spam email

[flyingsquirrel]

i've been advised to start using a mozill add-on as an alternative email account:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/162019/

firstly, is it legitimate and secondly, will it be useful?

 

[Anon_F]

I much prefer to use a remmington 12 gauge.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Looks a bit iffy to me but I really have no idea.

It may, for all I know, be a spam link.

 

[Ian]

Alternative e-mail accounts may be handy if you are registering for a site that you suspect you'll get spam from, but if you are signing up to anything reputable then I'd just use your normal address. Most spam comes from harvesting addresses or trying random e-mail accounts, so it may not do much to reduce your current amount.

Using a disposable e-mail service probably isn't as secure as a normal e-mail account - so I'd be wary about using it for anything containing personal details, addresses or passwords.

If you want to reduce spam then a good anti-spam package is probably the most effective bet. Using an alternative e-mail account may be worth while if you use any suspect sites, but for the most part I can't imagine it would make a difference .

 

[flyingsquirrel]

thanks for the comments, especially yours ian. im guessing none of you guy use the add-on?

so does that mean very few websites will spam you if you if you give them your email address? where and how do spam programs harvest your email address?

 

[Ian]

Nope, I don't use the addon. I do have 2 mail accounts though, one I use for critical items (banking, online ordering, etc...) and one that I use for things like signing up to things on the net, facebook and so on.

There are loads of ways that spammers get your e-mail, it could be a rogue site passing details on to spammers, a robot that scrapes e-mail address that appear as plain text on the web, e-mails to random accounts looking for mails that don't bounce.

Most webmail services have very good anti-spam measures in place now, so spam shouldn't be too much of a problem. GMail and Hotmail both offer good spam protection.

 

[V_R]

+1 for Gmail. Its anti Spam is very good.

I do as Ian sadi, i have a few address's, for different things.

 

[EvanDavis]

g-mail for banks and ordering and important stuff. Crappy y-mail for forums and the like. + Spamfighter for Outlook

 

[Abarbarian]

If you set up a GMail account you have the facility to route all your different e-mail accounts to it. That way GMail will deal with loads of the spam and you only ever need to log into one account. Could be a solution.

 

[flyingsquirrel]

gmail sounds awesome i'll definitely have to get an account. google just seem to get everything right.

thanks for all the help guys