Unwanted and unsolicited emails are also called ‘Spam’ emails. Examples include false charitable appeals, fake lottery wins, and banks requesting you contact them, pharmaceutical companies offering cheap medicines, upsetting or obscene content.

Never reply to an email like this and never open attachments to junk mail messages as they can contain viruses. You should delete any emails like this straight away – if it looks suspicious then get rid of it.

It will be helpful to set up a spam filter to get rid of a lot of these emails. These filters are not fool-proof and can delete genuine messages so it is advisable to look at the list of junk mail (which is usually diverted to a separate folder) before it is deleted to see if there are messages from anyone you know.

If you are using Microsoft Outlook it is possible to set up the junk mail box to automatically delete the contents at regular intervals. Some Internet Service Providers will provide you with their own protection software.

Online email servers like Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo usually have built in Spam protection but again, they are not fool-proof and it is worth checking any Spam or Junk mail folders regularly.

You can learn more about protecting your computer from:

• www.itsafe.gov.uk (opens new window).
• www.getnetwise.org (opens new window).

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