Maybe I’m a Heretic.

I’m not really in favor of spam and I don’t like it anymore than the rest of you and I’m sure many of you will disagree with me.

However I look at it in the same way I look at TV commercials. If we didn’t have them we’d have television like they have in Europe, which is pretty sad.

I just don’t want the government to get into the act. Let the market place take care of it. Eventually it will sort itself out. For one thing it doesn’t work. There are ways to control it with software and by other means.

I had an email address that for some reason or other was prone to receiving massive amounts of exceedingly offensive porn. I just abandoned it.

Spam is relatively inexpensive or it wouldn’t exist. Do you want to charge for the internet to cure it? I don’t think so. But when you get to the bottom of it there is a cost to those who employ it and I think eventually they’ll come to realize it and stop it.

I just received an email message from someone who wrote a blog objecting to Spam. In it he was touting some software to eliminate spam. Not only was he employing spam, but it was one of those long sales pitches that you have to scroll for five minuites to find out that this software marvel cost $200.00. I not only deleted it, I unsubscribed. Wasn’t this Spam.

Here’s one for the books. I received a solicitation to join a program that was supposed to let you use spam but not have it considered spam. You joined a group who ageed to receive email from you as long as you gave them permission to reciprocate.

It’s a free program and they were honest enough to tell you up front that you could concievably receive 10,000 email messages at a time. I’ll take my spam any day.

Meanwhile the best thing to do is make sure you have a good filter and ignore it.

Don’t answer it or respond to it in any way. I used to report it but stopped even acknowledging that I ever saw it.

Do not buy from anyone who indulges in spam.

Hit them in the pocket book and eventually they’ll go away.

Don’t ask “Big Brother “ to help because you’ll then suffer from unintended consequences. Use your freedom BOYCOTT them.

Written by: George W. Cannata Author and publisher of the web site: http://www.caveatemptorus.com You may copy or reprint this article so long as it is not altered in any way, that you retain the link and give full credit to the author.

We’ve all found our name on a junk mailing list at one time or another. It’s frustrating to continuously receive unsolicited and unwanted mail that only ends up becoming landfill. If you’re not interested in receiving piles of catalogs and solicitations in your daily mail, you’ll be happy to know that this is easily remedied.

One way to remove your name from a mailing list is to go directly to the source. Contact the business or individual and request your name be deleted from their files. You can do this over the phone, but it will probably better to do this in writing since it’s a good idea to have a paper trail.

You might also be able to go to the businesses’ web site and request removal. Request confirmation that this has been done. If a business continues to send you mail after several requests, you might be able to file harassment charges, so it pays to keep good records.

There are also organizations in which you can register to have your name removed from multiple mailing lists. The Direct Marketing Association is one of those organizations. Since it handles mailing lists from hundreds of different companies, you can go to their website and request removal. This will keep your name off of their junk mailing lists for five years at which time you can put in another request. If you submit the form online it will cost $5.00. To submit your request for free, you can send it the old fashioned way to the P.O. Box listed on the DMA’s website. If you’d like to be removed from junk or spam email mailing lists, you can also do this at the DMA’s website.

No one wants their mailbox clogged with unwanted catalogs and solicitations from banks, credit cards companies and others. If this is happening to you, you can take steps to prevent this from happening. Not only will you save your home from clutter; you’ll protect the environment as well.

James Hunt has spent 15 years as a professional writer and researcher covering stories that cover a whole spectrum of interest. Read more at http://www.best-mailing-lists.info

Well so much for the public humiliation of the CAN SPAM Act. Sure it was a great idea and concept, make a law and get rid of all that insane junk mail in your email in box. It makes a lot of sense. Only one problem; we trusted the Federal Trade Commission to enforce it. Why was that such a mistake? Well, I would be glad to enlighten you.

You see, the FTC once it was assigned to enforce the junk mail spend 6-8 months holding committee meetings so they could come up with a proper definition of what SPAM is? Then they filed a couple dozen cases, which represented at the time less than one percent of the SPAM. Leaving 99% still out there. But we did not hear about that. What we were told as the FTC, as they sent press releases to some 8800 news outlets was that they were aggressively pursuing Spammers and bringing them to justice?

Indeed the FTC’s Consumer Protection Agency, whose seeks out businesses and files lawsuits of fraud for misrepresentation or misleading advertising had misled the American People on the War in Spam. What total hypocrisy from the Federal Trade Commission as they went off and were so busy tooting their own horn that the lied to the American People, as their true performance was nothing more than piss poor since 2004. I suppose from the FTC we should expect more of this in 2006.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Will a spam filter help you free up time? I spend so much time weeding the spam out of my mailbox that it is unbelievable, or at least I did. It is an unfortunate fact that a good spam blocker is an absolute necessity with any computer that has email and internet access to it. Spam is simply unsolicited email that is usually a part of some sort of commercial advertising strategy. It is the email equivalent of junk mail and has been a part of email life for years now. You should really consider a good spam blocker because the truth is that spam presents a great deal more trouble than just the pain of weding out advertisements.

So why is spam such a problem? I mean do you really have to get a spam blocker? The answer is yes because spam eats up the electronic resources on your computer like memory and storage. Spam may also have viruses that can shut down your computer or your network if you have one. It can also contain scams that can trick some of the less savvy users of the internet and email. What a good spam blocker will do is stop the messages before they ever hit your inbox, thus saving you space, memory, and the threat of unsavory offers.

Another way a spam blocker will help you is in terms of your time. Even if the spam you receive does not contain viruses and really is just a series of advertisements, it takes a lot of time to delete and filter out all the spam in your inbox. If the email in question is one you use for work, then think how much more productive you can be with a spam blocker keeping you from having to read and delete a bunch of advertisements.

