High-risk activity
So how do you stay off spam lists? We think we've pretty much nailed the biggest culprits. Our advice: Avoid the following people and places.

The culprit: an unscrupulous message board

Spam servings: up to 10 per day
I opened an e-mail account with Hotmail in December of 1999 and used it in a single message at what was then Deja.com's Usenet Discussion Service (now part of Google). That was the only time I ever used that address.

Five months later, unsolicited mail started popping into that mailbox. Over the next two months, in addition to 16 "legitimate" marketing messages from Hotmail and Deja.com, a backlog of 61 bulk advertising messages leaked in. As time passed, I got as many as 10 messages per day with subjects ranging from debt consolidation to Ponzi schemes, herbal ecstasy to celebrity hot tub sessions.

The remedy
Your best line of defense against this kind of unwanted e-mail is not to get on marketing lists in the first place: just don't use your regular e-mail address on message board and Usenet postings. If you simply must participate in Web-wide discussions with your actual address, turn on whatever spam protection your e-mail service provides. Hotmail's Inbox Protector, for example, diverted around 60 percent of the unwanted messages from my e-mail account; nonetheless, it let through more than one message per day.

The culprit: America Online's chat room

Spam servings: up to 60 messages per month
With my brand-new 700-free-hours America Online screen name, I hopped into a chat room for San Francisco residents and lurked in a second, generic AOL chat room (Town Talk). Not long after, I discovered a message in my AOL in-box with the subject line "My sister and I went to a nude beach... (Over 18)." Well, there are a few nude beaches around San Francisco, but that didn't seem to be the focus of this message, which described Tammy, Syndi, and Simone's exploits, with copious Web links. Six other messages followed in swift succession, all prurient and crass. By the next day, the count reached 10. Two weeks later: 31. One month later: 51 messages.

The remedy
There's only one way to avoid hassle from chat louts: use a dedicated screen name for chat and block e-mail to that screen name. From the master screen name, enter the keywords mail controls, select your chat-room screen name from the list, and check off either Block All E-mail or Customize Mail Controls. If you block all e-mail, use a different screen name for e-mail and give it out only to trusted chat buddies. If you customize mail controls, you can block all incoming mail except from names that you list. This is a slick trick, but, unfortunately, not one that works outside the AOL world.

The culprit: an online lottery

Spam servings: 10 or more per week
Didn't your mama ever warn you about games of chance? When I entered a sweepstakes at iWin and gave them a new AOL address, I didn't notice any messages about marketing from third parties, so I assumed I'd be OK. Wrong, wrong, wrong: I received eight promotional e-mails in two weeks, none of which came from iWin. Some boasted disingenuous subject headings such as "Do you know these people?" designed to lull me into a false sense of security, but they contained lottery information from GroupLotto, an iWin affiliate. Once I hit the Unsubscribe link, the spam dwindled to no more than three messages per day. After a second attempt to unsubscribe, GroupLotto stopped sending me e-mail, but then I got spam from something called CustomerOffers. Meanwhile, an affiliate program called SFI welcomed me (I hadn't signed up for it, apparently uh------ @aol.com had done so for me; thanks, uh------!).

The remedy
It's simple: When the sweepstakers come a-calling, just say no.

Show me the half-cooked spam activities!