Spam is more than just an annoyance. Lots of internet scams and frauds us e-mail and spam to fish for potential victims. Getting less spam means being exposed to fewer crooks.

1. Use a decent spam filter.

2. Disposable e-mail addresses are great in-box insulators if you want to keep your real address hidden

3. For merchants and legit others you don't regularly correspond with, use free Web mail accounts with spam filtering built in. You can always abandon it if too much spam gets through.

4. Most Web-based sign-up forms require an e-mail address, but it harms nothing to simply enter an entirely bogus address if you don't want to stay in contact with the site and don't need a confirmation e-mail or tech support.

5. Protect your in-box by only giving your e-mail address to people you expect to correspond with regularly.

6. Never, ever answer spam. Ever. Once they have your address they’ll never stop spamming. Ever. Even in you ask nicely. Most of the time they’re robots anyway.

7. When you do sign up for or buy something online and you have to give out an e-mail address, always opt out of everything you're not absolutely sure you want to receive.

8. Don't post your address on guest books, contact lists, newsgroups, chat rooms, and other web sites, as spammers harvest addresses from these sites. Alternately you can use a Web-mail account or a DEA, or fool the harvesting robots by writing the word “at” in the address instead of using the ampersand.

9. Make sure you read and fully understand the Privacy Policy and what a Web site promises to do with your e-mail address.

10. Accept the fact that into every life a little spam must fall, and don’t let it drive you crazy.