Why does spam, junkmail and telesales still exist?
966035
Try to find software against it!
10884
Yahoo has spam blockers.  In reality, you don't get rid of it, you just ignore it.  I get about 500 spams a day.  99% of them go to the spam folder so it's not a problem.
504107
there are two things i think, 1)too much junk mail is floating around on the internet overcrowding servers, or 2)a lot of people misspell email addrs.
1098312
ad-aware; virus test; erase histories on explorer; unsubscribe to junk mail
71322
I am too, but we have to deal with them.  A study recently claimed that spam forms the biggest part of Internet traffic (I don't have that link).  However, we have to proactive in making it redundant.  I use Opera browser, its more secure than even Firefox.  In addition, I use LavaSoft AdAware and Popup Blocker.  They do an awesome job of blocking popus!!
101555
http://www.spamcop.net/bl.shtml?209.191.85.88\nIt seems to ok now. its not blocked.
1080284
I agree with fieldsgm. \n\nUnless you are using POP3 to check your hotmail in a desktop client such as Outlook or Thunderbird - you can not use anti-spam programs with hotmail. This is because hotmail is located on a company web-server that you cant access.
847914
ILLEGAL SPAM / SCAM\nREPEATED POSTINGS\nNOT A QUESTION OR ANSWER, JUST SPAM\nREPORTED
611007
Everyone else answered your first and last question, so you should know what spam is now.\n\nThe most important question, "How to avoid it," has not been answered, and most people don't seem to figure it out, and would rather waste their time fighting it and installing new software and doing "maintenance."\n\nThe best way to do away with spam, is to open a second email account, and never, ever, ever sign up online for anything on the internet with that account. \n\nNow that the internet folks have your email address, it will only get worse as they sell your information to others, pass it around, trade it for other information, and generally expand the proliferation of your email address.\n\nAlmost all ISP's offer multiple email addresses, or you can get a freebie from Yahoo or MSN or whatever. \n\nNot only the "best" way, but the only way to do away with spam is to create a clean email account, and don't give it away to people you don't know. Nobody can use your email that you don't give it to. Use your spammed account to chat or join rss feeds or groups.\n\nGood luck fighting the old account. It's a losing battle.\n\nIncidentally, I have an email account I use strictly for my business that has never received one email I didn't want; not one piece of spam in over a year. What a pleasure it is to use, when you know waiting email is something you need or want. No more time wasted for unneccessary "maintenance" and fiddling with filters and blockers and the latest new spam program.
250584
History and technology\n\nUntil the 1990s this was the normal configuration for a mail server and was often the default on UNIX systems at installation. This was due, in part, to the traditional method in which e-mail (through and beyond the Internet) was passed from computer to computer via modems on telephone lines, often never touching the small Internet of the time. It was cheaper and simpler for e-mail to be passed from computer to computer until it reached its destination than to connect directly to the target computer (e.g. via modem) and log in to transfer the mail. Filtering and speed of e-mail delivery were not priorities. Furthermore, the small number of servers on the Internet generated a peer pressure on standards and conventions of its use. Moreover, on the government and educational servers with which the Internet was started, the transfer of commercial messages was forbidden by federal edict, as it was a government operation.\n\nNowadays, e-mail transfer by "relaying," or pass-along methods, is almost forgotten. Backbone networks and Internet switches make it cost effective and expeditious for end-user PCs or even cellphones to send mail directly to the target host, without need for relaying through a "middleman" site. The underlying communication methods of the Internet already provide end-to-end connectivity via a pass-along method.\n\n\nAbuse by spammers\n\nIn the mid-1990s, once the Internet became more of a publicly available (and moreover, commercial) service, it wasn't long until it was utilized by mass-marketers, today known in the electronic world as spammers. As spam soon became widely unpopular, especially by e-mail server administrators who had to deal with the increased unsolicited traffic, spammers discovered that they could minimize or avoid detection by re-routing their e-mail through third party e-mail servers. After this practice became widespread, the mere practice of operating an open relay e-mail server became frowned upon among a significant number of Internet server administrators and other prominent users, many of whom were veterans of the Internet's non-commercial era.\n\n\nAnti-spam efforts against open relays\n\nMany ISPs use DNSBLs (DNS-based Blocking Lists) to disallow mail from open relays. Once a mail server is detected or reported that allows third parties to send mail through them, they will be added to one or more such lists, and other e-mail servers using those lists will reject any mail coming from those sites.\n\nThis trend reduced the percentage of mail senders that were open relays from over 90% down to well under 1% over several years. This led to spammers adopting other techniques, such as the use of open proxies to send spam. Although open relays are no longer widely used to send spam, many sites continue to refuse mail traffic from them.\n\nOne consequence of the new unacceptability of open relays was an inconvenience for some end users and certain internet service providers. To allow customers to use their e-mail addresses at Internet locations other than the company's systems (such as at school or work), many mail sites explicitly allowed open relaying so that customers could read and send e-mail via the ISP from any location. Once open relay became unacceptable due to abuse (and unusable due to blocking of open relays) ISPs and other sites had to adopt new protocols to allow remote users to send mail. These include SMTP-AUTH, POP-before-SMTP, and the use of virtual private networks (VPNs).\n\nThe Can Spam Act of 2003 makes it illegal to send spam through an open relay, but makes no provision regarding sending personal e-mail through them or regarding their operation.
