Do you receive a lot of spam? If so, you are probably wondering why this is occurring. There are many reasons why your electronic mailing address could have become a target for spammers. It's important that you understand what the common causes are and how to take the necessary measures to reduce and prevent further spamming experiences.

Giving your email to an online company - Many sites request that you provide them with an electronic address in order to create an account, become a member, gain full access to the webpage, join a mailing list, etc. Most of these online companies will promise not to sell or distribute this information, but some of them lie and will sell it to a spammer.

Posting your address on the Internet - If you have included your e mail on your social networking profile page or on a personal or business webpage, etc., spam-experts can collect them using a technology, such as a spider bot that crawls through the web gathering this data.

Chatrooms - Names can be harvested from chat-rooms, which enables a nefarious individual to target mailing lists.

Responding to phony emails - Another common SPAM method that is used is fooling a person to provide their valid e-addresses in exchange for a free gift or for some other irresistible promise that seems legitimate. This type of hoax is commonly concealed as a chain letter and usually falsely claims to be associated with a well respected business to further lure people into the trap.

There are many more ways in which spam-artists can obtain your information. That said, despite the many different methods, you need to know how to take control of your e-mails so you can put a stop, or at the very least, dramatically reduce the amount of junk you've been receiving. Here's what you need to consider:

- Only give out your personal or professional email to friends or clients, don't post it online.

- Specifically create an account that you can use when signing up for things online that require valid data (I.E. you need to activate a membership, retrieve a password, etc.). That way most of the bulk messages you get will be contained within one account.

- Whenever possible, use a fake electronic-mailing-address if you are ever asked to provide one.

- Use the junk or bulk mail filters that are offered by your web mail provider to keep your inbox free from unwanted messages.

Last, but not least, bear in mind that you can also run a free email search to see if you can learn more about the person behind the spamming messages you're getting. Simply enter the webmail address into the reverse search box and see what you uncover.