For years I didn't worry much about spam.
But lately it's got out of control. Over half of my email is now spam, and it was growing by the week - until I took action.
This article shows you some strategies for winning the war on spam.
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How Do They Get Your Address?
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In the old days, spammers got their addresses mainly from Newsgroups - if you didn't post to Newsgroups, you were reasonably safe. But they're now using a much more efficient method to build their lists - email harvesters.
Email harvesters are robots that roam the Internet collecting email addresses from web pages. Examples are EmailSiphon, Cherry Picker, Web Weasel, Web Bandit and Email Wolf, to name just a few.
How can you protect yourself from email harvesters?
By 'munging' (mung = 'mash until no good') or cloaking your email address.
There are many ways of munging your address - the easiest technique is to use ASCII code for the punctuation in your email address (instead of symbols).
For the colon after mailto use : and for the @ symbol use @ and for the period use . . With this method, your email address would become:
mailto:yourname@yourdomain.com
but it will display as:
mailto:yourname@yourdomain.com
Your email address will appear exactly as it did before, and it will still be 'clickable', but email harvesters will ignore it and move on.
There are also JavaScript's that you can insert into your web page that will make your email address visible to humans but invisible to harvesting programs. Here's one that works very well: http://pointlessprocess.com/JavaScripts/anti-spam.htm
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How To Fight Spam
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The most important thing is never, ever, reply to spam.
Most spam contains an innocent-looking 'remove me' email address. Do not use it. Here's why:
Spammers typically buy a CD containing a million or so email addresses, but they have no idea how many of those addresses are active. So before beginning their marketing campaign in earnest, they send out a 'test message' to the entire list.
The test message contains an email address for removing yourself. When you reply to that address, it confirms to the spammer that your address is active and therefore worth spamming.
Worse still, the spammer may be distilling from that CD a list of confirmed active addresses that he will then sell to another spammer.
The key to dealing with spam is to report it to a 3rd party: (1) the affiliate program that the spammer is advertising, (2) the spammer's web host, or (3) the ISP the spammer used to connect to the Internet.
When you report spam to a 3rd party, remember to be polite - they didn't send the spam and they're probably just as anti-spam as you are.
(1) Reporting to Affiliate Programs
Many spammers are affiliates advertising someone else's products or services. So look for a website address that contains an affiliate link, something like this: www.affiliateprogramdomain/841526
Then just send an email to the affiliate program (abuse@affiliateprogramdomain.com), informing them that you are receiving spam from one of their affiliates.
Most affiliate programs have zero tolerance for spamming and will remove an affiliate spammer without warning.
Now, affiliate spammers don't want you to see their affiliate link, so many of them send their email as HTML. All you see in the message are the words 'Click Here and Order Now'.
But in your browser just click on 'View Source Code' and search for the letters 'http'. That will take you to the spammer's affiliate link.
(2) Reporting to Web Hosts
If the spam doesn't contain an affiliate link, it's likely that it is coming from the owner of the domain name. In that case you'll have to report it to the spammer's web host or their ISP.
To make a report to the spammer's web host just go to Whois, the directory of registered domain names: http://www.netsol.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois
Type in the spammer's domain (the website address that appears in the spam) together with the extension (.com, .org, .net etc).
The host for that domain will usually be listed as the Technical Contact in the Whois record and there will be an email address for contacting them.
(3) Reporting to ISPs
To report a spammer to his Internet Service Provider, you'll have to look at the spam's 'extended headers'.
Extended headers show the servers that the message passed through in order to get to you. The instructions for viewing extended headers will vary depending on what email client you are using.
=> In Pegasus Mail, open the offending message and then
right-click and choose 'Show raw message data'.
=> In Eudora Light, click on 'Tools' in the top menu
bar, and then 'Options', and then select the
checkbox option that says 'Show all headers (even
the ugly ones)' and click OK.
=> In Outlook Express, open the offending message,
select 'Properties' from the File menu and then
click the 'Details' tab.
Reading and understanding extended headers is quite a detailed subject. Here's an excellent free tutorial on how to decipher extended headers: http://www.doughnut.demon.co.uk/SpamTracking101.html
As an alternative to these reporting techniques, you could use a web-based spam reporting service such as SpamCop (www.spamcop.net). SpamCop deciphers the spam's message headers and traces the mail back to its source.
Wishing you every success in the fight against spam!
Wednesday, 13 August 2008
How To Avoid Spam Robots
by: Jim Edwards
© Jim Edwards - All Rights reservedhttp://www.thenetreporter.com-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-Despite the fact that Federal legislation (the CANSPAM act) made it illegal, harvesting email addresses from the web using automated robots remains alive and well.Spammers who need fresh email addresses release software spider programs that comb the Internet and suck email addresses off Web pages, guest books, and anywhere else you might post your email address.Once they get your email address, spammers will trade it around like 5th graders with a new pack of Pokemon cards at recess and you can expect the avalanche of email to begin flooding your inbox.In order to combat this still rampant practice of stealing email addresses from websites and sending people email they don't want, the following tips should help protect you.** Break It Up **Obviously the best way to avoid getting picked up by an email harvester is not to post your email anywhere on anyone's website (including your own).If the only way someone can get your email is if you give it to them, that creates a similar situation to operating with an unlisted phone number.If telemarketers can't get your phone number, they can't call.If you must post your email address, post it in a way that a robot won't recognize it as an email address. Instead of posting YOURNAME@YOURDOMAIN.COM, you can put YOURNAME (AT) YOURDOMAIN.COM and then, in parenthesis, put (replace AT with @ to email me).Though it seems like an extra step for legitimate email, you'll find it a very effective technique.** Use An Image **Currently, online spiders (ANY spider, including search engines) cannot read text that appears in a graphic or picture. If you must display an email address on a page, then do it by typing your email address into your favorite graphics program and saving the image as a .gif or .jpg. Then post the image onto your web page so people can see the email, but spiders cannot. This too creates an extra step for people because they must type in your email address, but it's an effective solution if you must display an email address on your own website.** Use An Email Form **Another way to cut down on spam originating from your own website is simply not to display an email at all.Instead, allow customers and prospects to contact you through a form where they fill in fields, click a button, and your website emails you their message.A note of caution: make sure the form script you use does not keep your email address visible in the form code.If the form code contains the email address, spam robots can find it even though you don't see it on the page.** Make It Hard To Guess **Sometimes you'll get unsolicited email because a spammer guessed your email address.It's not a far stretch to imagine that someone probably has the email Jim@yourdomain.com, so spammers will do a "dictionary" attack on common usernames.One way to defeat this is to place a "dot" (.) in your email address, such as Jim.Edwards@yourdomain.com. The dot makes it virtually impossible for spammers to guess your email address.
© Jim Edwards - All Rights reservedhttp://www.thenetreporter.com-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-Despite the fact that Federal legislation (the CANSPAM act) made it illegal, harvesting email addresses from the web using automated robots remains alive and well.Spammers who need fresh email addresses release software spider programs that comb the Internet and suck email addresses off Web pages, guest books, and anywhere else you might post your email address.Once they get your email address, spammers will trade it around like 5th graders with a new pack of Pokemon cards at recess and you can expect the avalanche of email to begin flooding your inbox.In order to combat this still rampant practice of stealing email addresses from websites and sending people email they don't want, the following tips should help protect you.** Break It Up **Obviously the best way to avoid getting picked up by an email harvester is not to post your email anywhere on anyone's website (including your own).If the only way someone can get your email is if you give it to them, that creates a similar situation to operating with an unlisted phone number.If telemarketers can't get your phone number, they can't call.If you must post your email address, post it in a way that a robot won't recognize it as an email address. Instead of posting YOURNAME@YOURDOMAIN.COM, you can put YOURNAME (AT) YOURDOMAIN.COM and then, in parenthesis, put (replace AT with @ to email me).Though it seems like an extra step for legitimate email, you'll find it a very effective technique.** Use An Image **Currently, online spiders (ANY spider, including search engines) cannot read text that appears in a graphic or picture. If you must display an email address on a page, then do it by typing your email address into your favorite graphics program and saving the image as a .gif or .jpg. Then post the image onto your web page so people can see the email, but spiders cannot. This too creates an extra step for people because they must type in your email address, but it's an effective solution if you must display an email address on your own website.** Use An Email Form **Another way to cut down on spam originating from your own website is simply not to display an email at all.Instead, allow customers and prospects to contact you through a form where they fill in fields, click a button, and your website emails you their message.A note of caution: make sure the form script you use does not keep your email address visible in the form code.If the form code contains the email address, spam robots can find it even though you don't see it on the page.** Make It Hard To Guess **Sometimes you'll get unsolicited email because a spammer guessed your email address.It's not a far stretch to imagine that someone probably has the email Jim@yourdomain.com, so spammers will do a "dictionary" attack on common usernames.One way to defeat this is to place a "dot" (.) in your email address, such as Jim.Edwards@yourdomain.com. The dot makes it virtually impossible for spammers to guess your email address.
Top 7 Ways to STOP Junk Email
Nothing makes me angrier than opening my email in-box tofind over 150 messages, wading through them all, anddiscovering that 135 of the messages rate as nothing morethan junk. The problem with junk email or "spam" (the popular slangfor unsolicited commercial email) only seems to get worsewith each passing day. Luckily, we can fight back in ways that will actually cutdown significantly on the amount of spam we receive on adaily basis. Try these tips and see if they can't cut the spam youreceive down by at least half.** Don't RespondMuch of the spam you receive contains an "unsubscribe" linksaying something like "To unsubscribe, click here." Do NOTclick that link. Clicking it lets spammers know they've got a live emailaddress!** Use MailwahserGet a program like "Mailwasher" from Mailwasher.net thatallows you to view the email you receive before youdownload it. The program makes it simple to delete dozens of emails,including viruses, before they reach your computer.** Use Your FiltersYour email program most likely contains filters you can useto weed out emails containing the usual spam words like"opportunity, $$$, sex, viagra" and a host of others. You can set the filters to delete messages containing thesewords before ever downloading them to your computer.** Use An "Assassin"Spam "killer" services offer users high-powered filtering,often requiring a sender to prove their identity before anemail gets sent to the recipient. One such service, SpamArrest.com, forces email senders togo to a website and type in a random word before theiremail gets delivered. This service has gained a lot ofpopularity lately and seems reasonably effective.** Use a Temporary EmailMaintain a public and private email address and never giveyour private email to anyone other than family and friends.Go sign up for a free email account with Hotmail.com ormail.yahoo.com to use whenever you subscribe to anewsletter or request a free report. That way, if the spamever gets too bad, you can simply abandon the free accountand open another. Your private email address should remain safe becausenobody will know it except the people you trust.** Never Post Your EmailNever post your private email address in forums, guestbooks, news groups or on a website. Spammers use littlerobots that comb the Internet looking for email addressesthey can collect and sell to others. Always use a free account or set it up so you can shut offthe exposed email address once the spam gets too bad. ** Abandon ShipShut down your current account and just start over! Thismay seem a drastic move, but it may represent the bestcourse of action if your sanity or your email box can'thandle another offer for sexual enhancements, a greatbusiness opportunity, or a free cruise. Notify everyone you want to know your new email address andget on with life.
7 Steps To Effectively Take Control Of Your Inbox And Reduce Spam
by: Balraj Dhaliwal
Everbody hates spam! I am sure spammers hate getting spam too, but they still continue to dish it out. Why? Because it is still effective. Believe it or not, many of us still click on the links or follow-up with the spam message. As long as we continue to do this, spam will exist. If everybody understood this and paid no attention to spam, the spammers will eventually give up because it costs them realy money to send out emails. It is hard to quantify what the cost of sending out one, two or fifty emails is, but 1 million or 5 million emails certainly has a cost that is not negligible. When the payback starts to get so small that the spammers cannot make a decent living, they will find something else to do. This day will come and I cannot wait for it to arrive.In the meantime, what can we do about it. Well, I am not going to tell you that there is a perfect solution that will stop all spam, but what I will tell you is that there is a way to reduce the problem and manage it effectively using the 7 steps outlined below.Step #1: Get Your Own Domain NameFighting spam effectively starts with getting your own domain name. For example if your name is Andy Williams, you would purchase a domain name called andywilliams.com, which is of course already owned by the famous singer. This has some unique advantages over using an ISP given domain name or a webmail service such as Hotmail or Gmail. It also has some minor disadvantages. Let's examine these.One major advantage is that you control the entire email address. You could create emails addresses like andy@andywilliams.com, info@andywilliams.com, sales@andywilliams.com and so on. This is in stark contract to an ISP assigned name like andywilliams@comcast.net. If you wanted another one, you'd have to open up another account or pay extra for each additional ISP assigned address. If you ever decided to switch ISP's, you would lose that email address and have to start over using a new one, and inform everyone you communicated with about it - a very messy proposition.Many get around this problem by getting a Hotmail, Yahoo Mail or Gmail account which you can access from anywhere as long as you have internet access. These types of email accounts definitely have a place in your email toolchest, but do not suffice as your primary personal email address. One reason is that you do not have access to your email messages and address books when you are not online, like during a long flight. Anotehr drawback is that they do not allow you to export the online address books making portability very tedious.I prefer owning my own domain name which I call my permanent email address. I will always have this email address as long as I renew this domain name every year. The cost of registering a domain name varies from $4 to $8 per year for most common ones. This is a small price to pay for the advantages it brings you.The one minor disadvantage of owning your own domain name is that you need to manage it yourself, or have someone do it for you. This in my opinion is far outweighed by the advantages mentioned above.Step #2: Create Private Email AdressesA private email address is one that nobody but your inner circle knows about. Every person that you give your personal email address to is someone that you trust and want to receive email from.Setup one private email address for every person who is going to need to receive messages. This could be you and 5 other members of your family or 12 employees that work for you. This part is quite straightforward, you simply login to your email control panel and create new accounts for each email address that is going to be used to receive email.Step #3: Create Public Email Addresses As AliasesA public email address is generally known to the public. It can be specific like andyw@andywilliams.com or generic like receptionist@andywilliams.com.A public email address is created as an email alias. An email alias is not a real email address, but an address that gets redirected to a real email address. For example, you setup receptionist@andywilliams.com as an alias that redirects to mary@andywilliams.com. Whenever some sends an email to receptionist@andywilliams.com, it will end up in Mary's inbox. If you change receptionists, you simple modify the redirect for a very elegant solution. You can then publish this public email address on a website, in a brochure, on print advertising, business cards etc. without giving away your personal email address and without having to make much changes if Mary leaves and a new receptionist is hired. This is a huge benefit and maintains your privacy as well as those of others you have created email adresses for.How does this help with spam, you ask? By using email aliases in a smart fashion, you could very easily shut down any spam that starts coming in. Let's examine how this can be done.Step #4: Setup the Default or Catch-all Email AddressYour email control panel will have something called a "default address" or it is also sometimes called a "catch-all address". This is a valid email address that all unresolved emails go to. If you set this up to be your personal email address for example, then you will receive all emails that are addressed to "anything"@andywilliams.com, this includes sales@andywilliams.com, joe@andywilliams.com, andrew@andywilliams.com etc. Herein lies the secret to combat spam.Step #5: Create Specific Named Public Email Addresses As And When RequiredWhen you are forced to register on a website where you want to get some information from, you are usually asked for a valid email address. Well guess what, you now have an unlimited supply of valid email adresses. I usually use a specific format when registering at websites - it is "websitename"@andywilliams.com. So if I am registering at a website called www.get-rich-quick.com, I would use the address get-rich-quick@andywilliams.com as my valid email address. When the site sends me an email, it gets redirected to my personal email or whatever the default or catch-all address is.Step #6: Send Spam Back To Where It Came From, If PossibleHere comes the real bonus, if you subsequently start receiving spam addressed to none other than get-rich-quick@andywilliams.com, you simple create an email alias for get-rich-quick@andywilliams.com and redirect the email back to exactly where it came from, for example georg-bush@get-rick-quick.com. You will then never get another email from anyone using that email address ever again. This is cool and is my favourite part. Bear in mind that spammers usually send email from an address that is not their own, so if you see an address like noreply@get-rick-quick.com, then you would redirect it somewhere else, for example a Hotmail address that you setup just for redirection purposes. Please exercise some discretion here because spammers often use the email addresses of real people and we don't want these innocent people getting redirected email.Step #7: Be Diligent In The Ongoing Management Of Your DomainIf you do this diligently for each website where you register by identifying the website name, you will very quickly know which websites are selling email addresses and which ones honor their promise not to share your information. ALl this while, nobody by your personal inner circle knows your private email address.A real-life example in my case: I use a specific email alias for my Paypal account which nobody but Paypal knows. I have never ever received spam on this address, but I have received hundreds of spam messages on other email aliases that I have created. All of these emails supposedly come from Paypal and address me as "Dear Valued Paypal Member" or something similar, warning me that my account is going to be closed or suspended unless I click on their link and update my credit card information.I hope that I have given you some food for thought on how to manage the ever growing spam problem by protecting yourself by taking some initiative and getting your own domain name. The added benefit is that you now have a permanent email address no matter where you choose to live or which ISP you use to connect to the internet.There are many other ways to fight spam which I will perhaps address future articles.
