name and the subject of each message will often give you a clue about which ones are spam. Also, messages that don't have a green dot next to them may likely be spam.
- To automatically put a check box next to all messages that are from senders who aren't in your Address book or on your approved senders list, choose Check all unknown. (Note: this button appears only if the known senders feature is on.)
- After you've chosen all the messages you want to delete, choose Discard.

  Spammers these days use sneakier and sneakier tricks to find legitimate e-mail addresses. One of these tricks is using something called a Web beacon, which sends a message back to the spammer as soon as you open the message, even if you don't reply or try to unsubscribe. Most Web beacons are images, but it's impossible to tell whether or not a message has an image without opening it. The only way to avoid Web beacons altogether is to delete spam before opening it.
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But if you've already opened a message ...
... all is not lost. Again, your best bet is to discard the message ASAP; simply choose the Discard button on the left side of the screen. Then, to avoid unwillingly opening any more spam, choose the Mail list button to return to your main Mail list. Take a look through the list of messages; if you see anything that looks like spam (with an obscene, nonsense, or garbled sender name or subject), consider using the steps listed above (under Don't look…) to discard those messages without opening them.
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Reporting spam
The jury is out on whether it's worthwhile to report spam (that is, forwarding a piece of spam to a group or person for regulation), especially since doing so requires opening the message. Generally speaking, I'm a bit more likely to simply delete a piece of spam without opening it, rather than reporting the message.

However, if you choose to report spam, you can do so by forwarding the message to spam@webtv.net. We use the information from the spam that's forwarded us to work on improving our spam filters and preventing junk mail from getting to our users. If you receive spam from an e-mail address that ends in @webtv.net, forward it to abuse@webtv.net. You may also want to consider using another spam-reporting service; some users have recommended www.spamcop.net. MSN TV isn't associated with any of these organizations, but some of them may offer valuable (or at least interesting) spam-busting info. The site www.spamprimer.com doesn't offer a spam reporting service, but it does have a lot of helpful tips on keeping spam at bay.

Next month: new technologies to prevent spam and how to avoid spam in the first place
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