Protecting your online self becomes more important everyday; below are some basic tips to help you ensure your information and accounts stay safe.

1) Preventing Spammers From getting Your address

Spammers get addresses in a number of ways, some more nefarious than others.  By following a few simple rules you can help limit your email address’s exposure.  First be careful of where you give out your address.  Spammers often use fake offers or online forms to lure people into providing an address. When in doubt of a site’s or offer’s authenticity air on the side of caution and don’t give your email address. The same go’s for in person offers, if it seems at all suspicious try to avoid giving too much information.

Secondly, don’t expose your address openly on the web.  If you have a website consider a email form as opposed to providing you email address in text on the site.  If you have to provide your address on the site consider changing a the formatting a little (for example ‘test @ test.com’ or ‘test at test.com’).  While not full proof those extra spaces can throw off some of the less advanced bots that search the web for exposed email addresses.

2) What To Do If You Get Spam

The most important thing to remember is to NEVER reply to a spam or suspicious message.   Any reply will confirm to the spammer that your email address is active and being checked.   Often that spammer will just turn around and sell your address!  This same rule goes for any links in email, including the ‘unsubscribe’ link.  If you didn’t ask for the mail don’t ever click on anything or open any attachments.

It is also important to never give personal information over email.  Do not ever send account numbers or password in a response to an unsolicited email.   Even if the requested information seems innocent, beware. That information might be used at a later date to gain further access to you or your accounts.  When in doubt call the person, or company asking for the information to confirm their identity, and, of course, never use a link or number in the email to initiate this contact.

These are just a couple basic steps to begin to protect yourself.  I’ll be posting more detailed guides in the future.  Remember, when in doubt, trust your instincts and don’t reply or give out any information!