During my recent job search, I signed up for a lot of job alerts via email. And along the way, I ended up with a lot of spam emails in my Junk folder. You know the kind — cheap auto insurance, attorneys, help for hair loss, help for my love life, etc.

To be fair, my email provider (Yahoo) does a pretty good job at filtering the worthless emails into my junk folder. But I still had (have) to check the junk mail folder regularly to make sure an email I really did want didn’t accidentally go there instead. It can be a time-consuming and frustrating task.

Which makes me wonder: Will there ever be for email what there is for telephone calls — a “Do Not Email” list, if you will? I think the “Do Not Call” lists dramatically cut down on the amount of telemarketing calls people receive. But is this even possible given the fraudulent nature of most spam emails?

I know you can report spam to the Federal Trade Commission, but does the average citizen really do this? I don’t or at least I haven’t. I do mark spam that gets through to my inbox as junk mail, so future emails go into the junk folder. But that’s as far as I take it. And although it is a short-term fix for the problem, it really isn’t a long-term answer. What kind of oversight and resources would a “Do Not Email” list require? Seems to me it would have to be a massive effort. And who would pay for it? And how would/could officials in the U.S. take action against overseas spammers — even if they could track them down?

The Internet age has been a blessing, to be sure. But it’s also helped those who like to prey upon others the ability to do just that more easily. There needs to be a way to curb this type of activity. And it should happen sooner rather than later.