Everbody hates spam! I am sure spammers hate getting spam too, but they still continue to dish it out. Why? Because it is still effective. Believe it or not, many of us still click on the links or follow-up with the spam message. As long as we continue to do this, spam will exist. If everybody understood this and paid no attention to spam, the spammers will eventually give up because it costs them realy money to send out emails. It is hard to quantify what the cost of sending out one, two or fifty emails is, but 1 million or 5 million emails certainly has a cost that is not negligible. When the payback starts to get so small that the spammers cannot make a decent living, they will find something else to do. This day will come and I cannot wait for it to arrive.In the meantime, what can we do about it. Well, I am not going to tell you that there is a perfect solution that will stop all spam, but what I will tell you is that there is a way to reduce the problem and manage it effectively using the 7 steps outlined below.Step #1: Get Your Own Domain NameFighting spam effectively starts with getting your own domain name. For example if your name is Andy Williams, you would purchase a domain name called andywilliams.com, which is of course already owned by the famous singer. This has some unique advantages over using an ISP given domain name or a webmail service such as Hotmail or Gmail. It also has some minor disadvantages. Let's examine these.One major advantage is that you control the entire email address. You could create emails addresses like andy@andywilliams.com, info@andywilliams.com, sales@andywilliams.com and so on. This is in stark contract to an ISP assigned name like andywilliams@comcast.net. If you wanted another one, you'd have to open up another account or pay extra for each additional ISP assigned address. If you ever decided to switch ISP's, you would lose that email address and have to start over using a new one, and inform everyone you communicated with about it - a very messy proposition.Many get around this problem by getting a Hotmail, Yahoo Mail or Gmail account which you can access from anywhere as long as you have internet access. These types of email accounts definitely have a place in your email toolchest, but do not suffice as your primary personal email address. One reason is that you do not have access to your email messages and address books when you are not online, like during a long flight. Anotehr drawback is that they do not allow you to export the online address books making portability very tedious.I prefer owning my own domain name which I call my permanent email address. I will always have this email address as long as I renew this domain name every year. The cost of registering a domain name varies from $4 to $8 per year for most common ones. This is a small price to pay for the advantages it brings you.The one minor disadvantage of owning your own domain name is that you need to manage it yourself, or have someone do it for you. This in my opinion is far outweighed by the advantages mentioned above.Step #2: Create Private Email AdressesA private email address is one that nobody but your inner circle knows about. Every person that you give your personal email address to is someone that you trust and want to receive email from.Setup one private email address for every person who is going to need to receive messages. This could be you and 5 other members of your family or 12 employees that work for you. This part is quite straightforward, you simply login to your email control panel and create new accounts for each email address that is going to be used to receive email.Step #3: Create Public Email Addresses As AliasesA public email address is generally known to the public. It can be specific like andyw@andywilliams.com or generic like receptionist@andywilliams.com.A public email address is created as an email alias. An email alias is not a real email address, but an address that gets redirected to a real email address. For example, you setup receptionist@andywilliams.com as an alias that redirects to mary@andywilliams.com. Whenever some sends an email to receptionist@andywilliams.com, it will end up in Mary's inbox. If you change receptionists, you simple modify the redirect for a very elegant solution. You can then publish this public email address on a website, in a brochure, on print advertising, business cards etc. without giving away your personal email address and without having to make much changes if Mary leaves and a new receptionist is hired. This is a huge benefit and maintains your privacy as well as those of others you have created email adresses for.How does this help with spam, you ask? By using email aliases in a smart fashion, you could very easily shut down any spam that starts coming in. Let's examine how this can be done.Step #4: Setup the Default or Catch-all Email AddressYour email control panel will have something called a "default address" or it is also sometimes called a "catch-all address". This is a valid email address that all unresolved emails go to. If you set this up to be your personal email address for example, then you will receive all emails that are addressed to "anything"@andywilliams.com, this includes sales@andywilliams.com, joe@andywilliams.com, andrew@andywilliams.com etc. Herein lies the secret to combat spam.Step #5: Create Specific Named Public Email Addresses As And When RequiredWhen you are forced to register on a website where you want to get some information from, you are usually asked for a valid email address. Well guess what, you now have an unlimited supply of valid email adresses. I usually use a specific format when registering at websites - it is "websitename"@andywilliams.com. So if I am registering at a website called www.get-rich-quick.com, I would use the address get-rich-quick@andywilliams.com as my valid email address. When the site sends me an email, it gets redirected to my personal email or whatever the default or catch-all address is.Step #6: Send Spam Back To Where It Came From, If PossibleHere comes the real bonus, if you subsequently start receiving spam addressed to none other than get-rich-quick@andywilliams.com, you simple create an email alias for get-rich-quick@andywilliams.com and redirect the email back to exactly where it came from, for example georg-bush@get-rick-quick.com. You will then never get another email from anyone using that email address ever again. This is cool and is my favourite part. Bear in mind that spammers usually send email from an address that is not their own, so if you see an address like noreply@get-rick-quick.com, then you would redirect it somewhere else, for example a Hotmail address that you setup just for redirection purposes. Please exercise some discretion here because spammers often use the email addresses of real people and we don't want these innocent people getting redirected email.Step #7: Be Diligent In The Ongoing Management Of Your DomainIf you do this diligently for each website where you register by identifying the website name, you will very quickly know which websites are selling email addresses and which ones honor their promise not to share your information. ALl this while, nobody by your personal inner circle knows your private email address.A real-life example in my case: I use a specific email alias for my Paypal account which nobody but Paypal knows. I have never ever received spam on this address, but I have received hundreds of spam messages on other email aliases that I have created. All of these emails supposedly come from Paypal and address me as "Dear Valued Paypal Member" or something similar, warning me that my account is going to be closed or suspended unless I click on their link and update my credit card information.I hope that I have given you some food for thought on how to manage the ever growing spam problem by protecting yourself by taking some initiative and getting your own domain name. The added benefit is that you now have a permanent email address no matter where you choose to live or which ISP you use to connect to the internet.There are many other ways to fight spam which I will perhaps address future articles.
5 Zero Cost Solutions to Spam
by: Niall Roche
Spam is a daily nuisance for all of us. It doesn't matter whether you're employed or unemployed. It doesn't matter if you're a CEO of a multinational or if you're a work at home parent - spam affects us all. There are dozens of porgams available for fighting spam. The major problem is that most of these programs cost money. What I'm going to do is show you 5 different ways of combating spam - all free. 1. Don't give out your personal email address. This is stating the obvious but it's the first big mistake people make. DO NOT use your personal email address for sign up forms, competitions, surveys or any other nonsense that may result in you being spammed. It's much easier to prevent spam, by never giving out your personal email address, than it is to cure the problem once you're on 100's of junk email lists. 2. Use a free email account Set yourself up with a Hotmail, Yahoo or any other free email account and use it as a spam holder account i.e. use it on all those popups or sign up forms that you *suspect* may try to spam you. You can then periodically check your free email account for both legitimate and spam email and delete the rubbish you don't want. This single step can save you countless spam related headaches. 3. Use a disposable email address You could also try a disposable e-mail address from www.spamgourmet.com. This is a brilliant idea. Once you've registered your forwarding email address (your personal email address) with them you can then create self-destructing email addresses that stop working after receiving a specific number of emails. 4. Use a free spam filter. Unfortunately even when you follow all the correct steps you can still wind up getting junk email. There's only solution at that point - install a spam filter on your PC. The best free spam filter I've come across so far is Mailwasher. An excellent program that won't cost you a penny. 5. Newsgroups and forums Spammers love newsgroups and forums. They especially love the way people post their personal email addresses there. It doesn't matter if it's a paid, private or free forum spammers have their harvester programs hunting for email addresses every minute of every day. If you have to post your email address then use the following format: username AT domain.com. If that doesn't make sense then what I mean is instead of posting as test@spam-site.com you'd post as test AT spam-site.com. Spammers can harvest 35,000 email addresses per hour from newsgroups and forums - don't let your email address become one of those. There you have 5 simple, free solutions to drastically reduce the amount of spam you receive every single day. If you want to learn more about fighting spam then drop by spam-site.com.
Spam is a daily nuisance for all of us. It doesn't matter whether you're employed or unemployed. It doesn't matter if you're a CEO of a multinational or if you're a work at home parent - spam affects us all. There are dozens of porgams available for fighting spam. The major problem is that most of these programs cost money. What I'm going to do is show you 5 different ways of combating spam - all free. 1. Don't give out your personal email address. This is stating the obvious but it's the first big mistake people make. DO NOT use your personal email address for sign up forms, competitions, surveys or any other nonsense that may result in you being spammed. It's much easier to prevent spam, by never giving out your personal email address, than it is to cure the problem once you're on 100's of junk email lists. 2. Use a free email account Set yourself up with a Hotmail, Yahoo or any other free email account and use it as a spam holder account i.e. use it on all those popups or sign up forms that you *suspect* may try to spam you. You can then periodically check your free email account for both legitimate and spam email and delete the rubbish you don't want. This single step can save you countless spam related headaches. 3. Use a disposable email address You could also try a disposable e-mail address from www.spamgourmet.com. This is a brilliant idea. Once you've registered your forwarding email address (your personal email address) with them you can then create self-destructing email addresses that stop working after receiving a specific number of emails. 4. Use a free spam filter. Unfortunately even when you follow all the correct steps you can still wind up getting junk email. There's only solution at that point - install a spam filter on your PC. The best free spam filter I've come across so far is Mailwasher. An excellent program that won't cost you a penny. 5. Newsgroups and forums Spammers love newsgroups and forums. They especially love the way people post their personal email addresses there. It doesn't matter if it's a paid, private or free forum spammers have their harvester programs hunting for email addresses every minute of every day. If you have to post your email address then use the following format: username AT domain.com. If that doesn't make sense then what I mean is instead of posting as test@spam-site.com you'd post as test AT spam-site.com. Spammers can harvest 35,000 email addresses per hour from newsgroups and forums - don't let your email address become one of those. There you have 5 simple, free solutions to drastically reduce the amount of spam you receive every single day. If you want to learn more about fighting spam then drop by spam-site.com.
Do You Get More Spam Than Real Email?
by: Matt Garrett
The unsolicited junk or bulk email that you receive is known as Spam. Spam is a very serious problem the people have to deal with daily. Sometimes the junk emails exceed the regular email messages that we receive in our email account. Spam filter can be a solution for you to get freedom from Spam mails. There are different types of software to keep out the Spam emails from your inbox. Spam filters can monitor the emails that come in your inbox and prevent any Spam mail from entering in to your inbox. The Spam email that you receive is due to the inappropriate usage of mailing list. The mailing list consists of email ids of different people and all of them can be flooded with bulk or junk emails. Many companies send out the Spam email massages to a large number of people who do not ask for such massages. Spamming is considered to be very bad netiquette as it amounts in violating a person’s privacy. Netiquette demand that no email id can be used without the user’s permission. Many Spam filters are designed to help people who are constantly bombarded with junk or bulk mails. Spam filters make use of filtering technology to filter the contents of the incoming emails. Spam filters can effectively help a person by sorting out these types of incoming emails. Different types of Spam filters can be helpful for controlling spam. Content based Spam filter is one type that can be used by you. The filter scans the content of the email, and searches for tell tale signs for Spam in the message. Content based Spam filters have however not been very effective in controlling the bulk or the junk messages. The main reason for this being that the spammers had devised ways and means by which they can communicate their message despite the presence of such filters. Spam filters that are prepared these days are designed to give advanced protection against unsolicited emails and spammers. Bayesian filter technology is another effective way of controlling these mails. Bayesian technology is not like other filtering methods that search for Spam identifying words in the header and the subject line. The Bayesian filter uses the entire perspective of an email when it looks for characters or words for identifying a Spam. Another feature of Bayesian Spam filter is that the more it analyzes the incoming mails, the more it learns to identify Spam mails. Spam mails can sometimes bombard you in such a manner that you may end up receiving more Spam than the regular emails. Most email service providers have Spam filter software enabled in their sites. All you need to do is select the options of setting the Spam filter for your emails according to your liking. You can mark the sites from which you want to receive or not receive mails in your inbox. Setting the options for blocking the bulk or the junk mails is entirely your prerogative.
The unsolicited junk or bulk email that you receive is known as Spam. Spam is a very serious problem the people have to deal with daily. Sometimes the junk emails exceed the regular email messages that we receive in our email account. Spam filter can be a solution for you to get freedom from Spam mails. There are different types of software to keep out the Spam emails from your inbox. Spam filters can monitor the emails that come in your inbox and prevent any Spam mail from entering in to your inbox. The Spam email that you receive is due to the inappropriate usage of mailing list. The mailing list consists of email ids of different people and all of them can be flooded with bulk or junk emails. Many companies send out the Spam email massages to a large number of people who do not ask for such massages. Spamming is considered to be very bad netiquette as it amounts in violating a person’s privacy. Netiquette demand that no email id can be used without the user’s permission. Many Spam filters are designed to help people who are constantly bombarded with junk or bulk mails. Spam filters make use of filtering technology to filter the contents of the incoming emails. Spam filters can effectively help a person by sorting out these types of incoming emails. Different types of Spam filters can be helpful for controlling spam. Content based Spam filter is one type that can be used by you. The filter scans the content of the email, and searches for tell tale signs for Spam in the message. Content based Spam filters have however not been very effective in controlling the bulk or the junk messages. The main reason for this being that the spammers had devised ways and means by which they can communicate their message despite the presence of such filters. Spam filters that are prepared these days are designed to give advanced protection against unsolicited emails and spammers. Bayesian filter technology is another effective way of controlling these mails. Bayesian technology is not like other filtering methods that search for Spam identifying words in the header and the subject line. The Bayesian filter uses the entire perspective of an email when it looks for characters or words for identifying a Spam. Another feature of Bayesian Spam filter is that the more it analyzes the incoming mails, the more it learns to identify Spam mails. Spam mails can sometimes bombard you in such a manner that you may end up receiving more Spam than the regular emails. Most email service providers have Spam filter software enabled in their sites. All you need to do is select the options of setting the Spam filter for your emails according to your liking. You can mark the sites from which you want to receive or not receive mails in your inbox. Setting the options for blocking the bulk or the junk mails is entirely your prerogative.
Six Tips to Get Rid of Spam Email
by: Alex Fir
1. Ignore Spam EmailDo not open an unsolicited email. Spammers are just playing a numbers game. They simply send out like a million emails and hope that at least a third of them stick. Spammers try to gather as many email addresses as they can. They don’t even know if any of the addresses are active. It is when you answer them that they know whether or not it is an active account that is checked often. 2. Do NOT Click On the Unsubscribe LinksIt is natural for you to want to click on the link at the bottom of the email that promises that you can be taken off of their email list, but do not think for a second that this is what happens. When you click on the “click here if you wish to stop receiving these emails” link, the spammers simply change the name that sends it to you. All you have proven is that you are indeed opening and reading emails. 3. Use Various Email AddressesSince it is unavoidable to receive spam, set up a “dummy” email address. You would use this address when you register for newsletters, order products, enter contests, and register your new software.You would like to avoid using you primary email address, or the email address that you receive from your ISP for things like that. This is the email that you would give your contacts or “safe people”. 4. Don’t Post Your AddressIf you have a web site, avoid posting your email address in your “contact me” section. Since spammers scan through web sites and look for the @ symbol, write your email address with the word “at” instead. That makes it a bit more difficult for spammers to find your email address because they use special software that searches for the symbol, and not just the words. 5. Do Not Purchase from SpamThe absolute worst thing that you could do is buy something from spam. Just imagine how perfect the world would be if everyone gathered together to refuse to buy things that were offered in an unsolicited email. Spammers would be out of business the moment that they realized that they weren’t getting anywhere.6. Beware of Free Trial SoftwareFor every legitimate download, there are plenty that are designed to get your personal information, which will eventually lead you to more spam. This is particularly popular from free trial software as well as free software.Spammers use this method in a similar manner as they would use a gift promotion and contest sign in. That is one of the most beneficial ways for spammers to get you on their hook.
1. Ignore Spam EmailDo not open an unsolicited email. Spammers are just playing a numbers game. They simply send out like a million emails and hope that at least a third of them stick. Spammers try to gather as many email addresses as they can. They don’t even know if any of the addresses are active. It is when you answer them that they know whether or not it is an active account that is checked often. 2. Do NOT Click On the Unsubscribe LinksIt is natural for you to want to click on the link at the bottom of the email that promises that you can be taken off of their email list, but do not think for a second that this is what happens. When you click on the “click here if you wish to stop receiving these emails” link, the spammers simply change the name that sends it to you. All you have proven is that you are indeed opening and reading emails. 3. Use Various Email AddressesSince it is unavoidable to receive spam, set up a “dummy” email address. You would use this address when you register for newsletters, order products, enter contests, and register your new software.You would like to avoid using you primary email address, or the email address that you receive from your ISP for things like that. This is the email that you would give your contacts or “safe people”. 4. Don’t Post Your AddressIf you have a web site, avoid posting your email address in your “contact me” section. Since spammers scan through web sites and look for the @ symbol, write your email address with the word “at” instead. That makes it a bit more difficult for spammers to find your email address because they use special software that searches for the symbol, and not just the words. 5. Do Not Purchase from SpamThe absolute worst thing that you could do is buy something from spam. Just imagine how perfect the world would be if everyone gathered together to refuse to buy things that were offered in an unsolicited email. Spammers would be out of business the moment that they realized that they weren’t getting anywhere.6. Beware of Free Trial SoftwareFor every legitimate download, there are plenty that are designed to get your personal information, which will eventually lead you to more spam. This is particularly popular from free trial software as well as free software.Spammers use this method in a similar manner as they would use a gift promotion and contest sign in. That is one of the most beneficial ways for spammers to get you on their hook.
