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What is email abuse? According to emailabuse.org
" The use of electronic mail to advertise unethically, harass, annoy, or cause harm to the email recipient. Abuse can take the form of bulk email, threatening email, email sent with the intent to slow productivity of, or cause damage to, the recipient's system. It is a world wide problem and anyone with an email address is vulnerable."

As the internet has expanded, the amount of spam emails one gets has also increased drastically. Some experts contend that about 90% of emails that we receive are spam.

There are two sides to preventing spam:

1)Stop them from getting your email address:

There are several methods to prevent that

• Don't post your email address online, create a separate email just for that purpose.
• Never buy anything advertised as spam
• Avoid cc for group emails that you send out
• Never add your friends email address to a mailing list
• Amit has also suggested the option of creating temporary email addresses that expire after a certain amount of time. Spambox and Mailexpire provide such services.

2)What to do if they already have your address

If the spammers already have your email address try to change it. If you can't then there is a spam filter called Spam Bayes.

To learn more about the different types of spam and how to prevent it, go to wordsandpeople.

Now look at the following messages carefully:

“We suspect an unauthorized transaction on your account. To ensure that your account is not compromised,please click the link below and confirm your identity.”

“During our regular verification of accounts, we couldn’t verify your information.Please click here to update and verify your information.”

If you have received similar emails, complete with the header and logo of your financial institution, be careful. It’s a scam called “phishing” — and it involves Internet fraudsters who send spam or pop-up messages to lure personal information (credit card numbers, bank account information, Social Security number, passwords, or other sensitive information) from unsuspecting victims

The FTC suggests the following some of which are really common sense.

a) Never reply to such emails.

b) Keep your antivirus software and firewall up to date

c) Don't email your personal information

d) Forward phishing information to spam@uce.gov

e)If you believe you have been scammed file your complaint at ftc.gov

For more details click here