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Tips for reducing unsolicited e-mail

By The Associated Press

Don't display your e-mail address in public. Spammers use automated tools to collect valid addresses from Web pages, chat rooms and online directories. Consider using a second e-mail address for public correspondence.

Consider using software to filter e-mails. Some are free, and some work better than others. Most can be customized to allow personal e-mails from family members, for example, but block many advertisements. The most prominent antivirus vendors are increasingly building spam-filter utilities into their security products.

Check a Web site's privacy policy before you submit your e-mail address to see whether it permits the company to share your address with online marketing companies; if it does see whether it's possible to "opt out" from such an arrangement.

For years, experts have discouraged Internet users from replying to unwanted e-mails with requests to be removed from future mailings because that verifies that spam was sent to a valid address. Under the new law, however, marketers are required to honor such do-not-send requests after the first unsolicited advertisement.

The government wants your spam. Forward unwanted or deceptive e-mails to uce(at)ftc.gov, where federal regulators are creating a huge spam database to go after the most egregious marketers.