Email Marketing: Affordable Internet Marketing Technique
by: David Riewe
Email marketing is labeled as a killer method when it comes to effective low-cost Internet marketing endeavors. This is because it is the most widely-used and has the best reputation in bringing targeted traffic to websites. It is used to stay in touch with your customers or prospective customers, send out invitations, or make special offers. It's as easy as writing an e-mail that may be in a form of a newsletter or a plain announcement, and sending that to as many targeted recipients as possible. However, there's an ideal way of going about it. Email marketing is not just about writing any email that you will be sending to anybody. To clarify that, here are some simple tips in doing email marketing the best way possible.1. Join the "Can Spam" campaign.Email marketing is not at any rate tantamount to spamming. You are not supposed to send information that your email list will not have any valuable use for. 2. Make your email list open it.Your email might get lost together with the hundreds of emails that inbox owners are confronted with everyday. Improve your subject line by using extra white space creatively, adding text symbols, starting each word with a capital letter, asking compelling questions, not making any unbelievable claims, and not using the word FREE.3. Keep it real.Not including any too good to be true statements is not only applicable to your subject line. Your email content must never embody any promise your business can't keep. Make your offer genuinely of value to your recipients. 4. Don't go too low.If you inform your customers regarding discounts, minimal discounts are not that effective compared with substantial discounts. But never offer discounts that are lower than your profit. It will defeat the purpose of this email marketing effort.5. Make it eventful.It's not about contradicting the advice that you should keep an email short and sweet. This tip is on including seminars, conferences and other events in your email. Businesses that require training benefit much from this method. With these RSVP-requiring emails, repetition is important. Just make sure that an ample interval is considered before sending out a reminder email. 6. Post news.Sending newsletters and postcards provides useful information for your subscribers. These are the best forms of reaching out to your customers or prospects. You should keep the information short, simple and direct to the point for this feat to be effective.With these simple ways of going about your email marketing endeavor, your business will prosper in no time.
Email marketing is labeled as a killer method when it comes to effective low-cost Internet marketing endeavors. This is because it is the most widely-used and has the best reputation in bringing targeted traffic to websites. It is used to stay in touch with your customers or prospective customers, send out invitations, or make special offers. It's as easy as writing an e-mail that may be in a form of a newsletter or a plain announcement, and sending that to as many targeted recipients as possible. However, there's an ideal way of going about it. Email marketing is not just about writing any email that you will be sending to anybody. To clarify that, here are some simple tips in doing email marketing the best way possible.1. Join the "Can Spam" campaign.Email marketing is not at any rate tantamount to spamming. You are not supposed to send information that your email list will not have any valuable use for. 2. Make your email list open it.Your email might get lost together with the hundreds of emails that inbox owners are confronted with everyday. Improve your subject line by using extra white space creatively, adding text symbols, starting each word with a capital letter, asking compelling questions, not making any unbelievable claims, and not using the word FREE.3. Keep it real.Not including any too good to be true statements is not only applicable to your subject line. Your email content must never embody any promise your business can't keep. Make your offer genuinely of value to your recipients. 4. Don't go too low.If you inform your customers regarding discounts, minimal discounts are not that effective compared with substantial discounts. But never offer discounts that are lower than your profit. It will defeat the purpose of this email marketing effort.5. Make it eventful.It's not about contradicting the advice that you should keep an email short and sweet. This tip is on including seminars, conferences and other events in your email. Businesses that require training benefit much from this method. With these RSVP-requiring emails, repetition is important. Just make sure that an ample interval is considered before sending out a reminder email. 6. Post news.Sending newsletters and postcards provides useful information for your subscribers. These are the best forms of reaching out to your customers or prospects. You should keep the information short, simple and direct to the point for this feat to be effective.With these simple ways of going about your email marketing endeavor, your business will prosper in no time.
The Hidden Dangers of HTML Email
by: Kathy Burns-Millyard
As a veteran Internet user, I can honestly say I remember a time when HTML email was not possible. Back then RTF wasn't available either and for that matter, email programs did not even wrap lines for you or allow file attachments. Today however, I receive a steady and annoying stream of email in all shapes, colors and sizes. Almost all promotional advertisements and many newsletters come in Html format. Now, Spam is annoying, Spam in droves even more so, but Spam with "twirlygigs" is intolerable -- and dangerous. HTML is for websites. I visit them all the time and enjoy their various amusements. Email however, is a tool. A communications method used for getting work done. I get plenty of regular email, hundreds of pieces a day usually, due to the support, consulting and writing services I provide. If all of those emails are in HTML format then I'm stuck looking at potentially hundreds of web pages and thousands of graphics.HTML email takes extra time to download, and for me it takes extra time to read. You see I don't trust HTML email. I've coded many websites in my day and I know that scripts can be hidden in the pages. Now when you couple that fact with the daily news about viruses and worms being sent, well that's just downright scary, so I do not allow my email program to automatically open HTML formatted email. Now I rarely use Outlook and Express (sorry Microsoft but they feel just a bit too dangerous to me now days) however I'd rather be safe than sorry no matter which email program I use. So, I have my email software configured to show all HTML messages as attachments. Having the email converted to an attachment allows me to immediately see if there are any other files included with the message. And let me tell you, this has saved my butt time after time! I've lost count of how many times I've gotten email with the HTML attached, and malicious code, worms and viruses attached right next to it. If my email program was configured to "conveniently" display HTML as a web page, then a lot of those attached files would have opened on their own and done who knows what to my system. So, if you receive a lot of email yourself, be careful what you allow to come in. If you run a newsletter or Email update service of any kind, please be courteous and at least ASK before sending HTML formatted email. And when you do have permission to send HTML email, don't include heavy graphics, scripts or other file attachments. Text may not be as glamorous, but it's a heck of a lot safer and much easier for your readers to glance through.
As a veteran Internet user, I can honestly say I remember a time when HTML email was not possible. Back then RTF wasn't available either and for that matter, email programs did not even wrap lines for you or allow file attachments. Today however, I receive a steady and annoying stream of email in all shapes, colors and sizes. Almost all promotional advertisements and many newsletters come in Html format. Now, Spam is annoying, Spam in droves even more so, but Spam with "twirlygigs" is intolerable -- and dangerous. HTML is for websites. I visit them all the time and enjoy their various amusements. Email however, is a tool. A communications method used for getting work done. I get plenty of regular email, hundreds of pieces a day usually, due to the support, consulting and writing services I provide. If all of those emails are in HTML format then I'm stuck looking at potentially hundreds of web pages and thousands of graphics.HTML email takes extra time to download, and for me it takes extra time to read. You see I don't trust HTML email. I've coded many websites in my day and I know that scripts can be hidden in the pages. Now when you couple that fact with the daily news about viruses and worms being sent, well that's just downright scary, so I do not allow my email program to automatically open HTML formatted email. Now I rarely use Outlook and Express (sorry Microsoft but they feel just a bit too dangerous to me now days) however I'd rather be safe than sorry no matter which email program I use. So, I have my email software configured to show all HTML messages as attachments. Having the email converted to an attachment allows me to immediately see if there are any other files included with the message. And let me tell you, this has saved my butt time after time! I've lost count of how many times I've gotten email with the HTML attached, and malicious code, worms and viruses attached right next to it. If my email program was configured to "conveniently" display HTML as a web page, then a lot of those attached files would have opened on their own and done who knows what to my system. So, if you receive a lot of email yourself, be careful what you allow to come in. If you run a newsletter or Email update service of any kind, please be courteous and at least ASK before sending HTML formatted email. And when you do have permission to send HTML email, don't include heavy graphics, scripts or other file attachments. Text may not be as glamorous, but it's a heck of a lot safer and much easier for your readers to glance through.
Let The Email Wars Begin
Things just got a lot hotter in the hyper-competitive worldof online email providers.In response to Google's announcement that their soon-to-be-launched "Gmail" service will offer users 1 gigabyte ofemail storage, Yahoo! announced an upgrade of their freeemail service to allow users 100MB of free email storagealong with other enhancements.Microsoft's Hotmail will surely also announce a freeupgrade in email storage space.On the surface it might just appear like a simple case ofone-upmanship, but it actually represents major forcesdigging in online and preparing to do battle.It appears Yahoo! simply wanted to take the issue of emailstorage space off the table as a consideration for users asto which email service to choose.Google enjoyed considerable media and public attention overthe past few weeks with the media marveling at how Googleintended to give hundreds of megabytes more space to itsusers than Yahoo! or Hotmail.With this move, Yahoo! made storage a "non-issue," but thereal war has only just begun.Email ranks as the number one most popular online activityaccording to virtually any survey you care to read.When people go online, they spend the single biggest chunkof their time sending, receiving, and reading email.Online email providers understand that eyeballs on a pagelooking at advertising and responding to offers is whatmakes them money.By increasing loyalty among email users in order torepeatedly draw them back to the same website (oftenseveral times a day), email service providers like Yahoo!,Hotmail and Google can keep people looking at revenuegenerating ads.Despite the best efforts of government regulators, privateorganizations, software filters, ISP's and others, overhalf of all email sent online rates as unsolicitedcommercial email (SPAM).Besides storage space, Google, Yahoo! and Hotmail willstart claiming that their spam filters rate better than therest.These online powerhouses hope to attract users with thepromise of cutting down and even eliminating the avalancheof get-rich-quick, pornography, and ink-jet cartridgeoffers (among others) that bombard virtually anyone with anemail account more than 15 minutes old.This will, however, lead to another problem that many ofthem won't talk about, which involves filtering legitimateemail as spam.Unfortunately, the sword cuts both ways on this issue.So where does it all end? Never! Hotmail will enter thefray with expanded storage capacity as well as the promiseof less spam and a more "friendly" interface to make youremail life even easier.Yahoo! and Hotmail will most likely copy Google and startserving context sensitive advertising based on the contentof each email message as it get viewed.Privacy advocates will weigh in to claim that all of thefiltering and serving of ads based on an email message'scontent violates our rights to privacy and heralds thearrival of "Big Brother."But all this jockeying for position and enticing users fromone email service to another actually represents a greatboon for the average Internet user.It will force three of the Web's biggest players to wake upand improve their services after 2 or 3 years of "businessas usual" and we can all expect a few valuable innovationsto result.
What Spam Blocker is Best For You?
by: Niall Roche
With the number of spam filtering solutions increasing each week it's getting tougher for consumers to make informed choices in their purchases. There are 3 basic types of spam blocker: 1. Integrated 2. Standalone 3. Online We'll look at each type of spam filter and at the end you should be able to decide what spam filter is right for you. Integrated spam filters This type of spam filtering software is the most common. Once installed it sits "on top" of your existing email software and installs a new set of buttons into your email software. In future when you collect email you'll see options for marking email as Spam, marking the email as Not Spam, Bounce the email back to sender, etc. The description and position of these buttons varies from one product to the next but their purpose remains the same. Most integrated spam filters automatically place suspected junk email into a separate folder on your PC for you to review or delete later on. The newer integrated spam filters are also "intelligent". They can basically learn the difference between what is spam and what is not and delete the junk email you don't want. The most popular integrated spam filters are: iHate Spam Spambully Spam Inspector Integrated spam filters are most popular amongst people who want a one click solution to collecting their personal email and filtering junk email at the same time. Advantages: One click solution. Disadvantages: Software specific. Some work with Outlook and Outlook Express only. Standalone spam filters These are less common than their integarted counterparts but that doesn't make them any less useful. A standalone spam filter is basically a separate piece of software installed on your PC that you use to check your email for spam. Standalone filters have the big advantage of being able to preview your email on the mail server before it's downloaded to your PC. This one single feature has the huge benefit of allowing you to just download the email that you want as opposed to downloading all of your email, including the spam, and then sorting through it. Using a standalone spam filter is a little more work simply because it's a separate piece of software that you have to run before you open up your email software. Most standalone filters do allow you to configure them so that your standard email application is opened once you've chosen what spam to filter. This suits some people and not others. The most popular standalone spam filter is: Mailwasher Pro Advantages: Doesn't rely on specific email applications to work properly. Disadvantages: Two step process. Load standalone filter and then your email application. Online spam filters There are really two types of online spam filters. One is for business use and one is for home use. A typical example of a business type product is iHate Spam server edition where the software deletes junk email directly from the mail server before the end user even sees it. Large companies employ this type of technology. Home users will be using Spam Arrest or similar. Spam Arrest offers an inventive solution to spam whereby any email sent to the users account has a challenge request sent back to it which the sender must authenticate. The automatic junk email software used by spammers can't currently deal with this type of response. Any failure to authenticate the challenge email results in the junk email being left to die in cyberspace. A user is authenticated with Spam Arrest only once for security just to make sure the software doesn't become a nuisance. The most popular online spam filter is: Spam Arrest Advantages: Users are guaranteed to only receive the email that they want or requested. Disadvantages: Any techncial problems with the Spam Arrest server and you have no defense against spam. Now you've seen what spam filtering options are available to you just ask yourself which one suits you most. If you're still not sure drop by www.spam-site.com and check out our product reviews - we have something for everyone.
With the number of spam filtering solutions increasing each week it's getting tougher for consumers to make informed choices in their purchases. There are 3 basic types of spam blocker: 1. Integrated 2. Standalone 3. Online We'll look at each type of spam filter and at the end you should be able to decide what spam filter is right for you. Integrated spam filters This type of spam filtering software is the most common. Once installed it sits "on top" of your existing email software and installs a new set of buttons into your email software. In future when you collect email you'll see options for marking email as Spam, marking the email as Not Spam, Bounce the email back to sender, etc. The description and position of these buttons varies from one product to the next but their purpose remains the same. Most integrated spam filters automatically place suspected junk email into a separate folder on your PC for you to review or delete later on. The newer integrated spam filters are also "intelligent". They can basically learn the difference between what is spam and what is not and delete the junk email you don't want. The most popular integrated spam filters are: iHate Spam Spambully Spam Inspector Integrated spam filters are most popular amongst people who want a one click solution to collecting their personal email and filtering junk email at the same time. Advantages: One click solution. Disadvantages: Software specific. Some work with Outlook and Outlook Express only. Standalone spam filters These are less common than their integarted counterparts but that doesn't make them any less useful. A standalone spam filter is basically a separate piece of software installed on your PC that you use to check your email for spam. Standalone filters have the big advantage of being able to preview your email on the mail server before it's downloaded to your PC. This one single feature has the huge benefit of allowing you to just download the email that you want as opposed to downloading all of your email, including the spam, and then sorting through it. Using a standalone spam filter is a little more work simply because it's a separate piece of software that you have to run before you open up your email software. Most standalone filters do allow you to configure them so that your standard email application is opened once you've chosen what spam to filter. This suits some people and not others. The most popular standalone spam filter is: Mailwasher Pro Advantages: Doesn't rely on specific email applications to work properly. Disadvantages: Two step process. Load standalone filter and then your email application. Online spam filters There are really two types of online spam filters. One is for business use and one is for home use. A typical example of a business type product is iHate Spam server edition where the software deletes junk email directly from the mail server before the end user even sees it. Large companies employ this type of technology. Home users will be using Spam Arrest or similar. Spam Arrest offers an inventive solution to spam whereby any email sent to the users account has a challenge request sent back to it which the sender must authenticate. The automatic junk email software used by spammers can't currently deal with this type of response. Any failure to authenticate the challenge email results in the junk email being left to die in cyberspace. A user is authenticated with Spam Arrest only once for security just to make sure the software doesn't become a nuisance. The most popular online spam filter is: Spam Arrest Advantages: Users are guaranteed to only receive the email that they want or requested. Disadvantages: Any techncial problems with the Spam Arrest server and you have no defense against spam. Now you've seen what spam filtering options are available to you just ask yourself which one suits you most. If you're still not sure drop by www.spam-site.com and check out our product reviews - we have something for everyone.
Avoid, Shun, Thwart, Prevent, and then Filter Spam
by: Nick Smith
Email is rapidly becoming the standard means of communication among businesses, associates, and even friends. While many people have now been using the internet and email for years, there are thousands of new users on the internet each day. With inexpensive web hosting, free email services, and the blog burst upon us, getting your own slice of the internet pie has never been easier.Whether you’re a seasoned professional looking for a refresher course, or you’re new to the internet and email and want to start off right, here are some easy steps to follow to reduce the amount of spam you receive.Don’t choose an obvious email address. Spammers will generate lists of email addresses based on common names. A common list would be something like: nick@yahoo.com, nick1@yahoo.com, nick2@yahoo.com, etc. If you create an email account with less obvious combinations of your name plus some numbers, chances are better that you won’t find your way onto one of these lists.Treat your personal email address with care. Only give out your personal email address to close friends and family who you trust. Give your direct business email only to clients and other contacts you trust to only use your address for legitimate business purposes.Use different accounts for different functions. Create different aliases with your business’s domain name or create a few free accounts from free email servers like Hotmail, Yahoo!, Excite, etc. Use one account that you don’t care about for posting to forums or discussion groups. Use another to subscribe to newsletters and newsgroups. When any of these addresses starts to get spammed too heavily, simply delete the account and switch to a different one.Remove your email address from your website. Between blogs and cheap web space, it seems everyone has their own piece of cyberspace. Before you put a link to your email address on your site, remember that spammers have bots that harvest these addresses. They will even find addresses printed in plain text. Consider using a web-based form for communication from you website, or place your address as a gif or jpeg.Do not open, respond to, or purchase from spam. Interacting with spam in any of these ways indicates to the spammer that not only is your address valid, it’s also active. Do not respond with “unsubscribe” in the subject line, or click on any links to remove your name out of the database, as both of these are common ploys to confirm your email address. Remember, because sending email is so inexpensive, spamming can be profitable even if only a small percentage of people purchase what they’re selling. Don’t support what you’re trying to stop.Finally, Filter you incoming email using filtering software. Even if you guard your email address religiously, you’ll likely still receive spam. Filtering software is usually inexpensive and effective, but there are some important features to consider with any filtering package:• Make sure you can control what comes to your inbox and what gets deleted. The best programs create a spam folder for you to review before permanently deleting emails.• The software should block images from incoming emails. Many jpegs in spam actually hide code that notifies the spammer when the email is viewed. Blocking images will not only keep offensive content off your screen but will also help prevent more spam in the future.• Choose software that provides you with updates - as new spamming techniques are created and proliferated, filtering software should keep up.While eliminating spam from coming to your email address is nigh unto impossible, following these simple steps will mean you’ll have to spend less time deleting spam from your inbox, giving you more time for the important things of life – like reading this article.
