Anti-spam programs can bring back the joy of online privacy

My Mac consistently delivers satisfaction after satisfaction, and I sing its joys and praises to anyone who will listen as I bask in my machine's Macness.

But in spite of all of its virtues, it does deliver up one irritation that is nearly unbearable to me and completely intolerable to many. Rude, crude, continuously spewed, my Mac delivers the daily degrading dose of depravity known as spam. And it also delivers it to my wife and child.

To make matters worse, I am already using two spam filters: one built into Entourage and another built into my internet service provider's e-mail servers. Until recently, I was still consistently getting 100 or 200 of the irritating little missives per day. I say 'was' because last week, I saw what my family was receiving and decided that enough was enough.

Here is what you need to know if you want your Mac e-mail to be as clean and fresh as a summer breeze. First, do not give your e-mail address to spammers. Do not reply to a spam e-mail or even click on the opt-out link at the bottom of the e-mail. If you think you might want to buy a 'great deal' from a spam ad, consider that to send spam in the first place, the spammer is frequently breaking the laws of many countries and even using fraud to get the ad delivered.

So, I do not think it is particularly wise to give up your credit card info to these people. If you frequent disreputable or questionable websites that want you to register, remember that the next day your particulars will be sold to dozens of spammers promoting similar services or products. If you need to post your e-mail to use a forum, use a temporary e-mail address. Many ISPs will give you up to seven e-mail addresses per account. Change one every month or so and use it just for anonymous posting or forum registration.