Hate spam? Me too. Here's my tips on how to get less

1. Buy your own domain name so you can have as many aliases (the bit before the @) as you like, then only give your chosen alias out to friends and family. For companies *always* give them an alias that uses their domain name - for example amazon.co.uk@yourdomain.com. If you get spam you'll a) know who let your details out and b) be able to block them easily.
2. Redirect all the common aliases for *all* domain names you own to a dummy address, I use nospam@easily.co.uk. These aliases might include: sales, info, webmaster, accounts, accounting, enquiries, office, administrator, billing, admin and contact.
3. Use an email service with a spam filter. Google Mail has a good one, and it's free.
4. If you want to put your address online then obfuscate it so spam bots are less likely to pick it up. For example: alias[at}yourdomain(dot]com
5. If you're posting it on your own site you can use javascript to tidy it up and make it a link. Put this in a script tag in the head of your page:

   window.onload = function(){
   if (document.getElementById){
   //You can obfuscate this as much as you like
   var where = "@"
   var mail = "alias" + where + "yourdomain." + "com";
   //then put it into the page
   document.getElementById('email').innerHTML=
   '<a href="mailto:'+mail+'">'+mail+'</a>';
   document.getElementById('emailExplanation')
   .style.display="none";
   }
   }

   And this in the body of your page:

   <p id="email">
   alias (at] yourdomain {dot) com
   </p>
   <p id="emailExplanation">
   (Excuse the odd formatting of that email
   address - it's to try and throw spambots
   off the scent.)
   </p>
   

Labels: email, gmail, google mail, spam