KTRV Fox 12 Idaho Ranks #1 in E-mail Spam

Idaho Ranks #1 in E-mail Spam

Boise, Idaho -- Idaho leads the nation in spam - the kind in your e-mail, of course.

Idahoans get more spam than about anyone in the country.

"It's kind of irritating because I log on and I see the thing on my screen, saying I have mail. I think I have something important, but it's not the case," said Wesley Hammack.

Idahoans get so much spam that it makes up 95 percent of all incoming emails.

Laws in Idaho are a little more relaxed than in the rest of the country.

"We have a pretty conservative government, and I think most of the people in Idaho are pretty conservative and want people out of their business," said Joe Mikitish, a software engineer for Sen Technologies.

Spam can be a big problem at home and at work and experts say people can waste a ton of time dealing with it.

"A person spends 15 minutes in the morning doing nothing but deleting spam, how much does that cost over the course of a year? You waste two weeks of time," said Mikitish.

Mikitish says none of his clients have spam problems and there are some simple solutions.

"Well there's lot of tools that you can use, that you can download, whether a Mac or a PC, you can get them for free off the Internet. Look for "free spam blocker" and that will get you where you want to go," said Mikitish.

You can also do try what a lot of other people do and keep separate accounts.

"I have one for e-mail and one for junk, for signing up for random stuff," said Hammack.

But if you've entered a contest or signed up for a special and used your e-mail address, then you're on a spam list.

The trick is taking some simple steps to get it off and keep it off your computer.

The bottom line to keep spam out of your e-mail you can Google "free spam blocker" and install the free software.

And remember not to give out your e-mail address.