317896
Well, one thought is to switch to a better client.  Outlook Express's spam filters aren't too great, but Mozilla Thunderbird's work pretty well (and it's free like Outlook Express).  It uses adaptive filters, which essentially work by learning what types of mail you consider to be junk.  At first most of the spam will still get into your inbox, but you manually mark it as junk and rather quickly, Thunderbird is able to tell spam from good mail.  You can choose to have the spam instantly deleted or placed in a junk folder for your review.\n\nOption 2 requires money.  You can purchase the regular version of Outlook that comes with Microsoft Office, which has better filters than Express.  Or you can buy Norton Internet Security, which comes with a special anti-spam plug-in for both Outlook Express and Outlook, although it seems to work better on Outlook from my experience.\n\nThe current setup on my computer is Outlook 2003 coupled with Norton Internet Security 2006, which has proven very effective in zapping spam.  I had previously used Outlook Express, which gave me similar problems to those you were having with drug-related emails slipping by the filter.  Very rarely do I ever see junk mail in my inbox anymore, though.
311956
All manner of attempts have been made to curb unsolicited mass electronic communications. For more information, see Stopping e-mail abuse. There are many solution categories in this constantly evolving field. Source-based blocking solutions prevent receipt of spam, while content filtering solutions identify spam after it’s been received. There are avoidance strategies, including disposable identities. Automated cancellation of netnews spam is ongoing. Contractual measures such as Internet Service Providers' acceptable-use policies are also employed. Anti-spam laws such as the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 have also been introduced to regulate or increase the legal penalties for spamming. Various vigilante and retaliatory tactics are also employed. Newer strategies include various cost-based and e-mail authentication and sender reputation solutions. The best means however is to be vigilant as to whom you give your email address. Constant distribution of your email address is bound to result in spam in some way. The best frame of mind is to decide whether the website can be trusted with your email address.\n\njust use anti spam!!
550906
Well, unless you are mass mailing, you need to tell them to add you to their adress book, which should then not put your e-mails into spam.  If you are a spammer, than we are all happy your e-mail goes into Junk mail, and we rather it not even existed.
1113619
you are right on the money in your assumption. some web email spam filters are designed to detect advertisements using sophisticated word detection syntax parameters, one of which is web addresses. adding a space to the address breaks the flow of the address, and when the filter doesn't know what something is, it is assumed for safety reasons to be something other than spam, unless something else indicates that it is spam. One of the parameters of all web URLs is that spaces cannot be used, so to find a space in a combination of letters, numbers and symbols of any order eliminates the possibility in the computer's programming (mind) that it could be a URL, and moves on.
415383
did you do an advance search with google.  There is a place that you can put the ***SPAM*** into that says must contain.
360524
If you are certain that the address exists, maybe it's because the onetel.com server has very aggressive anti-spam configuration, keeping the legitimate users from sending mail to the users there..\nif this is the case there is basically nothing you can do..
683346
they can spread viruses and they can help spammers collect addresses. some people are bored and haven't discovered yahoo answers yet.