As most of us know, almost all email accounts come with some form of email filter settings that you can change to try and reduce spam. Sure it works fine, but spam still comes through and if someone sends you an email that isn’t in your contact list yet, you wave goodbye to them as they are treated with the same courtesy as spam.

Never reply, never send details, never send money and never even try to open them, yes I mean spam. For such a small word, it causes such big problems; for both business and home. Spam or junk mail or unsolicited commercial email, however, the end result is always the same, an inbox full of useless junk.

That is why it is so important to have a spam blocked. With our inboxes flooded with spam, we have the frustration of deleting it only to see it return.

There are already many ways to target spam emails, such as blacklisting email addresses and websites, banning IP addresses, and scanning the words in a subject box. However, spammers adapt to these antispam targets and change their identity.

No email app doesn’t have a spam problem, and there’s a spam blocker to suit everyone. No matter if you are tied to a desk or traveling the world, you can still block spam effectively and quite easily. For those of you on a tight budget, there are also many free spam blockers that you can download for personal use.

So why exactly is there so much spam? Spam emails exist because Internet users buy products from spammers. By clicking on a link sent to you via spam email, you are proving that the email account exists and that you use it regularly. People who post to online forums and newsgroups are also at risk of receiving spam emails, as spammers will harvest these email addresses for their own use.

There is also a new form of spam online, in addition to normal emails. “Phishing emails.” This form of spam mainly targets eBay and PayPal accounts. The way this works is that you will receive emails titled ‘last warning’, ‘attention required’, ‘password change required’ or ‘your account has been suspended’. When you open these emails, they will appear to come from eBay or PayPal, but the link will take you to their site. The pages of these emails are designed to look like eBay/PayPal, meaning the unsuspecting user will provide the spammer with hidden passwords or credit card details.

To try to protect yourself from spam, you should:

o Know who you are dealing with

o Do not believe in easy money: If an email/website claims that you can make money with little or no work, it is probably a scam.

o Be careful when entering contests run by unknown companies: they use them to identify potential victims.

o Do not provide bank or credit card details unless you are going to buy something.