Two can play at that game...

"PORN!" She screamed, "Porn!  Aren't you guys sick and tired of the porn?"  Uhhh, "What Porn?"  I carefully asked.  You see, the woman screaming was a co-worker of mine; and as we instructors sat hiding in the instructor room prior to class, she was checking her e-mail and lamenting the fact that her in-box was full of pornographic messages, or at least messages with links to the stuff.  Leo and I sat on the opposite side of the room in temporary cubicles.  We looked at each other, and then back to her.  "Sorry," I said, "I don't get those messages."

She didn't believe me.  "You get ads for Viagra and stuff, don't even try to tell me you don't."  Honestly, I don't.  I can't believe more people don't "get" this but, my work computer is for "work."  Also, I firmly believe that the only electronic junk mail people receive is a by-product of something else they accessed on the internet, even if it was brief and involuntary.  So here's what I do…

I have several email accounts.  I have a "junk" account that I use strictly to order stuff on line and to give to hotels when I travel.  This is the address I link to ebay, Amazon, Taxi, Hotel, and other travel companies, and anything that requires the use of my credit card online or where I might end up on a list that might be sold.  The profile for that e-mail address has a fake "permanent" address, a fake phone number, etc.  The only time I ever personally access that account is when I have problems with an order.  Maybe once a month I'll go in and delete all 2,500 junk messages that have accumulated in there. 

Email account number two is for my wife and I to use personally.  We've had it for a couple of years now and (knock on wood) it is still junk free.  The only people in the universe that get that address are close family and friends.  Notice, I said "close" family… everyone has a weird uncle who likes to send joke-chains and links to other bizarre crap he finds on the internet.  Those links spawn junk.  That uncle gets the junk account address: "Hey Ken, didja read that hilarious joke I sent about Osama Bin Ladin's tiny genitalia?"  "Uh, sure Uncle Perry."  Cue more Viagra mail to the junk account…

Now, I'm not saying that all people who get porn junk in their email accounts are also using that address to buy pornographic material.  There are some unscrupulous vendors out there who literally stoop to all sorts of evil levels to get your address.  On the other side of the coin, however, I've never used my work address to click anything remotely resembling porn, Viagra, or any other "crap" on the internet and it remains junk free.  Coincidence?  I had a co-worker once who was endlessly battling with her junk mail configuration.  She got anywhere from ten to fifty messages/day about all kinds of crap; "Get breast enlargement surgery now… Get a breast reduction now… Buy Viagra for your breasts…" it was crazy.  Curiously, I also used to hear her ordering stuff off of the internet from her cube and giving her address out to pizza vendors, clothing catalogs, computer parts stores, you name it.  Coincidence?

So, get yourself a new email address and keep it hidden.  Don't give it out to anyone you don't know and trust and for heaven's sake, don't associate it with any on-line account that has your credit card number.  You're just asking for it to be sold to the highest bidder.  JUNK bidder, that is!