Email is rapidly becoming the standard means of communication among businesses, associates, and even friends. While many people have now been using the internet and email for years, there are thousands of new users on the internet each day. With inexpensive web hosting, free email services, and the blog burst upon us, getting your own slice of the internet pie has never been easier.Whether you’re a seasoned professional looking for a refresher course, or you’re new to the internet and email and want to start off right, here are some easy steps to follow to reduce the amount of spam you receive.Don’t choose an obvious email address. Spammers will generate lists of email addresses based on common names. A common list would be something like: nick@yahoo.com, nick1@yahoo.com, nick2@yahoo.com, etc. If you create an email account with less obvious combinations of your name plus some numbers, chances are better that you won’t find your way onto one of these lists.Treat your personal email address with care. Only give out your personal email address to close friends and family who you trust. Give your direct business email only to clients and other contacts you trust to only use your address for legitimate business purposes.Use different accounts for different functions. Create different aliases with your business’s domain name or create a few free accounts from free email servers like Hotmail, Yahoo!, Excite, etc. Use one account that you don’t care about for posting to forums or discussion groups. Use another to subscribe to newsletters and newsgroups. When any of these addresses starts to get spammed too heavily, simply delete the account and switch to a different one.Remove your email address from your website. Between blogs and cheap web space, it seems everyone has their own piece of cyberspace. Before you put a link to your email address on your site, remember that spammers have bots that harvest these addresses. They will even find addresses printed in plain text. Consider using a web-based form for communication from you website, or place your address as a gif or jpeg.Do not open, respond to, or purchase from spam. Interacting with spam in any of these ways indicates to the spammer that not only is your address valid, it’s also active. Do not respond with “unsubscribe” in the subject line, or click on any links to remove your name out of the database, as both of these are common ploys to confirm your email address. Remember, because sending email is so inexpensive, spamming can be profitable even if only a small percentage of people purchase what they’re selling. Don’t support what you’re trying to stop.Finally, Filter you incoming email using filtering software. Even if you guard your email address religiously, you’ll likely still receive spam. Filtering software is usually inexpensive and effective, but there are some important features to consider with any filtering package:• Make sure you can control what comes to your inbox and what gets deleted. The best programs create a spam folder for you to review before permanently deleting emails.• The software should block images from incoming emails. Many jpegs in spam actually hide code that notifies the spammer when the email is viewed. Blocking images will not only keep offensive content off your screen but will also help prevent more spam in the future.• Choose software that provides you with updates - as new spamming techniques are created and proliferated, filtering software should keep up.While eliminating spam from coming to your email address is nigh unto impossible, following these simple steps will mean you’ll have to spend less time deleting spam from your inbox, giving you more time for the important things of life – like reading this article.
Spam - How to Report it
by: Joanne King
I’m sure you find spam just as frustrating and annoying as I do. So I’ve done some investigation in how to report it to get these people hopefully in a bit of strife! And put spam to an end or at least lessen it ;-)You see, I actually didn’t realize for a while I was actually making the situation worse. You ever receive those spam emails where you KNOW for sure you NEVER signed up to receive their emails and then they provide an unsubscribe link down the bottom?Anyways, here I was clicking the unsubscribe button on all these annoying spam emails thinking I was getting my email address removed from their database where all I was doing was confirming that my email address was active and I was reading their spam emails.Here is how YOU can report these spammers (and hopefully lessen the amount that drifts in and out of our inbox’s every day).Report Spam Here:http://www.spamcop.net/It will show you how to get the details and IP addresses of the spammers to forward to SpamCop in order to file your report against them. Please make sure before doing this, that the email you report as spam “really” is spam and not something you joined on to receive. It's just as bad to falsely accuse someone of spam just as it is to receive spam!Make sure before you join anyone’s mailing list that they have a privacy notice that allows you to unsubscribe at anytime you wish. And states clearly they will not rent nor share your email address with any third party.If you find this information helpful please feel free to forward it on to your friends. They can join my mailing list simply by sending a blank Email to scams@aweber.com
I’m sure you find spam just as frustrating and annoying as I do. So I’ve done some investigation in how to report it to get these people hopefully in a bit of strife! And put spam to an end or at least lessen it ;-)You see, I actually didn’t realize for a while I was actually making the situation worse. You ever receive those spam emails where you KNOW for sure you NEVER signed up to receive their emails and then they provide an unsubscribe link down the bottom?Anyways, here I was clicking the unsubscribe button on all these annoying spam emails thinking I was getting my email address removed from their database where all I was doing was confirming that my email address was active and I was reading their spam emails.Here is how YOU can report these spammers (and hopefully lessen the amount that drifts in and out of our inbox’s every day).Report Spam Here:http://www.spamcop.net/It will show you how to get the details and IP addresses of the spammers to forward to SpamCop in order to file your report against them. Please make sure before doing this, that the email you report as spam “really” is spam and not something you joined on to receive. It's just as bad to falsely accuse someone of spam just as it is to receive spam!Make sure before you join anyone’s mailing list that they have a privacy notice that allows you to unsubscribe at anytime you wish. And states clearly they will not rent nor share your email address with any third party.If you find this information helpful please feel free to forward it on to your friends. They can join my mailing list simply by sending a blank Email to scams@aweber.com
The Trouble With Spam Is....
by: Niall Roche
Each day we all face the same challenge. Spam. It doesn't matter if you're a home computer user or the head of IT for a multinational limiting or totally preventing the distribution of junk email to your computer(s) is now a daily chore.The sheer frustration that spam causes combined with the number of lost man hours adds up to junk email being a very real problem for all involved. You have to filter through all the junk to find your own personal or work email. This on its own is annoying enough. When you consider the security risks from spyware, trojans, diallers and attempted identity theft spam becomes much more than just an annoyance - it becomes a minefield for any computer user.So what can you do to block spam? The first step each user should take is to simply limit the number of people who know your personal email address. If you have a work email address then just use it for work. For home users only distribute your email address to people you know and trust. This simple move can cut your spam problems by 50%. But what about all those online forms I need to fill in? No problem. Use a free email service like Hotmail or Gmail for this purpose. Treat it as a throwaway account that you can use as a buffer between your true personal email address and the rest of the world. Let it fill up with junk email and then just login once a week and delete everything you see.Your password. It's amazing how many people set the password for their email account to abc123 or something similar. These passwords are incredibly easy for spammers to guess and would give them easy access to your mail account. The password for your email account should follow corporate standards of being 6 - 8 characters long and be alphanumeric (a mixture of numbers and letters). Make it longer if you can. Using a weak password is just asking for trouble. If you're already receiving a ton of spam then you'll need to invest in a spam blocker. There are free spam blockers you can download and also also their paid equivalents. A great spam blocker can cost you as little as $30 and you'll see an immediate reduction in the amount of spam you're receiving.Over and above installing software on your computer (especially for Mac users as your choices are limited) you could sign up for one of the web based challenge response spam blockers like Mailblocks or SpamArrest. Both of these services are ideal for somebody who's on the move a lot. Also because they're web based there's no software to install so they're perfect for Mac or PocketPC/Palm users.Taking a pro-active anti spam stance is the next step. If you get junk email from people then check the mail headers and report any offensive email to the hosting company or ISP involved. Never, ever reply to spam directly. This simply confirms to the spammer that your email address is active. Also never click on any hyperlinks in any junk email - this again confirms your existence and can lead to a virus being downloaded directly onto your PC. Filter the spam, report the abusers, delete the remaining junk email. Spam can be stopped. Not by some corporate giant or genius programmer. It can be stopped by each of you individually. Spammers rely on the widespread availability of email addresses and for people to reply to these emails or click on the links within the emails. The sooner people stop reacting emotionally to spam and simply filter, report and delete the offensive mail itself the sooner the lucrative market of bulk email will dry up for the spammers.
Each day we all face the same challenge. Spam. It doesn't matter if you're a home computer user or the head of IT for a multinational limiting or totally preventing the distribution of junk email to your computer(s) is now a daily chore.The sheer frustration that spam causes combined with the number of lost man hours adds up to junk email being a very real problem for all involved. You have to filter through all the junk to find your own personal or work email. This on its own is annoying enough. When you consider the security risks from spyware, trojans, diallers and attempted identity theft spam becomes much more than just an annoyance - it becomes a minefield for any computer user.So what can you do to block spam? The first step each user should take is to simply limit the number of people who know your personal email address. If you have a work email address then just use it for work. For home users only distribute your email address to people you know and trust. This simple move can cut your spam problems by 50%. But what about all those online forms I need to fill in? No problem. Use a free email service like Hotmail or Gmail for this purpose. Treat it as a throwaway account that you can use as a buffer between your true personal email address and the rest of the world. Let it fill up with junk email and then just login once a week and delete everything you see.Your password. It's amazing how many people set the password for their email account to abc123 or something similar. These passwords are incredibly easy for spammers to guess and would give them easy access to your mail account. The password for your email account should follow corporate standards of being 6 - 8 characters long and be alphanumeric (a mixture of numbers and letters). Make it longer if you can. Using a weak password is just asking for trouble. If you're already receiving a ton of spam then you'll need to invest in a spam blocker. There are free spam blockers you can download and also also their paid equivalents. A great spam blocker can cost you as little as $30 and you'll see an immediate reduction in the amount of spam you're receiving.Over and above installing software on your computer (especially for Mac users as your choices are limited) you could sign up for one of the web based challenge response spam blockers like Mailblocks or SpamArrest. Both of these services are ideal for somebody who's on the move a lot. Also because they're web based there's no software to install so they're perfect for Mac or PocketPC/Palm users.Taking a pro-active anti spam stance is the next step. If you get junk email from people then check the mail headers and report any offensive email to the hosting company or ISP involved. Never, ever reply to spam directly. This simply confirms to the spammer that your email address is active. Also never click on any hyperlinks in any junk email - this again confirms your existence and can lead to a virus being downloaded directly onto your PC. Filter the spam, report the abusers, delete the remaining junk email. Spam can be stopped. Not by some corporate giant or genius programmer. It can be stopped by each of you individually. Spammers rely on the widespread availability of email addresses and for people to reply to these emails or click on the links within the emails. The sooner people stop reacting emotionally to spam and simply filter, report and delete the offensive mail itself the sooner the lucrative market of bulk email will dry up for the spammers.
COMPUTER COURTESY
by: Thea Westra
The tips that follow should help you to write e-mail that will be well received every timePay attention to punctuation, spelling, grammar and capitals. It shows that you value us and that you’ve thought about what you’ve written rather than an off-the-cuff rushed message in the heat of the moment.Your subject line should be descriptive, especially when we get so many emails or if we like to save the emails in a file. It’d be great a practice to start the subject with “Recipient or group name” then a hyphen, your subject (specific and changed for each email), another hyphen and then the date. E.g. Thea–Email tips attached–15Oct05 Make the subject crystal clear.Use short paragraphs and leave lines between them. This makes for more easy and quick reading when you experience a lot of email activity on a regular basis.Tidy up all those ">" characters when replying or forwarding. I use a handy tool for this http://www.dsoft.com.tr/stripmail/ I’ve downloaded it and I keep it on my desktop.Check the source of any "news" or "chain" mailings before passing on. Here is a good resource for that: http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/hoaxes/ Avoid sending unsolicited, large attachments. That 3MB movie file may be the funniest thing you've seen for a long time, but don't automatically send it to everyone to know. Ask them first if they want to receive it. A great tool for large file sending is http://www.yousendit.com/ Ensure that your PC is protected against viruses. Your virus scanner might not protect against Spyware and Adware. Good quality free tools are: ~ http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5 ~ http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ ~ http://smb.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm ~ Remember to set your email service to scan viruses for emails coming in and out.Use lower case font. When in all capitals, it is harder to read and may be perceived as aggressive.Thou shalt not spam! Go to http://www.acma.gov.au/ACMAINTER.65690:STANDARD:298294164:pc=PC_1965 Or click here for same http://yatuc.com/a0 Another handy tool http://yatuc.com/index.php?lang=en Re-read your message before sending. Read it from the perspective of the recipient.Consider first if your message needs the “Reply To All” treatment, or if it is sufficient to simply “Reply To Sender” only. Always ask permission if wanting to pass another's contact details forward. If you need to keep another’s email details hidden when you “Cc:” then place their email address in the “Bcc:” text box.Limit your “non-group related topic” emails to e.g. one per week, when using the group email option.Keep emails short i.e. to a single screen page. When it’s a more complicated issue to discuss, why not use the telephone and speak? In emails to busy people, tell recipients if/when you do/don’t want a reply.Be mindful of when you use the ‘priority’ or the ‘request receipt’ options (these are under ‘Tools’ and ‘Message’ when you have email open & ready to send). Less use has greater impact when you need it.Is it clear who’s the sender? Use an email signature that has contact details and change the “From:” option for your emails. As an email signature I use http://www.addbranding.com/ or you can go to your task bar Tools, Options, Signatures. To change what shows in the “From:” box, go to Tools, Accounts, Properties and change “Your Name:” in User Information. It won’t impact account settings, it’s safe to do.
The tips that follow should help you to write e-mail that will be well received every timePay attention to punctuation, spelling, grammar and capitals. It shows that you value us and that you’ve thought about what you’ve written rather than an off-the-cuff rushed message in the heat of the moment.Your subject line should be descriptive, especially when we get so many emails or if we like to save the emails in a file. It’d be great a practice to start the subject with “Recipient or group name” then a hyphen, your subject (specific and changed for each email), another hyphen and then the date. E.g. Thea–Email tips attached–15Oct05 Make the subject crystal clear.Use short paragraphs and leave lines between them. This makes for more easy and quick reading when you experience a lot of email activity on a regular basis.Tidy up all those ">" characters when replying or forwarding. I use a handy tool for this http://www.dsoft.com.tr/stripmail/ I’ve downloaded it and I keep it on my desktop.Check the source of any "news" or "chain" mailings before passing on. Here is a good resource for that: http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/hoaxes/ Avoid sending unsolicited, large attachments. That 3MB movie file may be the funniest thing you've seen for a long time, but don't automatically send it to everyone to know. Ask them first if they want to receive it. A great tool for large file sending is http://www.yousendit.com/ Ensure that your PC is protected against viruses. Your virus scanner might not protect against Spyware and Adware. Good quality free tools are: ~ http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5 ~ http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ ~ http://smb.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm ~ Remember to set your email service to scan viruses for emails coming in and out.Use lower case font. When in all capitals, it is harder to read and may be perceived as aggressive.Thou shalt not spam! Go to http://www.acma.gov.au/ACMAINTER.65690:STANDARD:298294164:pc=PC_1965 Or click here for same http://yatuc.com/a0 Another handy tool http://yatuc.com/index.php?lang=en Re-read your message before sending. Read it from the perspective of the recipient.Consider first if your message needs the “Reply To All” treatment, or if it is sufficient to simply “Reply To Sender” only. Always ask permission if wanting to pass another's contact details forward. If you need to keep another’s email details hidden when you “Cc:” then place their email address in the “Bcc:” text box.Limit your “non-group related topic” emails to e.g. one per week, when using the group email option.Keep emails short i.e. to a single screen page. When it’s a more complicated issue to discuss, why not use the telephone and speak? In emails to busy people, tell recipients if/when you do/don’t want a reply.Be mindful of when you use the ‘priority’ or the ‘request receipt’ options (these are under ‘Tools’ and ‘Message’ when you have email open & ready to send). Less use has greater impact when you need it.Is it clear who’s the sender? Use an email signature that has contact details and change the “From:” option for your emails. As an email signature I use http://www.addbranding.com/ or you can go to your task bar Tools, Options, Signatures. To change what shows in the “From:” box, go to Tools, Accounts, Properties and change “Your Name:” in User Information. It won’t impact account settings, it’s safe to do.
I'm Guilty Until Proven Innocent
No doubt about it. "Spam" (unsolicited commercial email) threatens toparalyze and ultimately destroy the email system as itcurrently exists on the Internet. Anyone with an email address can attest to the fact thatthe avalanche of Spam has only increased in the last yearand shows no sign of stopping.However, the current system many Internet ServiceProviders (ISP's) use to deal with Spam may just destroythe Internet's email system long before the spammers do.Now, I won't deny that the weight of the Spam on anyISP's resources can rate very significant. It's been estimated that between 30-60% of all email nowsent is Spam! This means that 30-60% an ISP's system resources(bandwidth, hardware, system maintenance) go towardsdelivering messages nobody wants to receive. Out of self-defense, many ISP's turn to third partyservices like SpamCop, SPEWS (Spam Prevention EarlyWarning System), and SpamHaus to help them identifysources of spam and block the messages before their emailsystems get clogged. No Trial - No Defense - Guilty!In theory, it's a great system. In practice, it creates a situation resembling a witchhunt where the accused gets burned at the stake without atrial, let alone the ability to face their accuser.Here's how the system works.Let's say a business habitually sends legitimate email toits customers or prospects who asked to receive theemail.As long as nobody complains, life proceeds as normal.But then let's say one of those people forgets they optedin to the business's email list and reports an emailmessage as spam to one of the services I mentioned above.Result: the business gets blacklisted by one or more ofthese services and ISP's in turn automatically blockemail (legitimate email) sent by the business to itscustomers and opt-in subscribers. To make matters even worse, nobody at these anti-spamservices bothers to let the business know they've beenblacklisted. When the business finally discovers their status andtries to contact SpamCop, SPEWS or SpamHaus, the real funbegins.If the business does discover which service(s)blacklisted them, they'll find they can't call anyone onthe phone to discuss the problem. They also discover these services are totally unregulatedand there is no higher court of appeals.Any email responses from these services often contain asmug attitude of assumed guilt that scoffs at your claimsof innocence. Also, don't bother asking for the opportunity to faceyour accuser in order to prove your innocence becausethey get to hide behind a cloak of anonymity. Combining this attitude of assumed guilt with theinability to prove your innocence creates a recipe fordisaster for every legitimate business.Oh, by the way, while writing this article, I received 19spam email messages through an ISP monitored by all 3anti-spam services. Makes you wonder, doesn't it? In the end, the current system only creates opportunityfor abuse that targets legitimate businesses while thereal spammers just merrily keep sending their flood ofemail.
