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Taking your name off of spam mailing lists isn't as easy as responding to the various unsolicited e-mails you receive and politely asking that your name be removed from the master list. In fact, responding to an unsolicited e-mail may be the absolute worst thing you can do because your response tells the spammer that an actual human being resides at your e-mail address. And this may be incentive for him to send you even more e-mail. Unfortunately, there is no quick-and-easy panacea for expunging spam from your inbox. But we've compiled a list of sites that

have some creative ideas for combatting the problem. Making Complaints If you receive a lot of unsolicited mass e-mail but are unsure to whom to complain, sign up with Abuse.net. Once you sign up with this free service, you can forward the spams to Abuse.net, who will in turn forward your message on to the appropriate complaint e-mail address for that domain. This does not guarantee that you will never receive another unsolicited mass e-mail, but this is probably more effective than just deleting the e-mail. To complain directly to the spammer's Internet provider, take a look at this FAQ on How to Complain. There are ways you can track down spammers yourself (by making sure your e-mail package is set to reveal headers, for example) and complain directly to the source. How to Fight Back Are you being bombarded with e-mails from a particularly obnoxious Internet marketer? Pass his name along to the Blacklist of Internet Advertisers, which is a grassroots effort to publicize the names of notorious spammers. The concept seems to work great with deadbeat parents. Solutions CNET recommends that you remove your name from popular e-mail directories, such as Bigfoot. These directories are great for letting your long-lost eighth grade boyfriend get in touch with you, but they also enable spammers to track you down as well. The E-Mail Abuse FAQ provides some simple solutions for how to remove yourself from spammers' mailing lists. As they say, if all else fails, "just ignore it and delete it." Whenever you get a spam from an e-mail address that you know to be fake, make sure to pass it along to the domain's abuse mailbox. If the e-mail comes from 123456@sprint.com , for example, send an e-mail to abuse@sprint.com to let the company know that someone is using their e-mail services for sending unsolicited mass e-mail. Even if it is a forged address, the company can sic its legal department on the offender. The same goes for most other domain names (abuse@yahoo.com , abuse@att.net , abuse@mindspring.com , etc.). Use Your Judgment One last thing to remember: If you participate in newsgroups or chat rooms and you provide your e-mail address, this, unfortunately, makes you a target for spam. This is one of the places spammers go to collect e-mail addresses.