Spam Wars
By Ian Jukes, The InfoSavvy Group
I don't know about you, my I'm getting sick and tired of all the Spam I'm receiving these days... until the Internet explosion, SPAM was a popular processed luncheon meat made by Hormel Foods.
But the Spam I’m talking about here is those obnoxious, unsolicited e-mail messages touting get rich quick schemes, miracle diets, increased sexual potency, amazing beauty products and pornographic pleasures. According to Jupiter Media, in 2002, the average consumer received an estimated 2,300 pieces of Spam email. But by 2007, the number is projected to grow to 3,600 pieces.
Unlike paper junk mail that the sender pays for, Spammers pay almost nothing to e-mail thousands or hundreds of thousands of their offensive messages. It's your Internet Service Provider and ultimately you that have to bear the cost of transmitting unwanted e-mail across the Net.
AOL and other e-mail providers try to block Spam before it reaches your mailbox, but their efforts are only partially effective and according to Assurance Systems, because of anti-Spam filters, on average, 15% of legitimate commercial email does not make it to the intended inbox. For example, if you were one of the early admission applicants to Harvard University eagerly awaiting email notification of your acceptance or rejection last December, you could have been among 100 of those applicants who never received word. All because Harvard emails were inadvertently flagged as junk mail and blocked by AOL
Some countries have laws against Spam and some Spammers have been fined for their actions, but in general, catching Spammers is like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall.
Every time a new anti-Spam strategy or technology is developed, Spammers figure a way around the blocks and so the practice continues. In fact, it's increasing.Why, you may wonder, could it be increasing when Spammers are universally despised? The reason is simple. It's because it works. Sending e-mail in bulk is so cheap that even if only a handful of people respond, there's a profitable payoff for the Spammer.
Unfortunately, Spam is here to stay, but that doesn't mean you have to be an innocent victim. Here's how to fight back:
Protect your e-mail address.
Spammers either buy lists of e-mail addresses or use software programs that mine the addresses from the Internet. If your address is posted in discussion groups, on websites, chat rooms etc., the chances are that it will end up on one or more of these lists. So don’t give your email address without knowing how it will be used. If a website is asking for your email address, they want to use it for something. Be sure you know what. Read the terms of use and privacy statements of any site before telling them your address. Ask yourself some simple questions. Are they going to share or sell my address? Do I want emails from this website? Do I trust them? Is it worth the risk? If you can’t answer these questions satisfactorily, if you can’t find their privacy statement, don’t tell them your address.
In particular, posting your email address on your personal home page is just an invitation to Spammers. Spammers and the people who sell Spamming as a business have software that "harvests" email addresses from the Net. This software crawls through the Internet seeking text strings that are something@something.something. When it finds one, it catalogs it on a database of other email addresses to be used to send Spam.
Set-up multiple e-mail accounts.
If you do participate regularly in online activities where you post your address, then set up another e-mail account for your personal communications. Reveal this email address only to close friends and family. This way, you’ll just have to deal with the Spam in your public account.Use Spam filters.
Many e-mail programs, such as Outlook Express and Eudora, have built-in tools that block messages sent from certain addresses, or that filter messages based on keywords you define. Instead of just deleting Spam, take a few seconds to create filters.Use anti-Spam software.
You can get special software designed to eliminate Spam. Some work by matching incoming messages against a list of known Spammers; others block messages that don't match a pre-approved list of acceptable addresses. Download and test-drive the latest free or shareware anti-Spam programs at http://www.download.com.Don't respond.
Spammers persist because it's effective. Help stomp it out by boycotting them. Don't buy their products regardless of how enticing the offers may be.
Some clever Spammers include instructions on how to remove your name from the list at the bottom of the message. The worse thing you can do is reply. Why? Because this tells the Spammer that you read your mail and that your address is valid. The result may be that you get even more junk mail because they’ll sell your address to every other Spammer on the planet meaning you’ll soon be flooded with even MORE Spam.Don’t use Spam removal lists
Never sign up with sites that promise to remove your name from Spam lists. These sites are of two kinds: (1) sincere, and (2) Spam address collectors. The first kind of site is ignored (or exploited) by the Spammers. The second is owned by them. In both cases your address is recorded and valued more highly because you have just identified it as read by a human.Don't retaliate.
After receiving dozens of unwanted messages, the natural inclination is to fire off a nasty missive. Resist the urge. It could backfire, resulting in more, not less, mail. Never ever mail-bomb Spam sites or engage in hacking to stop Spammers. This only increases the amount of wasted Internet traffic, creates sympathy for Spammers, and makes the Internet even less reliable than it already is.
Opt-out.
Many websites now require you to register to use their services. Before you do, review the site's privacy policy to see how it uses your personal information like your e-mail address. If the site sends out commercial messages, you should be given a choice whether you want to receive e-mail from the site or from its third party partners. If you don't want to hear from them, be sure to check the No box.Remove your address from directories.
Your address may be listed with people finder services, such as Yahoo! People Search and other directories that are gold mines for Spammers. To prevent your address from being harvested, e-mail these lookup services and ask them to remove your name.Report violators
A number of government agencies and private organizations accept complaints. Whether they can actually do anything to stop the deluge is an unanswered question.
Among the ones to contact are:
* SpamCop (http://www.spamcop.com)
* The National Fraud Information Center (http:// www.fraud.org/welcome.htm)You can also forward Spam to the Federal Trade Commission at uce@ftc.gov.
Use your Delete key.
Perhaps the path of least resistance is to highlight the offending message and delete it, banishing it to the trash bin. If everyone ignored Spam, it would eventually go away. Even if you do all of these things, you could still get Spam. Just remember to send your Spam to the Spam Recycling Center so that we can forward them to the Federal Trade Commission and to the Spam filter developers so that they can continue to try to stop the Spam before it gets to you.Three software programs to reduce Spam:
http://www.mailwasher.net/
http://www.contactplus.com/products/Spam/Spam.htm
and
http://www.mcafee.com/myapps/msk/
For further information, contact:
Ian Jukes, The InfoSavvy Group
423 Christleton Avenue
Kelowna, BC, Canada V1Y 5H9
Office Phone: 250-869-4003
Email: ijukes@mindspring.com
Web sites: http://www.ianjukes.com
