Ways to fight spam: NEVER unsubscribe from a newsletter or spam mail that you did NOT subscribe to in the first place. This will only help the sender by verifying your address is an active address and will usually increase the amount of spam you get.   When you sign up for a newsletter, be sure it is someone reputable and someone who includes a privacy statement indicating they do not share your email address. Just to let you know, we do not share with anyone. No one ever! And if you receive an email newsletter from someone you've never heard of and absolutely did not sign up for, DO NOT USE THE UNSUBSCRIBE LINK to attempt to unsubscribe. Most likely this supposed newsletter came from a spammer and the unsubscribe link will only serve to let them know for sure your address is a working one. If it is someone you are not sure of, get a free Hotmail account and use that address to subscribe to various newsletters.   Anytime you sign a guestbook, you are opening yourself up to email harvesters as they target guest books for active email addresses. So, if you sign a guestbook, instead of putting your real address, disguise your address from email harvesters.  Here is an easy to way to disguise your address:  If your address is cloudeight@thundercloud.net, for example, put cloudeight@thundercloud-dot-net  If the webmaster where you signed the guestbook wants to write you, the will figure out the correct way to type your address. Our address book has a setting that we use that automatically disguises your address, but most do not have this feature.   If you are part of any kind of forum or newsgroup, do not use your real/main address, as email harvesters target newsgroups and forums.  You can make your return address the same way as explained in #3 above, or you can use a free Hotmail account as explained in #2 above.  Note: Cloudeight forums and guestbooks have protection so you don't have to worry on ours :)   Use a program like "PopPeeper" to check your email before you open Outlook Express or Outlook. You can remove the spam while it's on the mail server and never have to download it to your email program. Click Here   Never use a email "Change of Address" or Address Book updating service like RINGO, BEBO, PLAXO, MyAddressBook or any others that purport to notify your friends when you change email addresses and store your address book online. These are nothing but companies in the business of collecting address for sale or spamming. Don't do it.   Never send or participate in any kind of chainletters, even those that appear to be for a good cause. The only people who usually benefit from these are the email harvesters.. they get lots of "live" addresses to add to their spam lists!   If you contribute to any kind of charity, NEVER use your main email address if you are asked for it. Charities make a huge profit by selling your name/address/mail address to others that are seeking contributions. If you want to include a mail address, use a free Hotmail account.   Whenever you send something to more then one person in your address book, preserve the privacy of your friend's email addresses by sending via BCC, which stands for Blind Carbon Copy. This is easy to do, and we have a tutorial set up to help you with this. Click here for the tutorial.   Anytime you are filling out a form on the web, for any reason, do not use your main email address! Again, use a free Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail account. This includes polls, surveys, free trials, memberships, recommend-it type programs, card sites, etc.   NEVER forward mail that you receive from a friend or family member that is warning of a virus/worm/Trojan, as most oftentimes, these are nothing but a Hoax and further spreads your email address. If you feel you must forward to others, be sure to protect the privacy of your friends/family listed in your address book by using the BCC method as explained in #9 above. Want to help Cloudeight but don't want to spend any money? Make our Start Page your Start Page!