From the flood of direct e-mail advertising that most of us receive every day, you'd think the world is full of debt-ridden, sexually deprived people who want easy money.

But, offensive nature aside, these pesky e-mail messages cause problems of a technical nature. They make an enormous mess of your in-box, cramming it with junk and often pushing your account over its size limit.

Before you figure out how to stop the inundation, however, you have to find out where these sneaky spammers come from. How the heck do they get your address? Do they just spam everyone on your e-mail service (for instance, Hotmail), or do they intercept your name when you buy products online? When you sign up for newsletters, do unscrupulous Web sites sell your address? It's hard to know. We decided to find out which online activities and even mail services generate the most junk e-mail and look at ways to recover from the deluge.

CNET contributor Matt Lake opened 12 free e-mail accounts (and monitored some older ones) and dedicated each to one typical online activity. He even opened accounts at each e-mail provider and left them untouched just to examine the myth that just having an e-mail account can generate spam. Next, he joined up at sites that require you to register an e-mail address, posted messages on message boards around the Web, registered domain names, and visited chat rooms. In each case, over a few months, he checked to see which activities attracted the most unsolicited e-mail to an account, then tried to figure out how to remove the spam. Finally, he categorized those behaviors in terms of high, medium, and low risk, and the results were somewhat surprising.

Check out our spam statistics and read on to see which online activities put you at more risk than walking on the train tracks at night. We won't leave you hanging either; we've tested some opt-out options and reported back on whether they actually work.

High-risk activity
What's the worst that can happen to your in-box? Find out which Net activities generate the most spam.

Medium danger
Don't panic. If you're a Webmaster or even a domain squatter, your in-box remains relatively safe.

Lowest spam quotient
You'll be surprised! See which supercommon Web activities are shockingly low on spam servings.

Opt-out attempts
Does unsubscribing really work? Sometimes. Find out some other ways to duck unsolicited mail.

Spam at a glance
Check the stats! A quick look at high-, medium-, and low-risk activities, plus our spam in-box breakdown.

Show me the biggest spam generators out there! 

	Next steps

• Find a DSL, cable, or ISDN connection in your area
• You don't get spam from snail mail. Find some envelopes and mailing supplies and do it old-school