7 Ways Email Can End Your Business Relationships Before They Start
by: Dina Giolitto
Too often, people forget they're anonymous in the internet world. Your friends and colleagues might know you as being a tireless worker, a great friend and loving parent, but I don't know that. To me, you're just a font. You're a font in an email, or in a forum post. If you give me access to your website, then you're whatever impression the website creates. But largely, you're anonymous. So if you want to establish trust in your internet business dealings, make it your goal to paint a professional image via email.I'm a copywriter, so I'm constantly combing the web for possible clients and cohorts. Recently I've encountered some internet personalities who have left me scratching my head in puzzlement. Might we have had a fruitful business relationship? I'll never know, because within days of crossing paths, they managed to display one of the "Scary Seven" - that is, the seven quickest ways to scare people away by email. Let's review them now.Scare Tactic 1. Send an email from a cryptic address. There's nothing that says 'unprofessional' like an email inquiry from "Binky24" or "Shanaynay_7". Email addresses like this strike me as being one of two things: 1. someone young and foolish, or 2. a spammer. I understand if you don't have a website up and running yet; after all, as a writer, many people contact me to help them get their businesses started. But at the very least, reveal your first and last name. Provide contact information, and a brief background. If no one knows who you are, it's not likely they'll do business with you.Scare Tactic 2. Send an email that contains virtually no information. Yesterday I responded to a post on Craigslist that requested an editor. In my email, I gave my name, contact info, a little background information and directed the potential client to my website. I asked a few questions about their needs. In response, I got one line, and a very uninformative one at that. Do you see why I don't plan to contact this person again?Scare Tactic 3. Send too many emails! Want to make people think you have absolutely zero going on? Then send someone a barrage of email after having just met. I recently got an onslaught of emails from a potential client - NINE in total, over the course of a day. YIKES! This is a busy world. People don't have time to pore through your information. Organize your thoughts, and send in ONE email- maybe two, max.Scare Tactic 4. Send emails of a personal nature. Never, EVER send email jokes or personal anecdotes to someone you plan on doing business with over the internet. I don't care how promising the initial phone conversation was or how "friendly" they seem. This behavior screams unprofessional, and can even be a bit disturbing. Many marketers swap information, and this is fine. But it should be done in moderation. There's a fine line between helpful information exchange and email harassment. Don't cross it.Scare Tactic 5. Send out a group email, and forget to blind copy. I recently signed on to work for a company that contracts out writers. I liked the spirit in which business was being conducted and the site owner's honest approach. But there is such a thing as too much honesty. The first project came through via email - and I could see the name of EVERY writer who was competing with me for work! Not only does this have trouble written all over it, but no one wants their email address shared. A Privacy Policy is the hallmark of a real business. Implement one, and assure people their information is safe with your company.Scare Tactic 6. Send an email that you haven't proofread. We're all in a hurry, it's true. But haste makes waste! If you request information on "barbecue girls," you might just get some unexpected feedback! Double-checking your message can ensure that the recipient can respond properly. Ultimately, you'll get an answer to the question you asked - and not one you didn't.Scare Tactic 7. Send an email that's either too enthusiastic, or too austere. People are people - and I've encountered personalities from both ends of the spectrum. Those who are "SO EXCITED to make your acquaintance that they CAN'T STOP SHOUTING!!!!!!" and those who apparently are so wrapped up in themselves that they can't spare a courteous hello. My advice: take the middle ground. Keep it friendly yet professional, and don't go to extremes in your correspondence.Don't want to frighten people away with your email? Then avoid the "Scary Seven!" Above all, discuss the who, what, when, where, how and why of your message, and be sure to include any information that will help your future colleague get to know you better - a website link, some articles you've written, your resume, etc. Don't be overly pushy on email, and avoid over- or under-communicating. In time, you'll get the feel for the type of emails people respond to. And once that happens, you're on your way to cultivating fruitful internet business relationships!
Too often, people forget they're anonymous in the internet world. Your friends and colleagues might know you as being a tireless worker, a great friend and loving parent, but I don't know that. To me, you're just a font. You're a font in an email, or in a forum post. If you give me access to your website, then you're whatever impression the website creates. But largely, you're anonymous. So if you want to establish trust in your internet business dealings, make it your goal to paint a professional image via email.I'm a copywriter, so I'm constantly combing the web for possible clients and cohorts. Recently I've encountered some internet personalities who have left me scratching my head in puzzlement. Might we have had a fruitful business relationship? I'll never know, because within days of crossing paths, they managed to display one of the "Scary Seven" - that is, the seven quickest ways to scare people away by email. Let's review them now.Scare Tactic 1. Send an email from a cryptic address. There's nothing that says 'unprofessional' like an email inquiry from "Binky24" or "Shanaynay_7". Email addresses like this strike me as being one of two things: 1. someone young and foolish, or 2. a spammer. I understand if you don't have a website up and running yet; after all, as a writer, many people contact me to help them get their businesses started. But at the very least, reveal your first and last name. Provide contact information, and a brief background. If no one knows who you are, it's not likely they'll do business with you.Scare Tactic 2. Send an email that contains virtually no information. Yesterday I responded to a post on Craigslist that requested an editor. In my email, I gave my name, contact info, a little background information and directed the potential client to my website. I asked a few questions about their needs. In response, I got one line, and a very uninformative one at that. Do you see why I don't plan to contact this person again?Scare Tactic 3. Send too many emails! Want to make people think you have absolutely zero going on? Then send someone a barrage of email after having just met. I recently got an onslaught of emails from a potential client - NINE in total, over the course of a day. YIKES! This is a busy world. People don't have time to pore through your information. Organize your thoughts, and send in ONE email- maybe two, max.Scare Tactic 4. Send emails of a personal nature. Never, EVER send email jokes or personal anecdotes to someone you plan on doing business with over the internet. I don't care how promising the initial phone conversation was or how "friendly" they seem. This behavior screams unprofessional, and can even be a bit disturbing. Many marketers swap information, and this is fine. But it should be done in moderation. There's a fine line between helpful information exchange and email harassment. Don't cross it.Scare Tactic 5. Send out a group email, and forget to blind copy. I recently signed on to work for a company that contracts out writers. I liked the spirit in which business was being conducted and the site owner's honest approach. But there is such a thing as too much honesty. The first project came through via email - and I could see the name of EVERY writer who was competing with me for work! Not only does this have trouble written all over it, but no one wants their email address shared. A Privacy Policy is the hallmark of a real business. Implement one, and assure people their information is safe with your company.Scare Tactic 6. Send an email that you haven't proofread. We're all in a hurry, it's true. But haste makes waste! If you request information on "barbecue girls," you might just get some unexpected feedback! Double-checking your message can ensure that the recipient can respond properly. Ultimately, you'll get an answer to the question you asked - and not one you didn't.Scare Tactic 7. Send an email that's either too enthusiastic, or too austere. People are people - and I've encountered personalities from both ends of the spectrum. Those who are "SO EXCITED to make your acquaintance that they CAN'T STOP SHOUTING!!!!!!" and those who apparently are so wrapped up in themselves that they can't spare a courteous hello. My advice: take the middle ground. Keep it friendly yet professional, and don't go to extremes in your correspondence.Don't want to frighten people away with your email? Then avoid the "Scary Seven!" Above all, discuss the who, what, when, where, how and why of your message, and be sure to include any information that will help your future colleague get to know you better - a website link, some articles you've written, your resume, etc. Don't be overly pushy on email, and avoid over- or under-communicating. In time, you'll get the feel for the type of emails people respond to. And once that happens, you're on your way to cultivating fruitful internet business relationships!
How Spammers Fool Whitelists - And How to Stop Them
by: Paul Judge, CTO, CipherTrust, Inc.
Effectively stopping spam over the long-term requires much more than blocking individual IP addresses and creating rules based on keywords that spammers typically use. The increasing sophistication of spam tools coupled with the increasing number of spammers in the wild has created a hyper-evolution in the variety and volume of spam. The old ways of blocking the bad guys just don’t work anymore. Examining spam and spam-blocking technology can illuminate how this evolution is taking place and what can be done to combat spam and reclaim e-mail as the efficient, effective communication tool it was intended to be. One method used to combat spam is whitelisting. Whitelists are databases of trusted email sources. The list may contain specific email addresses, IP addresses or trusted domains. Emails received from a whitelisted source are allowed to pass through the system to the user’s email box. The list is built when users and email administrators manually add trusted sources to the whitelist. Once built, the catch-rate for spam can be close to 100%, however, whitelists produce an inordinate number of false positives. It is virtually impossible to produce an exhaustive list of all possible legitimate email senders because legitimate email can come from any number of sources. To get around this difficulty, some organizations have instituted a challenge-response methodology. When an unknown sender sends an email to a user’s account, the system automatically sends a challenge back to the sender. Some challenge-response systems require the sender to read and decipher an image containing letters and numbers. The image is designed to be unreadable by a machine, but easily recognizable by a human. Spammers would not spend the time required to go through a large number of challenge-response emails, so they drop the address and move on to those users who don’t use such a system. Whitelists are only partially successful and impractical for many users. For example, problems can arise when users register for online newsletters, order products online or register for online services. If the user does not remember to add the new email source to their whitelist, or if the domain or IP address is entered incorrectly, the communication will fail. Additionally, whitelists impose barriers to legitimate email communication and are viewed by some as just plain rude. Whitelists are not widely used by email users and administrators as a primary tool to fight spam because of the high number of false positives, and the difficulties in creating a comprehensive list of email sources. Because whitelists are not widely used, spammers typically do not develop countermeasures. As with other spam fighting techniques, whitelists are most effective when used in conjunction with other anti-spam tools. The Solution When used individually, each anti-spam technique has been systematically overcome by spammers. Grandiose plans to rid the world of spam, such as charging a penny for each e-mail received or forcing servers to solve mathematical problems before delivering e-mail, have been proposed with few results. These schemes are not realistic and would require a large percentage of the population to adopt the same anti-spam method in order to be effective. You can learn more about the fight against spam by visiting our website at www.ciphertrust.com and downloading our whitepapers.
Effectively stopping spam over the long-term requires much more than blocking individual IP addresses and creating rules based on keywords that spammers typically use. The increasing sophistication of spam tools coupled with the increasing number of spammers in the wild has created a hyper-evolution in the variety and volume of spam. The old ways of blocking the bad guys just don’t work anymore. Examining spam and spam-blocking technology can illuminate how this evolution is taking place and what can be done to combat spam and reclaim e-mail as the efficient, effective communication tool it was intended to be. One method used to combat spam is whitelisting. Whitelists are databases of trusted email sources. The list may contain specific email addresses, IP addresses or trusted domains. Emails received from a whitelisted source are allowed to pass through the system to the user’s email box. The list is built when users and email administrators manually add trusted sources to the whitelist. Once built, the catch-rate for spam can be close to 100%, however, whitelists produce an inordinate number of false positives. It is virtually impossible to produce an exhaustive list of all possible legitimate email senders because legitimate email can come from any number of sources. To get around this difficulty, some organizations have instituted a challenge-response methodology. When an unknown sender sends an email to a user’s account, the system automatically sends a challenge back to the sender. Some challenge-response systems require the sender to read and decipher an image containing letters and numbers. The image is designed to be unreadable by a machine, but easily recognizable by a human. Spammers would not spend the time required to go through a large number of challenge-response emails, so they drop the address and move on to those users who don’t use such a system. Whitelists are only partially successful and impractical for many users. For example, problems can arise when users register for online newsletters, order products online or register for online services. If the user does not remember to add the new email source to their whitelist, or if the domain or IP address is entered incorrectly, the communication will fail. Additionally, whitelists impose barriers to legitimate email communication and are viewed by some as just plain rude. Whitelists are not widely used by email users and administrators as a primary tool to fight spam because of the high number of false positives, and the difficulties in creating a comprehensive list of email sources. Because whitelists are not widely used, spammers typically do not develop countermeasures. As with other spam fighting techniques, whitelists are most effective when used in conjunction with other anti-spam tools. The Solution When used individually, each anti-spam technique has been systematically overcome by spammers. Grandiose plans to rid the world of spam, such as charging a penny for each e-mail received or forcing servers to solve mathematical problems before delivering e-mail, have been proposed with few results. These schemes are not realistic and would require a large percentage of the population to adopt the same anti-spam method in order to be effective. You can learn more about the fight against spam by visiting our website at www.ciphertrust.com and downloading our whitepapers.
Email Etiquette – More Than Just Manners
by: Angela Nielsen
We all understand the importance of good “people skills” when it comes to our interpersonal communication – it helps us get the results we need. Our communication determines the opinion others have of us – knowledgeable or ignorant, pleasant or rude, professional or immature. Most of the time this is in face-to-face or telephone conversations where we have some control over the impression we make on others. When it comes to netiquette (Network Etiquette), it’s not as easy to control how others perceive us, and yet it’s even more important. Why? Because what you write and how you use email can affect whether your email gets delivered, read, or responded to – and what that response is! In addition, there are numerous “technology traps” that are easy to fall into. Have you ever seen someone accidentally send an angry or sensitive response to a huge group of people by using the ”Reply All” key? And before you say to yourself "I already know" and stop reading this article, realize that every single one of us could benefit from a few simple reminders on the proper use of email, not just from a personal view but also from a business standpoint. If you're doing business on the internet – and using email to communicate with your customers – then this article is a must read for you! You may already know many of these tips, but even the most experienced user will find a few rules you were not aware of or have fallen into the habit of breaking. Think, write, and think again. Email is a static, one-way channel – unlike live communication, there’s no way to get immediate feedback (from facial expressions or voice responses) to know if we are being effective or even understood. So think twice before hitting the send key. Is there ANY chance that the recipient might misinterpret what you want them to understand? Do your thoughts come across as abrupt or angry? Could this email accidentally affect your reputation? The hastily written word may lack feelings and the true emotion you intended. You might be smiling as you type, but your note could come across as sarcastic or mean-spirited. Remember – there’s a person on the other end, not just a computer. Use a meaningful subject line. This is the first thing your reader will see, so use the space to help them understand the contents of the email even before they open it. Using the same rule from above, type in a subject that relates to the message you're sending, rather than leaving the subject blank. Without a subject line your note will probably be seen as another piece of junk mail – not everyone will recognize who you are just from your email address. Many internet service providers (ISP’s) filter out suspicious looking email, and a blank subject is a big red flag. Also, try to avoid generic words like "Hi" or "Check This Out" to avoid having the recipients spam or virus software delete your message!The beginning, and the end. Always use a salutation, even if it’s short. Start your message with "Hi", or "Hello", or "Dear", whatever works best for the intended recipient, and whatever reflects your personality. Think about this: when you call someone on the telephone, don't you say "Hello" before telling them what you want? Email messages should be no different. At a minimum, address the email to the person. Don't forget the end of your message too! Always sign your messages with your name, and say "Thank You", or "Sincerely", or something else appropriate. You can even setup a signature in your email program that will automatically display your information at the bottom of every email message you send. For directions, use your email programs help file and do a search for signature. Protect your recipient’s identity – use “To:”, “CC:” and “BC:” properly. There are a few simple netiquette rules for using the address fields in email. If your email is being sent to just one person or email address, place it in the "To:" field. This should be the person who is responsible for sending you a reply.When your email is being sent to more than one person and all the recipients truly need to know who else is receiving it, put all the addresses in the “CC:” field.For email sent to multiple recipients who have no real reason to know the names and email addresses of everyone else to whom it is being sent, put all the addresses in the “BCC:” field.(Some email software requires at least one address to be placed in the “To:” field. Put your own email address in the “To:” section if this is required.)By default, not every email program has the BCC field available for viewing. If you cannot see the Bcc field in your program, check your programs help file for directions.Give memory a helping hand. When replying to emails, include a copy of the prior notes you’ve traded with the person on the topic, don't just send a new one. I may receive 50 emails a day that need a reply and it’s not always possible to remember every single 'conversation' with every single person. Please don’t make your reader go looking through their ‘sent items’ folder or email ‘recycle bin’ to refresh their memory!Use the ‘Read Receipt’ sparingly. In some cases, it's crucial for both parties to know that a message was received. However, in normal day-to-day activities you should not request a read receipt for every single message you send. It's annoying to the recipient to have to click that pop up box every time they get your email. And it is an invasion of privacy. Don't forget – just because they have received it doesn't mean they have necessarily read it, so receiving a read receipt doesn't actually prove anything other than that the message was received. And for day to day communications, is that really necessary? URGENT! The boy who cried wolf. Do not send all your messages as URGENT, or HIGH PRIORITY. If your recipients keep receiving messages marked that way, then eventually the red exclamation point loses it's effectiveness – except to reinforce how important YOU think you are. Reserve these messages for those that are of utmost importance!Avoid special formatting. For your day-to-day messages, don't use colored email backgrounds, colored fonts, special fonts, images or other "pretty" type of formatting to your messages. Keep them clean – this makes it easier for the intended recipient to read them and reply. It's best to send messages in plain text to ensure everyone will be able to read them, since not everyone has their email set to receive html emails. You would be amazed at how bad your note may look to someone viewing their email on a handheld device or an older computer. By keeping your emails clean, they will also load much faster for the recipient! Don’t SHOUT! If you type in all capital letters, your reader will see this as yelling, or they will think that you were just too lazy to use proper text formatting. It’s also hard on the eyes – did you know that it takes longer to read something written in all caps than it does to read something that is properly formatted?Proof, spell-check, and use proper formatting. Poor writing skills are a direct reflection on you! And the reader never forgets the person who writes an undecipherable message. Spell checking will prevent most misspelled words, but you should always proof your email in case you've written the incorrect word (that was spelled correctly). For example, month and moth, where and were, all look correct to a spell-check program. Use proper capitalization, punctuation and formatting. Break your paragraphs when the subject changes, or if they become too long. Don't use excessive formatting (too much bold, too many exclamation points and question marks, etc.) Too much of anything will make your message harder to read. You want to make your message easily readable, as well as understandable. Proofread it to ensure it make sense, and never assume the reader knows what you mean, always spell it out for them. The time it takes to proof and spell check is minimal compared to the lasting impression you will make if you don't take the time. Take the time to send a reply. Even when someone emails you something that doesn't need a direct response, follow up with them in a timely manner just to let them know you received their message. It’s amazing how often people will ask for advice, and not even reply with a short “Thank you” when they receive their answer. A simple message telling the sender is sufficient. And this lets them know you did receive it, that it didn't just get stuck in cyberspace somewhere. If they didn't request it, don't send it! No matter what you think may be acceptable, you cannot email someone about your product/service without their permission. Unless they request that you send them an email, or you have previously done business with them, then it is illegal to send them an email, period. Any recipient can easily forward your email to their ISP and report you for sending unsolicited email messages (SPAM). This report would result in the immediate removal of all your websites/email address from most servers. You would then join a list of “prohibited senders” meaning that servers would not allow any messages attached to your domain name to be received by their customers - the people you are sending your messages to. You might be thinking, “but I get emails every day about products/services that I didn't request information about.” Sending unsolicited email messages (SPAM), is kind of like speeding. Lot's of people do it, but it is against the law, and no matter how long you may get away with it, you are bound to get caught! Compress, Compress, Compress! If you are sending an email with several large attachments, it is often better to send them in a few separate emails, so that you don’t send a document that is too large to even open. Or, you can try compressing your messages into a zipped file. It doesn’t reduce the size of images or pictures very much, but it works great for text, spreadsheet and program files. This is very easy to do, and will make your file size much smaller, and make the recipient much happier. Check out www.winzip.com (for those on pc).Hoaxes as helpful hints. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Do not forward everything that gets sent to you. We've all seen them – the chain-letter emails that promise if you forward to x number of people you'll get paid, or you'll win something, or you will be lucky forever. It's all a hoax, a scam, and the only result is huge numbers of email transmissions that slow down servers all across the country. If you receive one of these emails from a friend, reply to them (in a very nice way) and explain to them why this isn't true, or ask them to stop forwarding them to you. Virus, or virus advice? Many viruses are spread by email masquerading as warnings about – a virus! If someone forwards you a virus warning, which usually contains instructions for removing a virus from your computer... check google.com for that virus BEFORE doing anything. Chances are, it's also a hoax, and if you do remove that "bad file" from your computer, you're actually removing a necessary component crucial to your system! Wow, that was a lot of information to take in at one time, but I congratulate you for sticking it out and reading the entire article. Please share it with your family, friends and colleagues.
