A word to the wise about "Spam"

A word to the wise about 'spam' or junk mail. Yes, I found some gems of fiction and what-not in spam emails, but spam is a serious time waster and sometimes more. When at all possible, try to avoid doing too much with it. Under no circumstances should you respond to spam emails, that's just what they want you to do. That way, they know your email exists, you just confirmed it for them, and also the 'spammers' will put you on numerous other email lists without your consent. Some or most of them actually make money off of this.

There is a trick to knowing for sure if an email is not spam, (just in case you can't tell). Open up the email and press select all, if strange, no-nonsense characters and bits of writings here and there show up, you know that that is spam and that was probably sent by 'zombies' - which are computers that, unbeknowst to innocent computer users, have been used to produce and send more spam out. Yes, spam has become sentient in a way and is like a virus, sending itself out like so many tendrils from the Matrix.