We Have To Stop this SPAM to Get Rid of the Spyware

      Spam is Unsolicited Commercial e-mail

spam is hell

 
Reclaim Your Inbox - Strategies to
Slow the Flow of Internet Junk-mail

How much time do you waste because of the never ending flow of Internet junk mail you find every time you open your e-mail inbox?

Here are some tips and information that will help reduce the amount of spam (unwanted junk e-mail) arriving in your inbox.

                                    What is it?

Spam is UCE - unsolicited commercial e-mail. Or any e-mail sent to
your e-mail address that you did not request, from somebody that you do not know, without your permission to send you advertising by e-mail, and you did not ask to be added to their mailing lists.

It is usually sent as bulk email to thousands of people at once. According to Sero-Group.com, the first report of spamming occurred on 1 May 1978 by a computer sales representative in the US, but the term spam was not used until April 1994 when two US lawyers tried to promote an illegal lottery.
In 2004 spam accounted for more than 45% of all e-mail sent, with the daily average number of spam sent to approximately 15 billion people at once. The Collation Against Unsolicited Email recently reported that one leading ISP processes about 30 million email messages a day, 30% of which are Spam.

A recent MessageLabs, Ltd, report shows that approximately 65 percent of the email they reviewed for businesses in 2005 were spam.

                                    Why is it called spam?
                                      
 
 Take your pick of reasons
_______________________________
During World War II Spam (the canned variety) was
a food staple for soldiers.
The name is an acronym formed from 'SPiced haM'
or '
Shoulder Pork and haM'.

 
The name spam was derived from a Monty Python comedy show which depicted a restaurant serving Spam (the canned ham variety) as a side dish to every item on the menu. This indicated that you would be receiving something whether you wanted it or not. Hence the term spam applying to unwanted  internet junk e-mails.

                  How do spammers get your e-mail address?

Typically spammers use software programs that scan web pages and newsgroups for any word or piece of text that contains an '@' symbol. This is commonly referred to as harvesting. The software collects these addresses and stores them in databases on the spammer's computer, which the spammer then loads into a bulk-mailing program used to send out the spam messages.

It's nearly impossible to stop junk email or to avoid receiving spam email completely. However, here are a few easy ways to minimize the amount that arrives in your email inbox.

                                         Do not respond
 
Never reply to or buy anything offered in a spam message. You don't want the spammer to know that you have received their message. This will only encourage them to continue sending spam, and it will also keep your e-mail address as 'current and deliverable' on their mailing list.

Do not click any unsubscribe links in a spam message. Most of these links are false or will again confirm to the spammer that a live person owns that e-mail address.

Not only does this encourage spammers, but hackers and online criminals conceal dangerous viruses, spyware, trojan horses, etc., that could infiltrate your computer if you click on one of these poisoned links.

                                 Open an extra e-mail account

Use a free e-mail account for junk (signing up for newsletters, free offers, downloads). Some sites that provide this type of service are Hotmail.com, Yahoo.com and GMail.com. There are hundreds of others so be sure to compare their features and select the one that best suits your needs.

If the amount of spam starts to get out of hand, you can start a new free account and cancel the over-spammed one. Only give your personal e-mail address, the one supplied by your ISP, to friends and relatives.

                                         Add some blanks

Another method is to insert blank spaces before and after the '@' symbol in your e-mail address. Place a small note under it instructing visitors to copy and paste the address into a new message and remove the blank spaces before sending their message to you.

This won't allow the e-mail address to be clicked like a normal e-mail link, but the
principle is easy enough for anyone to follow (this is commonly called a munged address).

                                       Set up real mailboxes

If you have your own web site and domain name never use a catch-all e-mail config- uration. A catch-all setup will effectively catch-all e-mails that are sent to that domain, even if they are not addressed correctly, for example joohn@yourdomain.com, and will forward all e-mail to a nominated e-mail address, usually your ISP account.

Spammers will simply make up different e-mail addresses at your domain and see if they are deliverable. If so, they will add these addresses to their mailing lists (many of which are sold to other spammers).

                                    Be careful with spam filters

If you or your ISP uses a spam filter make sure you add all wanted e-mail addresses to your white list (a list of acceptable senders). The spam filter will then allow e-mails from these addresses to reach your inbox. IMediaConnection.com states that approximately 38% of all wanted e-mail is currently getting blocked by spam filters.

                                              Use extra caution

Your bank or financial institution will never ask for your Internet banking password or credit card details in an e-mail message. Neither will they ask you to update these details through a link to a web page. Messages like these will always be spam and should be reported to your bank. Never reply or click any links in these types of messages.

                                           
Anti SPAM Software

Spam blockers and spam filters are standard features of most of the Internet Service Providers (ISP's). Their filters are designed to divert or delete a variety of email messages based on Subject Lines and content. AOL, as one example, gives you the opportunity to review the diverted messages before deleting or saving them.

Software Spam blockers are available from most of the well known companies that provide security programs, ie, McAfee, Norton, and many more. The level of security
can be set by the user and White lists of acceptable correspondents, (those people who you know and trust) are easily built.

If your emails aren't being delivered to your friends, etc, it could be that some of the subject lines and content in them are being questioned by ISP's filters, or even your friend's spam filters and spam blockers. You can easily test the emails your plan to send for SPAM sensitive terms before sending. Try this
 FREE SpamChecker .

                                                                                      ... Richard Rossbauer

                           
 

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Richard started his "Firewalls and Virus Protection" website and "Security Alert News Reporter" to help everyday Internet users navigate safely through the Cyber Space that has become a 'Cyber Jungle', loaded with ambushes and booby traps. He promotes his "Computer Security Awareness Campaign" thru his website at https://www.firewalls-and-virus-protection.com

Please help us educate and protect the unwary by sharing this article. Reprint it if you have a newsletter, website or ezine. Copy or print it to give to your friends. It may be used at will so long as no edits or changes are made to the content and links, and the full attribute box is included. We'd appreciate a short note telling when and where you have posted it. Thank you....Richard (mailto:Richard@firewalls-and-virus-protection.com)

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Richard
www.RichardPresents.com

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