unwanted emails

[lucyshandbag]

i keep getting sent emails saying "sexually explicit" with links in them, i haven't clicked on any of the links but i imagine they are some kind of porn. i'm receiving about 2-3 a day and it's really annoying me. i don't know why this has started, i'm the only person that uses my pc and i definitly have not ever looked at porn on the net, how have these people got my address and how can i stop it?

[j2buttonsw]

http://www.spambully.com/

[vehelpfulguy]

How have these people got my address ?

Well if you have EVER filled out a form, or replied to a forum question, or given your email address to anyone on the internet, then it is available for people to find.

There are software programs that search the internet for email addresses and add them to a list of email addresses. These lists are then sold on to anyone who is willing to pay for them.

There are things you can do to help:

Have one e-mail address for your friends and relatives, and another for using on the internet.

Many email programs send an acknowledgement to say an e-mail has been received. Spammers use this to verify an e-mail adress is correect. You could set this option OFF, so no acknowledgement is ever sent.

Some e-mail programs allow you to set up rules so that dodgy emails are deleted or put in a spam bucket.

NEVER reply to a spam e-mail asking to be taken OFF their mailing list. This only verifies your e-mail is alive and it is added to the list.

NEVER open an attachemnt.

Run anti-virus software and keep the AV list up to date.

[Hermia]

I once got 400 pornographic emails a day for a month! I usually only got a few emails a week sent to this account because I only used it to buy stuff from (reputable) online shops. It wasn't a guessable email address and I never used it on message boards etc. But suddenly I was being inundated with porn! The ISP were no help whatsoever.