We all understand the importance of good “people skills” when it comes to our interpersonal communication – it helps us get the results we need. Our communication determines the opinion others have of us – knowledgeable or ignorant, pleasant or rude, professional or immature. Most of the time this is in face-to-face or telephone conversations where we have some control over the impression we make on others. When it comes to netiquette (Network Etiquette), it’s not as easy to control how others perceive us, and yet it’s even more important. Why? Because what you write and how you use email can affect whether your email gets delivered, read, or responded to – and what that response is! In addition, there are numerous “technology traps” that are easy to fall into. Have you ever seen someone accidentally send an angry or sensitive response to a huge group of people by using the ”Reply All” key? And before you say to yourself "I already know" and stop reading this article, realize that every single one of us could benefit from a few simple reminders on the proper use of email, not just from a personal view but also from a business standpoint. If you're doing business on the internet – and using email to communicate with your customers – then this article is a must read for you! You may already know many of these tips, but even the most experienced user will find a few rules you were not aware of or have fallen into the habit of breaking. Think, write, and think again. Email is a static, one-way channel – unlike live communication, there’s no way to get immediate feedback (from facial expressions or voice responses) to know if we are being effective or even understood. So think twice before hitting the send key. Is there ANY chance that the recipient might misinterpret what you want them to understand? Do your thoughts come across as abrupt or angry? Could this email accidentally affect your reputation? The hastily written word may lack feelings and the true emotion you intended. You might be smiling as you type, but your note could come across as sarcastic or mean-spirited. Remember – there’s a person on the other end, not just a computer. Use a meaningful subject line. This is the first thing your reader will see, so use the space to help them understand the contents of the email even before they open it. Using the same rule from above, type in a subject that relates to the message you're sending, rather than leaving the subject blank. Without a subject line your note will probably be seen as another piece of junk mail – not everyone will recognize who you are just from your email address. Many internet service providers (ISP’s) filter out suspicious looking email, and a blank subject is a big red flag. Also, try to avoid generic words like "Hi" or "Check This Out" to avoid having the recipients spam or virus software delete your message!The beginning, and the end. Always use a salutation, even if it’s short. Start your message with "Hi", or "Hello", or "Dear", whatever works best for the intended recipient, and whatever reflects your personality. Think about this: when you call someone on the telephone, don't you say "Hello" before telling them what you want? Email messages should be no different. At a minimum, address the email to the person. Don't forget the end of your message too! Always sign your messages with your name, and say "Thank You", or "Sincerely", or something else appropriate. You can even setup a signature in your email program that will automatically display your information at the bottom of every email message you send. For directions, use your email programs help file and do a search for signature. Protect your recipient’s identity – use “To:”, “CC:” and “BC:” properly. There are a few simple netiquette rules for using the address fields in email. If your email is being sent to just one person or email address, place it in the "To:" field. This should be the person who is responsible for sending you a reply.When your email is being sent to more than one person and all the recipients truly need to know who else is receiving it, put all the addresses in the “CC:” field.For email sent to multiple recipients who have no real reason to know the names and email addresses of everyone else to whom it is being sent, put all the addresses in the “BCC:” field.(Some email software requires at least one address to be placed in the “To:” field. Put your own email address in the “To:” section if this is required.)By default, not every email program has the BCC field available for viewing. If you cannot see the Bcc field in your program, check your programs help file for directions.Give memory a helping hand. When replying to emails, include a copy of the prior notes you’ve traded with the person on the topic, don't just send a new one. I may receive 50 emails a day that need a reply and it’s not always possible to remember every single 'conversation' with every single person. Please don’t make your reader go looking through their ‘sent items’ folder or email ‘recycle bin’ to refresh their memory!Use the ‘Read Receipt’ sparingly. In some cases, it's crucial for both parties to know that a message was received. However, in normal day-to-day activities you should not request a read receipt for every single message you send. It's annoying to the recipient to have to click that pop up box every time they get your email. And it is an invasion of privacy. Don't forget – just because they have received it doesn't mean they have necessarily read it, so receiving a read receipt doesn't actually prove anything other than that the message was received. And for day to day communications, is that really necessary? URGENT! The boy who cried wolf. Do not send all your messages as URGENT, or HIGH PRIORITY. If your recipients keep receiving messages marked that way, then eventually the red exclamation point loses it's effectiveness – except to reinforce how important YOU think you are. Reserve these messages for those that are of utmost importance!Avoid special formatting. For your day-to-day messages, don't use colored email backgrounds, colored fonts, special fonts, images or other "pretty" type of formatting to your messages. Keep them clean – this makes it easier for the intended recipient to read them and reply. It's best to send messages in plain text to ensure everyone will be able to read them, since not everyone has their email set to receive html emails. You would be amazed at how bad your note may look to someone viewing their email on a handheld device or an older computer. By keeping your emails clean, they will also load much faster for the recipient! Don’t SHOUT! If you type in all capital letters, your reader will see this as yelling, or they will think that you were just too lazy to use proper text formatting. It’s also hard on the eyes – did you know that it takes longer to read something written in all caps than it does to read something that is properly formatted?Proof, spell-check, and use proper formatting. Poor writing skills are a direct reflection on you! And the reader never forgets the person who writes an undecipherable message. Spell checking will prevent most misspelled words, but you should always proof your email in case you've written the incorrect word (that was spelled correctly). For example, month and moth, where and were, all look correct to a spell-check program. Use proper capitalization, punctuation and formatting. Break your paragraphs when the subject changes, or if they become too long. Don't use excessive formatting (too much bold, too many exclamation points and question marks, etc.) Too much of anything will make your message harder to read. You want to make your message easily readable, as well as understandable. Proofread it to ensure it make sense, and never assume the reader knows what you mean, always spell it out for them. The time it takes to proof and spell check is minimal compared to the lasting impression you will make if you don't take the time. Take the time to send a reply. Even when someone emails you something that doesn't need a direct response, follow up with them in a timely manner just to let them know you received their message. It’s amazing how often people will ask for advice, and not even reply with a short “Thank you” when they receive their answer. A simple message telling the sender is sufficient. And this lets them know you did receive it, that it didn't just get stuck in cyberspace somewhere. If they didn't request it, don't send it! No matter what you think may be acceptable, you cannot email someone about your product/service without their permission. Unless they request that you send them an email, or you have previously done business with them, then it is illegal to send them an email, period. Any recipient can easily forward your email to their ISP and report you for sending unsolicited email messages (SPAM). This report would result in the immediate removal of all your websites/email address from most servers. You would then join a list of “prohibited senders” meaning that servers would not allow any messages attached to your domain name to be received by their customers - the people you are sending your messages to. You might be thinking, “but I get emails every day about products/services that I didn't request information about.” Sending unsolicited email messages (SPAM), is kind of like speeding. Lot's of people do it, but it is against the law, and no matter how long you may get away with it, you are bound to get caught! Compress, Compress, Compress! If you are sending an email with several large attachments, it is often better to send them in a few separate emails, so that you don’t send a document that is too large to even open. Or, you can try compressing your messages into a zipped file. It doesn’t reduce the size of images or pictures very much, but it works great for text, spreadsheet and program files. This is very easy to do, and will make your file size much smaller, and make the recipient much happier. Check out www.winzip.com (for those on pc).Hoaxes as helpful hints. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Do not forward everything that gets sent to you. We've all seen them – the chain-letter emails that promise if you forward to x number of people you'll get paid, or you'll win something, or you will be lucky forever. It's all a hoax, a scam, and the only result is huge numbers of email transmissions that slow down servers all across the country. If you receive one of these emails from a friend, reply to them (in a very nice way) and explain to them why this isn't true, or ask them to stop forwarding them to you. Virus, or virus advice? Many viruses are spread by email masquerading as warnings about – a virus! If someone forwards you a virus warning, which usually contains instructions for removing a virus from your computer... check google.com for that virus BEFORE doing anything. Chances are, it's also a hoax, and if you do remove that "bad file" from your computer, you're actually removing a necessary component crucial to your system! Wow, that was a lot of information to take in at one time, but I congratulate you for sticking it out and reading the entire article. Please share it with your family, friends and colleagues.
How Spammers Fool Rule-based and Signature-Based Spam Filters
by: Paul Judge, CTO, CipherTrust, Inc.
Effectively stopping spam over the long-term requires much more than blocking individual IP addresses and creating rules based on keywords that spammers typically use. The increasing sophistication of spam tools coupled with the increasing number of spammers in the wild has created a hyper-evolution in the variety and volume of spam. The old ways of blocking the bad guys just don’t work anymore. Examining spam and spam-blocking technology can illuminate how this evolution is taking place and what can be done to combat spam and reclaim e-mail as the efficient, effective communication tool it was intended to be. Heuristics (Rule-based Filtering) One method used to combat spam is Rule-based, or Heuristic Filtering. Rule-based filters scan email content for predetermined words or phrases that may indicate a message is spam. For example, if an email administrator includes the word "sex" on a company’s rule-based list, any email containing this word will be filtered. The major drawback of this approach is the difficulty in identifying keywords that are consistently indicative of spam. While spammers may frequently use the words “sex” and ‘Viagra” in spam emails, these words are also used in legitimate business correspondence, particularly in the healthcare industry. Additionally, spammers have learned to obfuscate suspect words by using spellings such as "S*E*X", or "VI a a GRR A". It is impossible to develop dictionaries that identify every possible misspelling of "spammy" keywords. Additionally, because filtering for certain keywords produces large numbers of false positives, many organizations have found they cannot afford to rely solely on rule-based filters to identify spam. Signature-Based Spam Filters Another method used to combat spam is Signature-based Filtering. Signature-based filters examine the contents of known spam, usually derived from honey pots, or dummy email addresses set up specifically to collect spam. Once a honey pot receives a spam message, the content is examined and given a unique identifier. The unique identifier is obtained by assigning a value to each character in the email. Once all characters have been assigned a value, the values are totaled, creating the spam’s signature. The signature is added to a signature database and sent as a regular update to the email service’s subscribers. The signature is compared to every email coming in to the network and all matching messages are discarded as spam. The benefit of signature-based filters is that they rarely produce false-positives, or legitimate email incorrectly identified as spam. The drawback of signature-based filters is that they are very easy to defeat. Because they are backward-looking, they only deal with spam that has already been sent. By the time the honey pot receives a spam message, the system assigns a signature, and the update is sent and installed on the subscribers’ network, the spammer has already sent millions of emails. A slight modification of the email message will render the existing signature useless. Furthermore, spammers can easily evade signature-based filters by using special email software that adds random strings of content to the subject line and body of the email. Because the variable content alters the signature of each email sent by the spammer, signature-based spam filters are unable to match the email to known pieces of spam. Developers of signature-based spam filters have learned to identify the tell-tale signs of automated random character generation. But as is often the case, spammers remain a step ahead and have developed more sophisticated methods for inserting random content. As a result, most spam continues to fool signature-based filters. The Solution When used individually, each anti-spam technique has been systematically overcome by spammers. Grandiose plans to rid the world of spam, such as charging a penny for each e-mail received or forcing servers to solve mathematical problems before delivering e-mail, have been proposed with few results. These schemes are not realistic and would require a large percentage of the population to adopt the same anti-spam method in order to be effective. You can learn more about the fight against spam by visiting our website at www.ciphertrust.com and downloading our whitepapers.
Effectively stopping spam over the long-term requires much more than blocking individual IP addresses and creating rules based on keywords that spammers typically use. The increasing sophistication of spam tools coupled with the increasing number of spammers in the wild has created a hyper-evolution in the variety and volume of spam. The old ways of blocking the bad guys just don’t work anymore. Examining spam and spam-blocking technology can illuminate how this evolution is taking place and what can be done to combat spam and reclaim e-mail as the efficient, effective communication tool it was intended to be. Heuristics (Rule-based Filtering) One method used to combat spam is Rule-based, or Heuristic Filtering. Rule-based filters scan email content for predetermined words or phrases that may indicate a message is spam. For example, if an email administrator includes the word "sex" on a company’s rule-based list, any email containing this word will be filtered. The major drawback of this approach is the difficulty in identifying keywords that are consistently indicative of spam. While spammers may frequently use the words “sex” and ‘Viagra” in spam emails, these words are also used in legitimate business correspondence, particularly in the healthcare industry. Additionally, spammers have learned to obfuscate suspect words by using spellings such as "S*E*X", or "VI a a GRR A". It is impossible to develop dictionaries that identify every possible misspelling of "spammy" keywords. Additionally, because filtering for certain keywords produces large numbers of false positives, many organizations have found they cannot afford to rely solely on rule-based filters to identify spam. Signature-Based Spam Filters Another method used to combat spam is Signature-based Filtering. Signature-based filters examine the contents of known spam, usually derived from honey pots, or dummy email addresses set up specifically to collect spam. Once a honey pot receives a spam message, the content is examined and given a unique identifier. The unique identifier is obtained by assigning a value to each character in the email. Once all characters have been assigned a value, the values are totaled, creating the spam’s signature. The signature is added to a signature database and sent as a regular update to the email service’s subscribers. The signature is compared to every email coming in to the network and all matching messages are discarded as spam. The benefit of signature-based filters is that they rarely produce false-positives, or legitimate email incorrectly identified as spam. The drawback of signature-based filters is that they are very easy to defeat. Because they are backward-looking, they only deal with spam that has already been sent. By the time the honey pot receives a spam message, the system assigns a signature, and the update is sent and installed on the subscribers’ network, the spammer has already sent millions of emails. A slight modification of the email message will render the existing signature useless. Furthermore, spammers can easily evade signature-based filters by using special email software that adds random strings of content to the subject line and body of the email. Because the variable content alters the signature of each email sent by the spammer, signature-based spam filters are unable to match the email to known pieces of spam. Developers of signature-based spam filters have learned to identify the tell-tale signs of automated random character generation. But as is often the case, spammers remain a step ahead and have developed more sophisticated methods for inserting random content. As a result, most spam continues to fool signature-based filters. The Solution When used individually, each anti-spam technique has been systematically overcome by spammers. Grandiose plans to rid the world of spam, such as charging a penny for each e-mail received or forcing servers to solve mathematical problems before delivering e-mail, have been proposed with few results. These schemes are not realistic and would require a large percentage of the population to adopt the same anti-spam method in order to be effective. You can learn more about the fight against spam by visiting our website at www.ciphertrust.com and downloading our whitepapers.
