I never sign up for anything online. I don't purchase anything on the Web. I never give out my e-mail address. These are common statements by people who are surprised at the amount of spam in their in-box. But according to a recent study by the Center for Democracy & Technology, the above issues are
not the reason many people have a glut of spam.

The "Unsolicited Commercial E-mail Research" report uncovered that "e-mail addresses posted on Web sites or in newsgroups attract the most spam." Researchers conducting the study found that they received the most e-mails when their e-mail address was posted in plain site on a Web site. According to the CDT, spammers use software to comb sites across the Web for e-mail addresses. They also tap into newsgroups to find new addresses to add to their massive databases.

The CDT recommends several methods to thwart spammers who are trolling the 'Net. First, they say, don't give out your address if you don't have to. Why invite trouble.

If you do, they have several recommendations:

 1. Use an alternate e-mail address. Create an address that avoids clogging your corporate in-box. You can check the spam once in a while or just delete it, rather than having it co-mingling with your
important messages.
 2. Use alternate spellings. Rather than using the @ symbol in your e-mail address, spell it out. This typically throws off the spamming software.
 3. Throw in a little HTML or spacing. Your goal is to put the software off-track so be creative and add in HTML codes or spacing that won't be detected.
 4. Show caution when posting your address in a newsgroup. The CDT study reports that most spam from newsgroups was generated from the message header so use an alternate address when posting.
 5. Use complicated addresses. The more simplistic the e-mail address (such as ed@domain.com), the easier it will be for spam software to find you. The CDT recommends adding complexity to your address to stymie spammers.

Contrary to the popular belief that e-commerce sites are the root of all spam evil, the study found that most sites that offered an opt-out/opt-in honored their customers' requests.

To see the study, head to http://www.cdt.org/speech/spam/030319spamreport.shtml

Jon Brodkin is senior writer at Network World.