Spam is a pervasive problem and people are always looking for someone to blame other than themselves. One thing I can assure you is that we never sell our list to anyone. You only receive e-mails from us and can unsubscribe at any time.

I have been online since 1978. Back then the modem was actually an acoustic coupler in which you dialed a number on your phone and then placed your handset into the device. Here is a picture of it.

It was a 300 baud modem, that is 1/3 kbps. Most dialups are now 56 kbps and my cable modem runs around 2500 kbps. So the dialup I was using in the 70s was nearly 10,000 times slower than the one I am currently using.

It still never ceases to amaze me how naïve and seriously confused many people are about being online. They are clueless about the behaviors they engage in that can lead to spam. Spam is a very real problem and actually is a serious threat to the viability of e-mail as a communication medium. But we have never and will never sell anyone's name to a company for profit.

With a list of over 550,000 (at the time of this writing), we are one of the larger distributors of bulk e-mail. If we did anything else, all the large Internet Service Providers would stop sending our newsletters to their customers.

Most likely all of these individuals have left their e-mail exposed on some Web site where it was picked up by a spider or filled out a form from some company with their e-mail address that got them on some spam list. But they can rest assured the cause of their spam is not a subscription to the Mercola.com e-newsletter. Since we have over 550,000 subscribers, it is not surprising that a few people (less than one in 100,000) might believe that we are the cause of their spam problem.

Most spam is related to mistakes that many neophyte Internet users make. Typically they will post their e-mail address online somewhere or fill in a form somewhere that allows it to be picked up by some spam company.

Tips to Decrease Your Future Spam

• Never send e-mail or reply to an e-mail requesting that you be removed or to  unsubscribe unless you are familiar with the company. Some individuals and companies use this reply as a method of verifying the e-mail is valid and using this information to subscribe you to other mailing lists. If you do not know the individual or company simply delete the e-mail.
  
  
• When filling out any type of form on the Internet, watch carefully for any type of check box that by default may be checked for you to receive a newsletter or share your e-mail with a third-party.
  
  
• If you are concerned about a company sharing your e-mail address, set up a temporary e-mail account through Gmail www.gmail.google.com or Yahoo www.mail.yahoo.com/ - or other free e-mail service but these are the best.
  
  
• Be careful who you send your e-mail too. Sites that require you to sign up or request an e-mail for free products, free services, or contests commonly share your e-mail as a method of generating revenue.
  
  
• Never forward an e-mail that claims that it is capable of tracking the e-mail as it is sent or will help generate revenue for a certain cause to the more people it is forwarded to. These e-mails are commonly referred to as chain mail and are commonly false and help individuals get additional e-mail address for SPAM.
  
  
• Be careful where you post your e-mail address. In chat rooms or news groups, for example, anyone could quickly grab your e-mail address. We recommend that when you need to post or send your e-mail that you send it to a specific person or setup a temporary e-mail account.