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How to recognize SPAM Typical spam content includes:
- Sales pitches, get rich schemes, ponzi schemes and email chain letters
- Explicit sexual text, images or links
- Subject lines or body text IN ALL CAPITALS WITH LOTS OF EXCLAMATION
POINTS !!!! OR DOLLAR SIGNS $$$$
- Inflammatory email with a forged, but real, sender address
- Note this last form is sent intentionally to provoke a response against
the identified sender. The spammer targets an individual and then forges
his or her email address as the purported author of an inflammatory
message.
- Spam is often disguised to appear legitimate: It may contain a forged
sender's address appearing to be from someone you know. It may contain
your name or the name of someone you know in the subject line. Common
sense steps to identify subtle spam: Most people recognize obvious spam
as identified above.
- A key concern and increasing problem with subtle spam designed to
manipulate the recipient is forged sender addresses. Like the Mail,
the email system does not guarantee a message is really from the named
sender: If you know the sender, does the message make sense considering
who it is from? If you don't know the sender, consider the message suspect
as you read the content.
It's important to remember three things about SPAM
- First, one person's SPAM is another's valuable email.
- SPAM is email you don't want. Others may want it and that is a primary
reason why spam is so hard to control before it gets to the final recipient.
- Second, if you use email you are going to get some spam. There is
no existing technology or software, mainframe, server, or PC based,
that can screen out all spam or even most of it over any time period
longer than a few weeks, unless that software is constantly updated.
In the end, at least for the foreseeable future, your best SPAM protection
is what you do to protect your email accounts from email that is SPAM
to you.
- Immediate Steps you can take to reduce SPAM If you don't get but a
few spam emails the simplest and most economical thing to do thing is
just delete them.
- Don't respond to the SPAM email. This just lets them know you are
a "live" email address and will probably insure that you will get more
spam and that the spammer will sell or trade your email address to other
spammers. (There are a few exceptions to this rule - see below).
- Set mail filters - How you set e-mail filters or "rules" depends on
the e-mail client you use. You can usually find information on creating
and managing filters under the help function using terms like "email"
or "filter" or "rules". In the case of Netscape double click on "Help"
at the top right of the main menu bar and search for "email" and then
click filters. For Microsoft Outlook select tools from the main menu
bar, then rules wizard and follow the instructions. . For Microsoft
Outlook Express select tools and then "message rules" and follow the
intructions. Alternatively, for Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express,
you can use a free, third party utility called " SpamPal" to filter
your email messages. The "SpamPal" utility can be installed on Windows
9x, ME, NT, 2000, or XP. In Eudora select tools, then filters and following
the instructions. Detailed instructions on how to set filters in Eudora
can be found at http://www.eudora.com/techsupport/tutorials/win_filters.html
What Can I Do to Reduce the Amount of Spam I Receive?
- After the spam has been delivered to your mailbox, your options are
to delete or filter
- Be careful not to post your email address on web sites and in public
forums and discussion groups. Some people use email-hiding techniques,
for addresses they post on web sites. Some webmasters simply do not
post email addresses on web sites, but use mailforms to solicit input
from site visitors.
- Be aware that any publicly posted email addresses may be harvested
by spambots -- automated web-crawling robots that collect email addresses.
Disable the Catch-All email address in your CNC so that only email addresses
which you have specifically set up can receive email. Keep your important
email address(es) private, and use other free email addresses for public
use. Change the free email address whenever it starts collecting a large
amount of spam.
- When signing up for a new service or placing a new order, create a
new email alias, just for that purpose. Then, if that alias begins to
receive spam later, you know where the spam is coming from and can change
that alias to a BlackHole address.
- If you "mung" your email address when filling out forms, or posting
in public forums or web sites, make sure it is a non-deliverable email
address.
- Do not use an email address that you made up like [email protected]
where anydomain.tld is a real domain. This email will actually be delivered
to that domain. Instead use something like [email protected] (tip: example.com
is a domain that is reserved and never resolves), or [email protected]
(the .invalid suffix is a standard way of noting publicly that the address
in invalid, and the email address will not resolve for delivery), or
refer to the Privacy.net link below.
- Whatever you do, make sure it is either (1) an address that you control,
(2) an address at a domain that you have permission to use, or (3) an
email address that will not resolve. See the Address Munging FAQ for
more details.
- Note that many Internet participants consider it rude to mung your
address, because it can seriously inconvenience those who might take
the trouble to send you information that you have requested, such as
on a Usenet newsgroup or other forum.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure
- Once your email address is on a spammer's list, it can be very hard
to get off, especially if he's selling it. Here are some tips on how
to stop spam before it starts.
- Don't display your email address(es) in public more than necessary,
at least not in a form that's easy prey for scavenger bots (programs
that spammers run to ``harvest'' email addresses). If you publish web
pages, don't put your address in a click-to-email link (HTML's HREF
MAILTO). This means people have to cut-and-paste your address rather
than emailing your with a single click, but it can save you a lot of
spam. Rather than putting your email address on every page of your site,
it may be better to have it on only one page, with links to it. Many
spammers don't even bother to remove duplicates from their lists.
- If you post to Usenet or chat, consider disguising your address. There
are dozens of ways of doing this so that humans who really want to contact
you can figure out how to do so: look at a few postings and choose one
you like. We have heard reports that some harvesters are already wise
to addresses such as [email protected] so try a variation on the nospam.
There are plenty of adjectives that could be added. Of course almost
any method can be thwarted by sufficiently intelligent scavenger bots,
but most of them aren't very smart.
What about removal services?
- Be cautious also about sites where you can register to have your email
address removed from spammer's lists. Some are ineffective; some actually
add your address to other spammers' lists. Some services say they will
not giving addresses to spammers: they have to submit their lists for
``cleansing.'' Anyone can start a removal service site; the difficult
part is getting spammers to pay any notice. Due to the strange economics
of the Internet, it's easier for spammers to spam everyone. They already
know that almost nobody wants to hear from them, so why should they
go to the trouble of removing those names?
A FINAL IMPORTANT POINT
Whilst it is very tempting to issue complaints about spam, BE WARNED,
many service providers tell the spammer who you are. Sooner or later he/she
will start sending you more spam and also pass your email address to other
spammers. One complaint from you could mean your un-solicited emails will
rocket .... DON'T BE TEMPTED
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