It's an unwritten law internationally that if unsolicited mail is sent, it should provide the option the option for 'unsubcribing' in the body of the mail. Many people respond to the e-mail with remove in the subject line. However, there are gangsters who send e-mails to random e-mail addresses and by responding you are telling them that they've caught a live one. I was advised a while ago to respond to suspect e-mails by sending the mail onto abuse@the name of their host, whether it be yahoo, hotmail, etc. I also believe there is a governing body that you can forward mail onto, but I don't know the address. Maybe someone else can help?

I have taken note of the email address that Ruth has given but since a lot of my spam mail for more than a year has been from America offering me all sorts of services that I cannot use I have a question regarding what to do about spam mail from overseas? One in particular - Trivia.mail - I have "unsubscribed" from on a regular basis for over a year to absolutely no avail. I have even resorted to venting my frustration in the subject line although I realise this will make no difference.

It was suggested to me that I download a free product from the internet which you run just before opening your email program. It brings up a list of your messages waiting on your server. You then have an option to bounce the mail back at the sender which effectively removes your email address from their list, plus it sends the address to a spam cop site which blacklists that address and kills any further attempts at sending you mail. It has dramatically reduced the amount of spam I was getting. If anyone wants the web address of the product email me judy@themediaconnection.co.za and I will send you the link by return mail.

If you have already started receiving unsolicited e-mail then there is little you can do to prevent it from happening again on a regular basis. Spammers will sell your e-mail address on to new sources and databases, and unsubscribing yourself will have no effect. Over time it will just get worse, without you even actively trying to put a stop to it.

Client-side (on your computer) filtering software can work but the techniques it uses are not always foolproof and can sometimes work against your favour.

Be careful where and to who you provide your e-mail address. It's not necessary to be paranoid either, just know who you are dealing with and be sure you can trust them.

Legally in SA there is an option. It is a crime in SA for someone to spam you in terms of the Electronic Transactions and Communications Act of 2002. Section 45 of the Act states that someone must unsubscribe you when you ask them to. The penalty for not doing so is up to 1 year in prison!
This should scare off South African spammers.

Guys operating outside of SA probably dont care about the Act, and even though there are laws in the US dealing with spam, your best option would be to use some of the technical stuff around to screen or delete spam...

In my dealings as a PHP programmer many of my clients have asked me to write web applications that will distibute vast amounts of e-mail.

When I discussed this with a server administrator i was told that sending spam was not a great idea from their servers because should the address be reported to spam cop the ip address for his server would be blocked and it is a real mission to get it unblocked. The ISP will then also close the account and that server will have to be re registered on the internet.

Check out the URL www.spamcop.com and see if this helps.