For most Internet users, retrieving wanted e-mail messages is like hacking through the dense underbrush of a rainforest using a Jason Voorhees-sized machete. But, instead of vines and tree branches, it’s pitches for stock deals and Canadian penis pills you’re hacking through.

Though junk mail is a modern inconvenience we’ve mostly gotten used to, it’s no less shocking to learn that spam now accounts for a whopping 83% of all e-mail messages sent and received worldwide — this according to a new study by e-mail security firm IronPort Systems. That’s 60 billion to 150 billion bogus messages every single day.
Here are a few ways of deflecting some of that garbage:
* Keep two e-mail addresses –- one for personal correspondence and one for Web sites that request your e-mail address, like when you’re shopping or signing up for contests. Study Claims 83% of All E-Mail is Spam - Switched: Gadgets, Tech, Digital Stuff for the Rest of Us