WHITE PAPER:
How to Defeat Spam
Protect Your Email Address
How to protect your email address?
The Center for Center for Democracy & Technology had some additional suggestions:
Read carefully when filling out online forms requesting your e-mail address, and exercise your choice
If you don't want to receive e-mail from a Web site operator, don't give them your e-mail address unless they offer the option of declining to receive e-mail and you exercise that option. If you are asked for your e-mail address in an online setting such as a form, make sure you pay attention to any options discussing how the address will be used. Pay attention to check boxes that request the right to send you e-mails or share your e-mail address with partners. Read the privacy policies of Web sites. If you suspect that a Web site has violated its privacy policy, you can report it to your state attorney general or the Federal Trade Commission.
Use multiple e-mail addresses
When using an unfamiliar Web site or posting to a newsgroup, establish an e-mail address for that specific purpose. Alternatively, instead of just using one or two e-mail addresses, you can use "disposable e-mail addresses," which consolidate e-mail in a single location but allow you to immediately shut off any address that is attracting spam. By recording which disposable address was used at which web site, one can track what sites are causing spam. Many Web sites are now providing free e-mail accounts. A search in Google Directory search for "disposable e-mail addresses" provides a list of e-mail providers designed for one-time use e-mails.
Short e-mail addresses are easy to guess, and may receive more spam
At least one spammer tried to guess the e-mail addresses used in this study by sending mail to short and common addresses. E-mail addresses composed of short names and initials like bob@ or tse@, or basic combinations like smithj@ or toms@ will probably receive more spam. E-mail addresses need not be incomprehensible, but a user with a common or short name may want to modify or add to it in some way in his or her e-mail address.
The above provides a long-range strategy and should, over six or eight months, cut down on spam. But what do you do about all the spam you are currently receiving? There are several options each with their own advantages and disadvantages.