How do these Trojans get onto your computer? As in most cases they come from porn, warez or similar sites. One of first spam zombie trojans to appear became available via a link on sites promising viewers free access to a porno webcam. One click later and Trojan is installed on your computer ready to send out spam. Phatbot and Proxy-Guzu are two of more common Trojans used for purpose of turning your computer into a spam zombie.

How can you check if your computer has become a spam zombie? Make absolutely certain that both your anti-virus and firewall software have current detection signatures and have been completely patched and updated. Working online without taking these necessary security precautions is simply asking for trouble.

Internet Service Providers are under huge pressure to quarantine IP address of any computer which has been turned into a spam zombie. This is done on basis that ISP risks their entire IP range being blacklisted or banned by some spam filtering services or companies.

The very least you owe yourself is to run a full virus and spyware scan on your computer today. You might be unpleasantly surprised at what you'll find lurking there.

Another reason for spam can be attributed to malicious code which can possibly install itself into your browser without you knowing it and does same thing as cookies in above example but on a longer term basis as cookies would be deleted when you clear your cookies and cache in your browser. Some of this malicious code can even do keyword logging and send your passwords and bank IDs to programmer who came up with code!

The best solution to problem is to download Mozilla Firefox Internet browser which has a built in security system which prevents such malicious code from being installed into your web browser without your knowledge and allows you to clear your cache and cookies easily. I do this on a constant basis to prevent my email inbox from being filled with spam.

3.Spyware via free programs installed

Another reason why there is an increase in spam is that there are third party spyware that is bundled with free software which is why software is free in first place because spyware companies pay programmer to bundle it with their software. Always look at agreement before downloading any free wallpapers or free programs like weather programs as there could be a possibility that spyware could be bundled together with it and flood your email box with spam.

The best solution is to download Spyware Search and Destroy or Lavasoft’s Adaware anti-spyware programs to detect and clear any spyware from your computer. In addition, you might find that your computer might run faster when you are connected to internet as spyware does take up some bandwidth in its communication to central server.

4.Random emails

Some of more powerful email programs have ability to flood servers with permutations of email addresses. This means that they can basically email anyone online because they have powerful computers which run software which blasts emails to all permutations and one of them may be yours.

The more legitimate marketers will have an opt out link at bottom of email so that you can actually opt out of list. On other hand, some of real offshore spammers have servers in China and Russia so when you do click on link to opt out, it actually confirms that your email address is working so ironically sometimes it is best to just delete spam rather than reply to it.

5.Free offers

Spam is also derived from free offers. When you signup for some online service, there is thing called co-registration where they have many boxes for you to tick. Generally what this means is you are asking online service to send your email address and name to an online marketer who is going to sell it to others to email to. While this is not spam as you have opted into it, it may become irritating after a while.

The better solution that I do personally is to create an email from Yahoo for sole purpose of free offers so that I can let that email be flooded with spam. So you can get free offer and not face possibility of deleting 500 spam emails daily in your personal email inbox.

In conclusion, spam can be reduced if you are aware of reasons and ways in which online marketers and spammers can get your email. Taking an active step today to prevent them from getting your personal email is a great step forward to reducing amount of spam you have in your inbox.

Joel Teo is a work at home business owner, the owner of several highly successful money making websites.

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