SPAM - it is not getting better

I thought for a brief moment that the spam situation would be getting better. For a short period in 2005 it did. June and July 33% to 44% of my Yahoo mail was legit, the rest was spam. Towards the end of 2005 it was 54% to 61% legit. However, in January it went into the spam mail hell. Only 44% of my Yahoo mail is legit and the rest is spam. My Google Mail account is getting semi-regular spam several times a week and my Sympatico id is now getting spam. In the last two days I had received only 1 legit message, but, 40 spams.

To those who think spam is a legit way of getting your message out I have a message for you:

1. Your spam does not work. Most of us now have spam filters and your spams are consigned into the electronic trash heap. Personally I check the sender name and if I don't recognize it I delete it without opening the message.
   
2. If I recognize your name as a local operation I make it a point NEVER to patronize your business.
3. If I am interested in your product and/or service I will go to your web page myself and do my research and compare you against your competitors. No amount of spam will interest me (see #2).

For those of you who are flooded with spam you can do a few things.

1. If your email package has a spam filter, use it!
2. If your ISP offers spam protection, use it! If your ISP does not have one ask them why?
   
3. If you use HOTMAIL, GMAIL or YAHOO use their spam filters!
4. If your account is totally flooded look at creating a new email id and only a few friends and family members get that id. Leave the old account as spam bait.
5. For all of those warranty forms that ask you for your email account, don't use your main id. Create a disposable account. When it gets spammed you can ignore those messages. We do this at home. My Yahoo account is the id used for all warranties and registrations. That is also why I get so much spam.