The Cybermagic of Whitelists
by: Niall Roche
Before we start getting deep into the meat of this article it's important to explain some standard terminology to make sure the rest of this article makes sense. *An IP address is a number which identifies your location on the Internet. *A blacklist is a list of IP addresses which your antispam software uses to block incoming spam. *A whitelist is the exact opposite of a blacklist. A whitelist is a predefined list of IP addresses that are allowed to send email to and receive email from each other. Blacklists exclude known and suspected spammers. Whitelists can be used to exclude everyone except known IP addresses. Think of it like this. A whitelist is a like having a phonebook which is owned by a small group of people who only wish to speak directly to each other. They don't want just anybody ringing them. Not only that but the entire group need to approve new phone numbers before they appear in this exclusive phonebook. To send email to a whitelist you must be approved by the owner of the whitelist. This is a lot like the double optin systems used by legimiate ezines and mailing list owners. Whitelists are the nightclub bouncers of the virtual world - if you ain't on the list you ain't getting in. Simple but very effective. A real world example of a whitelist would be if two companies wanted to exchange email only with each other. These companies could implement a whitelist that contained the IP address for just the two email servers that want to send email to each other. That would mean that any email coming from an IP address not on the whitelist would be returned to sender. For companies they can ensure that employees are only dealing with work related email and not chatting with their friends. The benefits of whitelists are many but proper management of the whitelists is equally important. Misuse of whitelists will only lead to more headaches for everyone involved with missing email, irate customers and IT departments doing overtime just being the tip of the iceberg.
Before we start getting deep into the meat of this article it's important to explain some standard terminology to make sure the rest of this article makes sense. *An IP address is a number which identifies your location on the Internet. *A blacklist is a list of IP addresses which your antispam software uses to block incoming spam. *A whitelist is the exact opposite of a blacklist. A whitelist is a predefined list of IP addresses that are allowed to send email to and receive email from each other. Blacklists exclude known and suspected spammers. Whitelists can be used to exclude everyone except known IP addresses. Think of it like this. A whitelist is a like having a phonebook which is owned by a small group of people who only wish to speak directly to each other. They don't want just anybody ringing them. Not only that but the entire group need to approve new phone numbers before they appear in this exclusive phonebook. To send email to a whitelist you must be approved by the owner of the whitelist. This is a lot like the double optin systems used by legimiate ezines and mailing list owners. Whitelists are the nightclub bouncers of the virtual world - if you ain't on the list you ain't getting in. Simple but very effective. A real world example of a whitelist would be if two companies wanted to exchange email only with each other. These companies could implement a whitelist that contained the IP address for just the two email servers that want to send email to each other. That would mean that any email coming from an IP address not on the whitelist would be returned to sender. For companies they can ensure that employees are only dealing with work related email and not chatting with their friends. The benefits of whitelists are many but proper management of the whitelists is equally important. Misuse of whitelists will only lead to more headaches for everyone involved with missing email, irate customers and IT departments doing overtime just being the tip of the iceberg.
Are opt-in email lists still valuable in this SPAM age?
by: Lois S.
One of the things that the introduction of blogs has done is to cause an exodus of sorts from email newsletters or ezines to online publishers simply publishing the information on their blogs. It is not too difficult to realize why online publishers embraced blogs so quickly and enthusiastically. Actually the SPAM monster appeared to be slowly squeezing the life out of their online business. To meet the SPAM challenge most ISPs have set up SPAM filters that are so powerful that they quite often filter out mail that has been requested, especially mail of the massive opt-in kind. This has meant an increasing number of bounces and undeliverable mail. With the arrival of blogs there was an easy way out of all this anxiety. Ezines could easily be posted on blogs and no ISP SPAM filter would touch it. And what is more the email aspect of feedback was not lost because readers could easily post a comment at the blog. The huge advantage over email here was that one could see another readers comment and quickly support or disagree with it. Blogs have actually revolutionized publishing the way no other tool has in the history of mankind. So have blogs made email newsletters and opt-in email lists obsolete? The answer is a firm “NO”. Nothing would be further from the truth. Even when an online publisher delivers their weekly or daily content at a blog, what is the best way of sustaining and growing traffic to the blog? Actually even with a website, there is no other more effective way of sustaining high traffic than by harvesting email addresses. This is done by offering and email newsletter or an email course of sorts. This builds up a valuable opt-in email list that you can use again and again to direct traffic to your site. You can even sell them something. As internet marketing experts often point out, the money is in the list. This is the reason why experts advice affiliates to set up their own sites or blogs to play a key role in their efforts to market their affiliate site. This is simply because it is a huge waste to drive so much traffic to your affiliate site and end up having only a tiny fraction signing up for your affiliate program. By driving traffic through your own site, you have an opportunity to harvest emails and build up a huge, valuable targeted opt-in email list that you can still market the very same affiliate program to, later. In fact research has clearly shown that most people buy only after several repeated encounters of the same product or service. Even with the introduction of the extremely useful blogging tool and the change of business models by many online publishers, opt-in email lists still remain the most valuable online marketing tool.
One of the things that the introduction of blogs has done is to cause an exodus of sorts from email newsletters or ezines to online publishers simply publishing the information on their blogs. It is not too difficult to realize why online publishers embraced blogs so quickly and enthusiastically. Actually the SPAM monster appeared to be slowly squeezing the life out of their online business. To meet the SPAM challenge most ISPs have set up SPAM filters that are so powerful that they quite often filter out mail that has been requested, especially mail of the massive opt-in kind. This has meant an increasing number of bounces and undeliverable mail. With the arrival of blogs there was an easy way out of all this anxiety. Ezines could easily be posted on blogs and no ISP SPAM filter would touch it. And what is more the email aspect of feedback was not lost because readers could easily post a comment at the blog. The huge advantage over email here was that one could see another readers comment and quickly support or disagree with it. Blogs have actually revolutionized publishing the way no other tool has in the history of mankind. So have blogs made email newsletters and opt-in email lists obsolete? The answer is a firm “NO”. Nothing would be further from the truth. Even when an online publisher delivers their weekly or daily content at a blog, what is the best way of sustaining and growing traffic to the blog? Actually even with a website, there is no other more effective way of sustaining high traffic than by harvesting email addresses. This is done by offering and email newsletter or an email course of sorts. This builds up a valuable opt-in email list that you can use again and again to direct traffic to your site. You can even sell them something. As internet marketing experts often point out, the money is in the list. This is the reason why experts advice affiliates to set up their own sites or blogs to play a key role in their efforts to market their affiliate site. This is simply because it is a huge waste to drive so much traffic to your affiliate site and end up having only a tiny fraction signing up for your affiliate program. By driving traffic through your own site, you have an opportunity to harvest emails and build up a huge, valuable targeted opt-in email list that you can still market the very same affiliate program to, later. In fact research has clearly shown that most people buy only after several repeated encounters of the same product or service. Even with the introduction of the extremely useful blogging tool and the change of business models by many online publishers, opt-in email lists still remain the most valuable online marketing tool.
The Bad Guys Are Phishing For Your Personal Information
by: Tim Knox
Do you know what "phishing" is?No, it doesn't mean you grab a pole and head to the late to catch some phish.The official Webopedia definition of "phishing" is as follows:The act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user’s information.Phishers prey on ignorance, fear, and emotion. They also play the numbers game. The more bait they email out, the more phish they'll catch.. By spamming large groups of people, the "phisher" counts on his email being read and believed by a percentage of people who will volunteer their personal and credit card information.The latest attempt by identity theives to steal the personal information of eBay members hit my inbox earlier this week and I have to say, this one is pretty convincing. Even this old dog did a double-take before realizing that the identity thieves were phishing for my personal information again.The sender of this email is listed as: eBay Member - rivernick and the email subject line reads: Question from eBay Member.The email begins: "Question from eBay Member -- Respond Now. eBay sent this message on behalf of an eBay member via My Messages. Responses sent using email will not reach the eBay member. Use the Respond Now button below to respond to this message."Listen to me: DON'T TOUCH THAT BUTTONOf course the email was NOT sent by an eBay member or sent via eBay's messaging system, as it appears.The email then takes on a threatening tone.It reads: "Question from rivernick: I'm still waiting payment for my item for about 7 days. What happened? Please mail me ASAP or I will report you to ebay."The recipient is then prompted to respond to this rather disturbing email by clicking a "Respond Now." button.Doing so will take you to a website designed to look like eBay where you will be prompted to login using your eBay user name and password.Once you pass this point you will be asked to update your account information before proceeding. Unknowing souls will offer not only their eBay password, but personal and credit card information, as well, without even knowing that they are about to have their personal information stolen.The one thing that makes this scam so effective is the threat by the supposed eBay member to "report you to eBay."The email preys on the fear of most eBay members that they are in danger of receiving negative feedback. Many eBayers would rather you cut off a pinky than leave them negative feedback. It is this emotion that the new phishers are hoping to hook.The phisher is betting that most people will either be horrified by the threat of being wrongly reported to eBay or they will be ticked off that some jerk is threatening them by mistake.Either way the phisher is counting on a percentage of people to have a knee-jerk reaction and login to the fake eBay website he has set up clear matters up.I've yet to see what percentage of people who receive these phishing emails fall for the scam, but if a phisher gets 1f recipients to turn over their personal information, he will probably consider his phishing expedition a success.I've warned you about these phishing scams before, but let's review it one more time.NEVER reply directly to an email that appears to have come from eBay, Paypal, Amazon, or anyoen else asking you to click a link in the email to update your account information. If there is any doubt in your mind whether or not the email is really from eBay, for example, open a browser and type in the URL http://www.ebay.com. NEVER click a link within the email to respond.NEVER believe that an email supposedly from another eBay member is for real. Again, do not click an email link to reply. Open a browser and go to eBay directly and log in. If the email was from a real member, there will be a record of the inquiry in your My eBay account.You must be aware that there are bad guys out there who do nothing but spend time trying to come up with new and innovative ways to steal your information.Be paranoid. Be aware. But don't be fooled.The phishers will cast their line, but you do not have to take the bait.Here's to your success!
Do you know what "phishing" is?No, it doesn't mean you grab a pole and head to the late to catch some phish.The official Webopedia definition of "phishing" is as follows:The act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user’s information.Phishers prey on ignorance, fear, and emotion. They also play the numbers game. The more bait they email out, the more phish they'll catch.. By spamming large groups of people, the "phisher" counts on his email being read and believed by a percentage of people who will volunteer their personal and credit card information.The latest attempt by identity theives to steal the personal information of eBay members hit my inbox earlier this week and I have to say, this one is pretty convincing. Even this old dog did a double-take before realizing that the identity thieves were phishing for my personal information again.The sender of this email is listed as: eBay Member - rivernick and the email subject line reads: Question from eBay Member.The email begins: "Question from eBay Member -- Respond Now. eBay sent this message on behalf of an eBay member via My Messages. Responses sent using email will not reach the eBay member. Use the Respond Now button below to respond to this message."Listen to me: DON'T TOUCH THAT BUTTONOf course the email was NOT sent by an eBay member or sent via eBay's messaging system, as it appears.The email then takes on a threatening tone.It reads: "Question from rivernick: I'm still waiting payment for my item for about 7 days. What happened? Please mail me ASAP or I will report you to ebay."The recipient is then prompted to respond to this rather disturbing email by clicking a "Respond Now." button.Doing so will take you to a website designed to look like eBay where you will be prompted to login using your eBay user name and password.Once you pass this point you will be asked to update your account information before proceeding. Unknowing souls will offer not only their eBay password, but personal and credit card information, as well, without even knowing that they are about to have their personal information stolen.The one thing that makes this scam so effective is the threat by the supposed eBay member to "report you to eBay."The email preys on the fear of most eBay members that they are in danger of receiving negative feedback. Many eBayers would rather you cut off a pinky than leave them negative feedback. It is this emotion that the new phishers are hoping to hook.The phisher is betting that most people will either be horrified by the threat of being wrongly reported to eBay or they will be ticked off that some jerk is threatening them by mistake.Either way the phisher is counting on a percentage of people to have a knee-jerk reaction and login to the fake eBay website he has set up clear matters up.I've yet to see what percentage of people who receive these phishing emails fall for the scam, but if a phisher gets 1f recipients to turn over their personal information, he will probably consider his phishing expedition a success.I've warned you about these phishing scams before, but let's review it one more time.NEVER reply directly to an email that appears to have come from eBay, Paypal, Amazon, or anyoen else asking you to click a link in the email to update your account information. If there is any doubt in your mind whether or not the email is really from eBay, for example, open a browser and type in the URL http://www.ebay.com. NEVER click a link within the email to respond.NEVER believe that an email supposedly from another eBay member is for real. Again, do not click an email link to reply. Open a browser and go to eBay directly and log in. If the email was from a real member, there will be a record of the inquiry in your My eBay account.You must be aware that there are bad guys out there who do nothing but spend time trying to come up with new and innovative ways to steal your information.Be paranoid. Be aware. But don't be fooled.The phishers will cast their line, but you do not have to take the bait.Here's to your success!
Identity Theft Article - A Phisher Is Trying To Steal Your Identity!
by: Lisa Smith
Identity Theft Article A Phisher Is Trying To Steal Your Identity! Sooner or later everyone with an email account will receive a phishing attempt from some internet scammer. What is phishing? How can you protect yourself? These are some of the questions this identity theft article will provide, along with some free resources and practical advice on how to protect your online identity. The Anti-Phishing Working Group estimates that 75 million to 150 million phishing emails are sent every day on the internet. Phishing (pronounced fishing), is online identity theft that uses spoof emails, fraudulent websites and crimeware to trick unsuspecting internet users into providing financial data, credit card numbers, social security numbers, account logins and passwords, etc. A spoofed email looks like it is from a legitimate company, usually banks, credit card companies, paypal, ebay, etc. These fraudulent emails look like they are from the “real” company, and generally try to get you to log into your account through the links in the email. The spoof email may state that there is a problem with your account and if you do not log in and update your information your account may be suspended, restricted, closed, etc. Generally these emails try to convey a sense of urgency; if you don’t correct this problem your account will be suspended. Trojans are increasingly being used as a phishing technique according to Sophos, a security firm. The Brizilian police recently arrested a phishing gang of 18 people who stole $37M from online banking accounts. This phishing gang would send out emails that included Trojans. Once a Trojan infects your computer, all internet activity can be monitored and transferred to the phisher. This is a serious threat as you probably won’t know that you are infected with a Trojan. According to David Jevans, Chairman of APWG, “Attacks can, and are, coming in a variety of other flavors. Instant Messaging, exploited websites, P2P networks, and search engines are all being used to download and run key logging malcode and/or be directed to websites which may contain malcode or be fraudulent. Attackers are also not just interested in username and password access to bank accounts. Social security numbers, credit cards and other identity information are also being stolen.” Protecting yourself against phishing scams. • Do not give out personal or financial information through an email request. • Always log on to your sensitive accounts by opening a new browser and typing the actual URL directly into the address bar. For example, if you receive a suspected phishing email from ebay, open a new browser and type www.ebay.com in the browser bar. • Do not click on any link in a suspected phishing email. • Only use a secure website to submit sensitive data. A secure sites’ address will begin with “https://” instead of “http://” • Check the activity of your online accounts regularly. • Make sure your browser is up to date and all security patches are installed. • Report phishing and spoof email to: reportphishing@antiphishing.com , spam@uce.gov, and forward the email to the company that is being spoofed. • Keep your pc protected with updated anti-virus software, anti-spyware software, and a firewall. You may also want to install anti-phishing software. o Earthlink ScamBlocker is a free browser toolbar that alerts you to known phishing sites. It’s free and can be downloaded at www.earthlink.net/earthlinktoolbar. o Webroot has a beta version of PhishNet which you can download at www.webroot.com/products/phishnet/ o PC Tools Spyware Doctor offers protection against known phishing sites, spyware and blocks popups. With the consequences being identity theft, it is imperative that you learn to protect your pc and your identity by exercising caution and installing the proper tools. Hopefully, this identity theft article has given you the information you need to avoid being the next phishing victim. Remember, legitimate companies don’t ask for personal or financial information in an email – so don’t give it to them!
