Mary Harboe
07.04.08
What you can do to fight spam
Spam: Unsolicited Bulk Emails.
Spam is e-mails that are indiscriminately sent, unsolicited, unwanted, irrelevant, or inappropriate, especially commercial advertising in mass quantities.
Noun: electronic "junk mail".
Spam is an issue about consent, not content. Whether the spam message is an advert, a scam, porn, a begging letter or an offer of a free lunch, the content is irrelevant - if the message was sent unsolicited and in bulk then the message is spam.
This distinction is important because legislators spend inordinate amounts of time attempting to regulate the content of spam messages, and in doing so come up against free speech issues, without realizing that the spam issue is solely about the delivery method.
Spambots: These are dubious software creatures (a little like search engine crawlers in terms of the technology used). They crawl the Web looking for E-Mail addresses on websites and news groups. When the spambot finds an E-Mail address it adds it to a database.
This data is then of course used by that company and potentially sold to other spammers once enough data has been collected. To be fair although the details might have been obtained unethically they might be sold to a marketing company who think they are getting a database of E-Mail addresses willingly given.
Don't Be a Victim:
If the offer sounds too good to be true, - it probably is. Fraudsters, scammers, and crooks take advantage of people via unwanted e-mail. Don’t respond to Spam! Not to unsubscribe or get off their mailing list. This just tells them you are a viable email address and you will receive even more spam!
Use a unique e-mail address:
An e-mail address containing both numbers and letters can help prevent spam. Many spammers use "dictionary attacks" to e-mail many possible name combinations at large Internet Service Providers or e-mail services hoping to find a valid address. Best not to use your name as part of your email address.
Use multiple e-mail addresses:
Consider creating multiple e-mail addresses or accounts. Use one address for family and friends only. Do not post this address online or give it to merchants. Your second address can be used online and for purchases. If you begin to receive unwanted e-mail at this address you can delete that account while not affecting your primary address.
"Mask" your e-mail address:
If you need to post your e-mail address on a publicly available Web site, you can mask your address. What this does is make it difficult for spammers' computers to automatically collect your e-mail address, but fairly simple for other people to be able to use your e-mail address.
Add a phrase, or a character, that is obviously not a part of your e-mail address. Then users simply remove that part of your address to contact you. So if your e-mail address is "jsmith@example.com," you could mask it as "jsmith@nospam.example.com." This technique can be used on Web pages, in UseNet newsgroup postings, and in some mailing lists. But, if you need to get an automated response, this will not work
HOW CAN WE STOP THE SPAMMERS?
Don’t feed them and they will starve. Don't give them free email addresses.
If you want to send a joke / message / "good luck" pps. (Power Point) that you have received do it the proper way:
1. Create a new e-mail - DO NOT FORWARD the one you received.
2. Copy the content from the email, whether it is text or an attachment, and
paste it into a new email message window.
This will eliminate the ubiquitous emails that we continually send containing so many email addresses in the “to” field and also in the body of the email. This is one way we are proliferating the spammers.
An email after it is sent stays at your Internet Service Provider until you open your computer and connect to download it. The spammer has software to get in behind the emails and obtain the addresses exposed in the email. We need to be more informed and not allow this to happen.
3. MOST IMPORTANT - use the Bcc field to add the multiple email addresses.
Bcc means Blind Carbon Copy. What this means is that NO ONE knows the email address of anyone but themselves on that email. It is NOT kept on record within the email itself. So anyone who gets the email will only have their
own address on it.
How do you use the Bcc field? Click on the address book right next to the "To" field. When you do that you will see 3 fields open up that you can add email addresses to. The last one is Bcc.
Check the privacy policy when you submit your address to a Web site:
Always be familiar with a Web site's privacy policy.
The cornerstone of good privacy protection is a Web site's privacy policy.
Included in the privacy policy:
1 - a statement of how and why a company collects information,
2 - what it does with that information,
3 - what choices you have about how the information is used,
4 - whether you can access the information,
5 - what the site does to assure that the information is secure.
On the basis of this information, you should be able to decide whether or not to give information about yourself to the site.
Ideally, a privacy policy is a brief, easy-to-read, comprehensive statement of how a site collects, uses, retains and secures your information.
Take Action Against Spam:
Take action against unwanted e-mails that you receive. The authorities cannot respond to spammers without complaints about spammers' activities. Reporting these messages to the appropriate authorities can get the spammer's current account closed. It will also help prevent others from being victimized by the spammer. The authorities may also choose to prosecute for fraudulent or deceptive e-mails.
If your ISP (Internet Service Provider) is aware of a spammer, they may be able to block that spammer from their network. Your ISP generally will not be able to take any direct action against the spammer.
The address to send your complaint to is usually abuse@yourispname.com. For example, if you are a customer of Yahoo, you should send the complaint to abuse@yahoo.com. You can lookup the official address for most domains at Abuse.net.
For gmail, hotmail, terra.es, yahoo, you can send a complaint using abuse@
When reporting spam to your ISP or to abuse, include a copy of the spam, along with the full e-mail header, and at the top of the message, state that you are complaining about being spammed.
Most ISPs will reply to your complaint with a generic form letter letting you know they received your complaint. You will usually not receive any other notice from the ISP.
How to Include E-mail Header Info using Outlook Express:
1. Open the unwanted e-mail message that you want to forward to the authorities.
2. Show the Internet Header information by clicking the File menu and selecting Properties.
3. Select the Details tab.
4. Highlight all of this information.
5. Right click on the highlighted information.
6. Choose Copy.
7. Click the close button.
8. Click the Forward button.
9. Right click at the top of the body area of the new message.
10. Choose Paste.
11. In the To: field enter, the address of your ISP i.e. abuse@yahoo.com
12. Click the Send button
Use an Anti Spam Program:
There are anti spam programs out there. Some of the anti viruses have a built in spam filter such as Norton.
They create a spam folder in the navigational folders of outlook express and put what they consider spam emails in it. Always check it because they can make a mistake and put one in that is not spam.
Spam Fighting Software:
Spamfighter.com - free program you can download, recognized by Microsoft.
Mailwasher.net - free
Cloudmark.com/
Security Protection:
Obviously make sure that you have all the latest Microsoft operating system patches on your computer, and keep your anti-virus software etc. up to date.
Spam Filters:
Gmail and Yahoo have good spam filters. You don’t see a lot of spam on these email providers