Often spam is received after someone sends you an e-card. Although the e-cards may be cute and free, someone is going to try to make a profit by using the email addresses which were identified as the sender and receiver.

Another area to take caution is on message boards. When you post a comment and leave your email address for a possible reply, your address may be picked up by spammers. A simple solution to this problem is to change your email address slightly. Here's a sample of how to alter your email address... myname@NOSPAM-mailontario.com.

Most people who are familiar with this technique will know to remove NOSPAM- before sending their reply. Or, of course, you could also include some instructions in the content of your message.

Most spammers will pick up email addresses by "sniffing" through web pages. It's not a process that's completed manually, therefore including some other text in the email address (for example: NOSPAM) may help to reduce unexpected email offers.

As always, mailOntario works daily to block and identify unwanted emails.