Identity Theft Article A Phisher Is Trying To Steal Your Identity! Sooner or later everyone with an email account will receive a phishing attempt from some internet scammer. What is phishing? How can you protect yourself? These are some of the questions this identity theft article will provide, along with some free resources and practical advice on how to protect your online identity. The Anti-Phishing Working Group estimates that 75 million to 150 million phishing emails are sent every day on the internet. Phishing (pronounced fishing), is online identity theft that uses spoof emails, fraudulent websites and crimeware to trick unsuspecting internet users into providing financial data, credit card numbers, social security numbers, account logins and passwords, etc. A spoofed email looks like it is from a legitimate company, usually banks, credit card companies, paypal, ebay, etc. These fraudulent emails look like they are from the “real” company, and generally try to get you to log into your account through the links in the email. The spoof email may state that there is a problem with your account and if you do not log in and update your information your account may be suspended, restricted, closed, etc. Generally these emails try to convey a sense of urgency; if you don’t correct this problem your account will be suspended. Trojans are increasingly being used as a phishing technique according to Sophos, a security firm. The Brizilian police recently arrested a phishing gang of 18 people who stole $37M from online banking accounts. This phishing gang would send out emails that included Trojans. Once a Trojan infects your computer, all internet activity can be monitored and transferred to the phisher. This is a serious threat as you probably won’t know that you are infected with a Trojan. According to David Jevans, Chairman of APWG, “Attacks can, and are, coming in a variety of other flavors. Instant Messaging, exploited websites, P2P networks, and search engines are all being used to download and run key logging malcode and/or be directed to websites which may contain malcode or be fraudulent. Attackers are also not just interested in username and password access to bank accounts. Social security numbers, credit cards and other identity information are also being stolen.” Protecting yourself against phishing scams. • Do not give out personal or financial information through an email request. • Always log on to your sensitive accounts by opening a new browser and typing the actual URL directly into the address bar. For example, if you receive a suspected phishing email from ebay, open a new browser and type www.ebay.com in the browser bar. • Do not click on any link in a suspected phishing email. • Only use a secure website to submit sensitive data. A secure sites’ address will begin with “https://” instead of “http://” • Check the activity of your online accounts regularly. • Make sure your browser is up to date and all security patches are installed. • Report phishing and spoof email to: reportphishing@antiphishing.com , spam@uce.gov, and forward the email to the company that is being spoofed. • Keep your pc protected with updated anti-virus software, anti-spyware software, and a firewall. You may also want to install anti-phishing software. o Earthlink ScamBlocker is a free browser toolbar that alerts you to known phishing sites. It’s free and can be downloaded at www.earthlink.net/earthlinktoolbar. o Webroot has a beta version of PhishNet which you can download at www.webroot.com/products/phishnet/ o PC Tools Spyware Doctor offers protection against known phishing sites, spyware and blocks popups. With the consequences being identity theft, it is imperative that you learn to protect your pc and your identity by exercising caution and installing the proper tools. Hopefully, this identity theft article has given you the information you need to avoid being the next phishing victim. Remember, legitimate companies don’t ask for personal or financial information in an email – so don’t give it to them!
Use A Spam Filtering Tool To Manage Spam And Save Hours Everyday
by: Balraj Dhaliwal
For most of us, changing our primary email address to get rid of spam is not really an option. This is because our email addresses are known and used by many of our contacts and may also be printed on business cards and other material. We certainly don't move to a different residence because of some junk mail in our letter boxes. Luckily, there are some very effective ways to combat spam and one such was is using a Spam filtering tool.The particular tool that I am referring to is called MailWasher. It is a tool that I cannot do without. I've been using it for about 2 years now and my running totals shows that 72% of emails received are automatically deleted by Mailwasher. For more product information on Mailwasher, please visit: www.BSDRegister.com/products/mailwasherMailwasher is a piece of software that works at the source i.e. it connects directly to your inbox on the server and takes care of emails there. This is very different to using email filters in your email software for example Outlook or Thunderbird. The major difference is that Mailwasher wipes out emails on the email server so that you never have to download them. Having a filter in Outlook would mean that the email has to first be downloaded onto your computer and then examined and dealt with accordingly. For those messages spreading viruses, this could well pose a threat.Mailwasher is easy to setup and takes a few minutes. There is a 30-day free trial of the software so that you can have ample time to decide if it is working for you. Initially, I started setting up my own spam filters and was having some success, but then I stumbled upon a link on the company's website that pointed to a link where an avid user was offering his filters for free. I downloaded those and installed them and have never look back. The amount of spam that was identified started to steadily increase until the 72% level that it is at today. This means that on average, 3 of every 10 eamils I receive are legitimate and are allowed through by Mailwasher. The rest are deleted at the source and I don't have to spend time downloading them. This is a big deal if you are using dialup access to the Internet.There are many controls within the software. You can specify emails be deleted automatically without your knowledge or you could have the program mark them for deletion but let you glance at them just in case. This is useful initially until you get a good feel for it. There are many other options that fall in between these. The good thing is that they are all on one screen.There is a concept of a blacklist and a whitelist. You can import all of your address book from Outlook with a couple of clicks and from other email programs as well. These go into what is called a whitelist. Mailwasher will allow all emails through that are on the whitelist. It will mark or automatically delete all those that are on the blacklist. Adding or removing someone from either list is a very simple point and click exercise.Mailwasher also allows the setting up of legitimate filters. These are methods of specifying an email as legitimate. For example, if you identify all emails coming from your company domain name as being legitimate, then all messages from your coworkers will be allowed through without you having to specify each person. This is achieved using a wildcard setting such as "*@youworkdomain.com". This can also be used to blacklist an entire domain such that all messages are immediately marked for deletion or automatically deleted depending on your settings.MailWasher is an independent program and does not interfere with your email software. It sits in the system tray and does its work diligently. In my case, it checks my inbox every 10 minutes and does a cleanout. I have my email software setup to only retrieve messages when I instruct it to so that MailWasher has the most opportunity to do it's work.Mailwasher also has more advanced controls, one of them being something known as "Origin of Spam". There are servers on the internet which list known spam addresses. When you receive a message from one of these addresses, it is automatically marked as spam and deleted without your filters even being invoked. This is a remarkable system and comes free with MailWasher. A whopping 14% of emails that I get are identified in this manner and automatically deleted.MailWasher is an indispensable tool in my email arsenal. If spam is a problem for you, it could do likewise for you. Download your free trial today and use it for 30 days. If you like it, you only pay $37 which in my book is a small price to pay for so much time saved everyday.
For most of us, changing our primary email address to get rid of spam is not really an option. This is because our email addresses are known and used by many of our contacts and may also be printed on business cards and other material. We certainly don't move to a different residence because of some junk mail in our letter boxes. Luckily, there are some very effective ways to combat spam and one such was is using a Spam filtering tool.The particular tool that I am referring to is called MailWasher. It is a tool that I cannot do without. I've been using it for about 2 years now and my running totals shows that 72% of emails received are automatically deleted by Mailwasher. For more product information on Mailwasher, please visit: www.BSDRegister.com/products/mailwasherMailwasher is a piece of software that works at the source i.e. it connects directly to your inbox on the server and takes care of emails there. This is very different to using email filters in your email software for example Outlook or Thunderbird. The major difference is that Mailwasher wipes out emails on the email server so that you never have to download them. Having a filter in Outlook would mean that the email has to first be downloaded onto your computer and then examined and dealt with accordingly. For those messages spreading viruses, this could well pose a threat.Mailwasher is easy to setup and takes a few minutes. There is a 30-day free trial of the software so that you can have ample time to decide if it is working for you. Initially, I started setting up my own spam filters and was having some success, but then I stumbled upon a link on the company's website that pointed to a link where an avid user was offering his filters for free. I downloaded those and installed them and have never look back. The amount of spam that was identified started to steadily increase until the 72% level that it is at today. This means that on average, 3 of every 10 eamils I receive are legitimate and are allowed through by Mailwasher. The rest are deleted at the source and I don't have to spend time downloading them. This is a big deal if you are using dialup access to the Internet.There are many controls within the software. You can specify emails be deleted automatically without your knowledge or you could have the program mark them for deletion but let you glance at them just in case. This is useful initially until you get a good feel for it. There are many other options that fall in between these. The good thing is that they are all on one screen.There is a concept of a blacklist and a whitelist. You can import all of your address book from Outlook with a couple of clicks and from other email programs as well. These go into what is called a whitelist. Mailwasher will allow all emails through that are on the whitelist. It will mark or automatically delete all those that are on the blacklist. Adding or removing someone from either list is a very simple point and click exercise.Mailwasher also allows the setting up of legitimate filters. These are methods of specifying an email as legitimate. For example, if you identify all emails coming from your company domain name as being legitimate, then all messages from your coworkers will be allowed through without you having to specify each person. This is achieved using a wildcard setting such as "*@youworkdomain.com". This can also be used to blacklist an entire domain such that all messages are immediately marked for deletion or automatically deleted depending on your settings.MailWasher is an independent program and does not interfere with your email software. It sits in the system tray and does its work diligently. In my case, it checks my inbox every 10 minutes and does a cleanout. I have my email software setup to only retrieve messages when I instruct it to so that MailWasher has the most opportunity to do it's work.Mailwasher also has more advanced controls, one of them being something known as "Origin of Spam". There are servers on the internet which list known spam addresses. When you receive a message from one of these addresses, it is automatically marked as spam and deleted without your filters even being invoked. This is a remarkable system and comes free with MailWasher. A whopping 14% of emails that I get are identified in this manner and automatically deleted.MailWasher is an indispensable tool in my email arsenal. If spam is a problem for you, it could do likewise for you. Download your free trial today and use it for 30 days. If you like it, you only pay $37 which in my book is a small price to pay for so much time saved everyday.
Evict the Spammers from Your Inbox
by: Paul Judge, CTO, CipherTrust, Inc.
Block Spam and Other Email Threats From Entering Your Gateway Spam, commonly defined as unsolicited commercial email, is a powerful advertising channel for many products and services. As a result, spamming has become a profitable business, driven by the low cost of sending email compared to other direct marketing techniques. The high return on investment for spammers has resulted in an overwhelming volume of unwanted messages in personal and business email boxes. Consider this: Conducting a direct mail campaign costs an average of $1.39 per person, meaning that a response rate of 1 in 14 is necessary just to break even on a product with a $20 gross profit. Selling the same item via unsolicited spam email costs only $0.0004 per person, meaning that a response rate of 1 in 50,000 gets the seller back to break-even; anything above that is gravy. With profit margins like these, it’s easy to see why spammers will try anything to get past anti spam technology to deliver their messages to your inbox. Types of Spam Threats The recent onset of fraudulent spam variants such as phishing and spoofing pose an even greater risk than the spam volume clogging email servers. Spammers use techniques such as phishing and spoofing to fool users into opening messages that, at first glance, appear innocuous. Phishing Phishing is a specific type of spam message that solicits personal information from the recipient. Phishers use social engineering techniques to fool end users into believing that the message originated from a trusted sender, making these attacks especially dangerous because they often con victims into divulging social security numbers, bank account information or credit card numbers. In one six-month period from November 2003 to May 2004, phishing attacks increased in frequency by 4000%, and the trend continues upward. An example of phishing is an email that appears to come from a bank requesting that users log into their account to update or correct personal information. When the users follow a link embedded in the email, they are redirected to a site that looks and behaves like the expected bank website. However, unbeknownst to the soon-to-be identity theft victims, the site is actually controlled by the scam artists who sent the email; any and all information entered by the victim can now be used in a variety of ways, none of them good. Spoofing Spoofing is a deceptive form of spam that hides the domain of the spammer or the spam’s origination point. Spammers often hijack the domains of well-known businesses or government entities to make spam filters think the communication is coming from a legitimate source. Today’s spammers are more crafty than ever before and have begun blending elements of both phishing and spoofing into their messages, further spinning their web of deception. The toxic combination of spoofing and phishing presents a major threat that can trick most anyone into providing personal information to a stranger. Toothless Legislation On January 1, 2004, President Bush signed into law the “Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003,” or “CAN-SPAM” Act. While well intentioned, CAN-SPAM has done little or nothing to curb the flow of unwanted email. In fact, an estimated 97% of all spam email sent in 2004 violated the Act, and the United States still dwarfs other nations in terms of the origin of spam, with CipherTrust research revealing that an astonishing 56.77% of all spam comes from U.S.-based IP addresses. While CAN-SPAM was designed to decrease the overall volume of spam, the exact opposite has happened: in 2004, spam accounted for approximately 77% of all email traffic, and phishing attacks continue to increase exponentially, with studies showing an increase of 4000% from November 2003 to May 2004. Anti Spam Software for the Desktop The dramatic increase in spam volume has prompted a corresponding surge in stand-alone anti spam software solutions for the desktop, all with varying levels of effectiveness. Some anti spam software uses text filtering to screen incoming messages for known characteristics of spam, while other solutions rely solely on reputation systems that monitor and categorize email senders by IP address according to their sending behavior. Still other anti spam software uses “challenge/response filters” to block unapproved mail until the sender responds (manually) to a challenge email sent to their email account to verify his or her identity. With so many different methods of filtering spam, no single software-based desktop anti spam solution is capable of effectively stopping spam before it reaches the inbox. The only way to successfully fight spam is to create an anti spam “cocktail” including reputation services, text filters, constant updates and a host of other best-of-breed spam blocking methods. Just as importantly, an effective anti spam solution should reside at the email gateway, not at the desktop. Without protection at the gateway, mail servers waste massive amounts of bandwidth and storage space processing every message, wanted or not, and end users face the unenviable task of deciding what to do with the countless spam messages that successfully reach them. Take a Consolidated Approach to Anti Spam Although it takes a person only a moment to process a message and identify it as spam, it is difficult to automate that human process because no single message characteristic consistently identifies spam. In fact, there are hundreds of different message characteristics that may indicate an email is spam, and an effective anti spam solution must be capable of employing multiple spam detection techniques. In addition to effectively identifying spam, businesses must be assured that legitimate mail is not blocked in error. Even one false positive, or incorrectly blocked email, can have a significant impact on businesses today. Accurate spam blocking requires a combination of tools to examine various message criteria combined with real-time research and intelligence data. By aggregating multiple spam detection technologies like text filtering, reputation services, traffic analysis and other best-of-breed techniques, and placing the solution at the email gateway in a hardened appliance, enterprises can retake control of the inbox.
Block Spam and Other Email Threats From Entering Your Gateway Spam, commonly defined as unsolicited commercial email, is a powerful advertising channel for many products and services. As a result, spamming has become a profitable business, driven by the low cost of sending email compared to other direct marketing techniques. The high return on investment for spammers has resulted in an overwhelming volume of unwanted messages in personal and business email boxes. Consider this: Conducting a direct mail campaign costs an average of $1.39 per person, meaning that a response rate of 1 in 14 is necessary just to break even on a product with a $20 gross profit. Selling the same item via unsolicited spam email costs only $0.0004 per person, meaning that a response rate of 1 in 50,000 gets the seller back to break-even; anything above that is gravy. With profit margins like these, it’s easy to see why spammers will try anything to get past anti spam technology to deliver their messages to your inbox. Types of Spam Threats The recent onset of fraudulent spam variants such as phishing and spoofing pose an even greater risk than the spam volume clogging email servers. Spammers use techniques such as phishing and spoofing to fool users into opening messages that, at first glance, appear innocuous. Phishing Phishing is a specific type of spam message that solicits personal information from the recipient. Phishers use social engineering techniques to fool end users into believing that the message originated from a trusted sender, making these attacks especially dangerous because they often con victims into divulging social security numbers, bank account information or credit card numbers. In one six-month period from November 2003 to May 2004, phishing attacks increased in frequency by 4000%, and the trend continues upward. An example of phishing is an email that appears to come from a bank requesting that users log into their account to update or correct personal information. When the users follow a link embedded in the email, they are redirected to a site that looks and behaves like the expected bank website. However, unbeknownst to the soon-to-be identity theft victims, the site is actually controlled by the scam artists who sent the email; any and all information entered by the victim can now be used in a variety of ways, none of them good. Spoofing Spoofing is a deceptive form of spam that hides the domain of the spammer or the spam’s origination point. Spammers often hijack the domains of well-known businesses or government entities to make spam filters think the communication is coming from a legitimate source. Today’s spammers are more crafty than ever before and have begun blending elements of both phishing and spoofing into their messages, further spinning their web of deception. The toxic combination of spoofing and phishing presents a major threat that can trick most anyone into providing personal information to a stranger. Toothless Legislation On January 1, 2004, President Bush signed into law the “Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003,” or “CAN-SPAM” Act. While well intentioned, CAN-SPAM has done little or nothing to curb the flow of unwanted email. In fact, an estimated 97% of all spam email sent in 2004 violated the Act, and the United States still dwarfs other nations in terms of the origin of spam, with CipherTrust research revealing that an astonishing 56.77% of all spam comes from U.S.-based IP addresses. While CAN-SPAM was designed to decrease the overall volume of spam, the exact opposite has happened: in 2004, spam accounted for approximately 77% of all email traffic, and phishing attacks continue to increase exponentially, with studies showing an increase of 4000% from November 2003 to May 2004. Anti Spam Software for the Desktop The dramatic increase in spam volume has prompted a corresponding surge in stand-alone anti spam software solutions for the desktop, all with varying levels of effectiveness. Some anti spam software uses text filtering to screen incoming messages for known characteristics of spam, while other solutions rely solely on reputation systems that monitor and categorize email senders by IP address according to their sending behavior. Still other anti spam software uses “challenge/response filters” to block unapproved mail until the sender responds (manually) to a challenge email sent to their email account to verify his or her identity. With so many different methods of filtering spam, no single software-based desktop anti spam solution is capable of effectively stopping spam before it reaches the inbox. The only way to successfully fight spam is to create an anti spam “cocktail” including reputation services, text filters, constant updates and a host of other best-of-breed spam blocking methods. Just as importantly, an effective anti spam solution should reside at the email gateway, not at the desktop. Without protection at the gateway, mail servers waste massive amounts of bandwidth and storage space processing every message, wanted or not, and end users face the unenviable task of deciding what to do with the countless spam messages that successfully reach them. Take a Consolidated Approach to Anti Spam Although it takes a person only a moment to process a message and identify it as spam, it is difficult to automate that human process because no single message characteristic consistently identifies spam. In fact, there are hundreds of different message characteristics that may indicate an email is spam, and an effective anti spam solution must be capable of employing multiple spam detection techniques. In addition to effectively identifying spam, businesses must be assured that legitimate mail is not blocked in error. Even one false positive, or incorrectly blocked email, can have a significant impact on businesses today. Accurate spam blocking requires a combination of tools to examine various message criteria combined with real-time research and intelligence data. By aggregating multiple spam detection technologies like text filtering, reputation services, traffic analysis and other best-of-breed techniques, and placing the solution at the email gateway in a hardened appliance, enterprises can retake control of the inbox.
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