The Internet has become a hunting ground for salesmen of all kinds. They produce something called Spam - unsolicited bulk-emailing. They send millions of emails out on the Net and hope that at least 0.01 per cent will answer their mail showing an interest in the products of their company.

I guess that you too have been targeted. If you ever have posted in a newsgroup, if you have an email account at hotmail or at another 'free' mailprovider, or if you have answered one of these mails that beg you to buy something, then you will be the victim of their shrewd business.

Never answer these mails! If you do then they know your account exists. People with no moral sell email addresses en masse to our spamming friends and there´s a lot of phony ones included. You also show yourself alert reading your emails, responding to them and capable of understanding their english advertising lingo.

Next time you´ll get even more Spam but of course not from the same company. There are thousands of them looking for new customers like a viper is looking for a mouse. If you post in a Newsgroup you could make your emailaddress useless for the machines that suck addresses out of the Usenet.

You add something to your address so that an automatic grabbing makes your address useless. This add-on should of course be highly visible if you want your readers to be able to respond to your message. If you don´t, then try to post anonymously. But remember that you´re never completely unknown on the Net unless you´re a guest at a public institution like a Library using the Net without any need of a Log-in.

Finally, if you use a free emailaccount like Hotmail you´ve got to live with the fact that the World Wide Weirdos are spamming you.

If you disagree with what I´ve written on this page, send in your comments but please Mister Postman, don´t you ever spam me. You´re not one of the World Wide Weirdos, are you?