Tips from the Federal Trade Commission and Kansas University electrical engineering and computer science professor Gary Minden on battling spam:

Avoid displaying your e-mail address in public, including in news groups, chat rooms, Web sites and membership directories of online services.

Check a Web site’s privacy policy before submitting your address. The policy may allow the company to share your address with third parties. Consider opting out of this provision or not submitting your address at all.

Consider using two e-mail addresses one for personal messages and one for chat rooms.

Choose a unique e-mail address. A common name such as “jdoe” may get more spam than something like “jd51x02oe,” though the unique address may be more difficult to remember.

Use an e-mail filter. Many service providers offer free tools to filter out spam or channel it into a bulk e-mail folder. Others are available for purchase.

Report spam to the Federal Trade Commission by sending the entire message to uce@ftc.gov.

Do not click on text that says doing so will “remove” you from receiving future e-mails. Unethical e-mailers use “remove” replies to verify e-mail addresses and place them on lists to receive even more junk e-mail.

Complain to your Internet service provider’s abuse desk and to the sender’s ISP.