Protecting yourself and your computer from spam and malware has become a full time job these days. Fortunately, there are a few simple things you can do to keep your computer safe and your email account spam free.

First, guard your email address as carefully as you would your bank account or social security card. When you buy something or register at a website, message board, or any other place on the web that asks for your email address, use a throwaway one. You can get a free one from Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, and other services. Sign up and use that one when you have to give your address to a website. That way, should they proceed to flood it with spam, you can simply move on. When you are signing up for or buying something online, be sure and check out the sites privacy policy. Most legit sites have them these days. Also be careful that any "I want to receive offers from carefully selected partners" type boxes are unchecked. Chances are their "carefully selected" partners are anyone who forked over the cash to buy their customer list. Beware!

Next, take advantage of your ISP's spam filters. Depending on what they offer you may be able to white and blacklist addresses, direct spam to a special folder for you to review before it gets deleted (legit mail sometimes gets misdirected!) and more. If your ISP offers a "challenge response" system, avoid it. This kind of system sends a message to anyone who attempts to email you and asks them to go to a website and fill out a form explaining who they are and why they want to email you. It then sends this form to you and you decide if you want to accept the email. It might sound good, but all it does is really annoy people. Trust me.

Finally, if you get spammed and see something that says "To be removed from our list click here" or "To be unsubbed reply to this email" Don't do it!! All it will do is tell the spammer your address is active and his spam was viewed, which will insure you get even more spam. It goes without saying you should never