There are many ways to help stem flow of unwanted commercial e-mail

Like many other internet users, I've noticed a huge increase in spam (unwanted commercial e-mail) over the past few months.

The volume I get through the various e-mail addresses I use has definitely been on an infuriating rising trajectory since about February of this year. I'm not sure why this is the case but I know others across the internet have reported the same situation, both individuals on discussion lists and journalists writing about the phenomenon.

Maybe those bottom-feeders that sell CD-ROMs full of e-mail addresses for spammers have been consolidating databases.

Maybe the address-gathering techniques used by spammers have simply reached a level of sophistication that if you're on one sorry list, you're practically on them all.

Whatever the case, the junk coming into my personal e-mail and business e-mail inboxes has been on the rise. Even worse is the amount that comes through my ancient Hotmail account. Hotmail is the highly popular free Web e-mail site now owned by Microsoft.

Because I've had the account for years, it tends to get a lot of spam. A while ago, Hotmail introduced a new feature that let you set an automatic filter, which seemed for a while to capture most of the unwanted stuff - the sex advertisements (which are getting unbelievably foul and offensive these days), the offers for anti-balding remedies and cheap mortgages, the pitches to sell me lists of five million e-mail addresses so that I can become a spammer too.

Hotmail also has a limited number of filters you can set to block specific senders or e-mails with certain words in it, such as "Britney Spears" or "Viagra". These all seem to get less effective with time.

I've been thinking about spam because it has featured lately in a number of very frustrated phone calls to radio programmes.

Most distressed are home users who are getting really vile porn e-mails and don't understand why.

I rang one programme because I was concerned that an impression had been given on air that someone in a household receiving such e-mail had probably at some point visited a porn site.

The argument was also made that most of the spam people receive comes because they are being specifically targeted for certain kinds of services.

Any anti-spam organisation will verify that spam is an incredibly cheap way to send millions of totally untargeted e-mails, few to none of which arrive because you have ever visited any particular site. (I recommend www.junkbusters.com and consumer group www.cauce.org for detailed information on what spam is, why you get it, how spammers work and how to block it.)

The notion that you get spam because you've gone to a particular kind of site will not only cause unwarranted accusations and arguments at home but also scare people off using the internet and enjoying its resources.

In general, spammers get addresses in a variety of ways. Simple computer programs can generate millions of likely addresses (most people use a name or common words in addresses - they aren't hard to generate).

Small "robot" programs also roam the Web, collecting e-mail address that are posted on public discussion boards online or on websites. In addition, some unethical organisations sell on lists of addresses they have collected.

That's why it's a good idea to set up a free Web e-mail account to use when you do want to post messages online or buy online. Keep your personal e-mail address for personal e-mail to friends and associates.

In addition, you can set individual filters on most e-mail programs - just go into the "help" section of the program for more information.

I've found these can be tricky and will often filter legitimate e-mail for no reason that you can discern.

As a first line of defence, I prefer using one of the many good filtering programs that can be downloaded for free or at small cost off the internet.

My current favourite is Spamnet from www.cloudmark.com. It's free but only works with Microsoft Outlook (they promise an Outlook Express version soon).

It installs itself on your e-mail browser and is very effective. It catches about 80 per cent of the spam I receive.

You could also try Mailwasher at www.mailwasher.net or look at the programs suggested on the Junkbusters site.

Spam is an enormous problem already and will become more so as it continues to spew into our inboxes at ever-increasing rates.

It inflicts enormous time and labour costs on businesses - estimated at billions annually - and on the Net's infrastructure.

So far, legislative approaches have been fairly toothless in controlling its spread - there's so much of it coming from places, such as Eastern Europe and Asia, where it's almost impossible to prosecute the senders.

The EU has passed a directive to make it illegal to send unsolicited commercial e-mail to Europeans.

But just how they think they will enforce this remains unclear. This feature is, after all, included in the same May directive that also allows unprecedented, noxious levels of state and law-enforcement surveillance of your e-mails, internet usage, faxes and phone calls.

Go figure - they can spy on your personal e-mail but, hey, you won't have to suffer the irritation of an unwanted Viagra advertisement ever again!

For now, the best solution seems to be to find your own-use filters and filtering programs and hope (and argue!) for an effective, global legislative remedy to knock this stuff out once and for all.