If you are a business owner, the same applies. Your employees will be much more productive if you get a good spam blocker put in with the email. It will save time in reading bad emails as well as help protect you from the threat of viruses or spyware. Spam is a problem and can really hold back a business as much as it can an individual, so give some consideration to getting a good spam blocker so that you can save your business time and money.

Spam has been around pretty much since the internet and email first became popular. It is difficult to define and recognize, but laws are still passed to help slow it down or stop it. The problem is that often times the spammers are ignoring such laws and sending their messages out anyway. All this means is that no matter how many laws or acts are passed, a good spam blocker is a necessity to keep your computer and to keep your email running smoothly. In addition, it will save you time and frustration every time you log on to check your email messages.

If you would like to view more of my articles on spam blockers, please feel free to visit my spam blocker software website!

If you talk to anyone who uses email, spam is something that is frequently on there mind. How often is it that you open your inbox checking for an email from your mom, and you end up with emails with subjective titles involving animals, and foreign objects.

There are ways to fight back against Spam, and one of the most popular is through the use of a spam filtering service. There is all different types of spam, and surprisingly not all of them involve email. Most spamming involves the advertising or otherwise promotion of a product, however this is not true in some cases.

Most common types of spamming include: Email spam, Link spam and search engine spam.

Email Spam is the simple act of sending out massive amounts of ‘junk email’ to anyone and everyone, in order to promote a product. Often times spamming has been exploited by more ‘undergorund’ industries such as the adult industry, but it would be unfair to say that other industries haven’t used it as well.

Link Spam is a form of spamming or spamdexing that recently became publicized most often when targeting the increasingly popular weblogs. Weblogs is one of the biggest problems, however link spam also affects guestbooks, and online discussion boards. The purpose behind spamming these various places, is to display hyperlinks to a various page or product, which helps both with user exposure and search engine popularity.

Search engine spam is usually closely related with the above "link spam", as it is the process of creating countless numbers of pages, that populate search engines. Often times these pages will be full of garbage text and have no real value on there own. When a user visits them, they will either be re-directed to a completely different page, often times on another domain, or show prominent advertising.

Everyone can take their part in removing spam. The easiest way for a general user to not encourage spam, is not to use it. Spammers only spam, because it must be effective, otherwise they would find something better to do with their time. It is also recommended to get various levels of personal spam protection, which is often times included with anti-virus software. 3rd party solutions such as Hotmail, have very good spam detection, however often times spam will leak in, and in that case you can help hotmail out by notifying them of the occurence, so that they can better help protect you next time.

Feel free to reprint this article as long as you keep the article, this caption and author biography in tact with all hyperlinks.

Ryan Fyfe is the owner and operator of Spam Filtering Services - http://www.spam-filtering-services.com, which is the best site on the internet for all Spam related information.

From the minute users log onto their e-mail system, they encounter a deluge of unwanted e-mail that flows into their mailboxes all hours of the day and night. The billions of unwanted email messages circulating across the Internet disrupt email delivery, clog up computer systems, reduce productivity, waste time, raise the cost of Internet access fees, irritate users and erode their confidence in using email. Many spam messages also contain material that is offensive or fraudulent, and spam is sometimes used to spread computer viruses.
Spam presents three major threats:

Overwhelming message volume. Spam drains employee productivity as workers waste time reading, deleting or even responding to spam e-mails. Additionally, the sexually explicit nature of many spam messages poses potential liability for organisations.

Phishing. Phishing is a specific type of spam message that solicits personal information from the recipient, such as social security, credit card and bank account numbers.

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 enhance the validity to their commercial message or scam. An example of spoofing is an e-mail that appears to come from a known e-mail address that requests a credit card number to confirm the order of goods.

So what can businesses do to help cut down on spam? Implementing these basic policies and strategies can help cut down on spam:

Get a spam-filter. Your ISP may offer a filter service. If not, you may wish to buy filtering software. There is a wide choice of anti-spam software that offer a free trial period. Remember that one size does not fit all and obviously the best product for a desktop user or small business would not be appropriate or adequate for meeting the needs of a large enterprise.

Establish written guidelines for how corporate e-mail addresses and Web browser are to be used by employees.

Educate users to never respond to an e-mail when the sender is unknown, even to remove themselves from a mailing list.

Be careful about disclosing your e-mail address. Follow these tips whenever you can:

Set up an e-mail address dedicated solely to Web transactions.

Only share your primary e-mail address with people you know. Avoid listing your e-mail address in large Internet directories.

Don’t even post it on your own Web site.

Disguise (or "munge") your e-mail address. Use a munged address whenever you post it to a newsgroup, chat room, or bulletin board. For example, you could give your e-mail address as "s0me0ne@example.c0m" using "0" (zero) instead of "o." A person can interpret your address, but the automated programs that spammers use cannot. Another example is me@(nospam)isp.com.au where you advise users that they need to delete the (nospam) element of the address.

Watch out for checked boxes. When you buy things online, companies sometimes add a checkbox (pre-checked!) to indicate that it’s fine to sell or give your e-mail address to responsible parties. Click the check box to clear it.

Encode corporate e-mail addresses posted on company Web sites in Javascript or HTML to hinder a spider’s ability to recognize them. (The e-mail address looks normal and acts normal [to Web site visitors], but from the back end you just see code.)

Even if you’re using anti-spam software, urge users to report spam that sneaks through to a corporate e-mail address for further analysis.

Decide how much control your company wants over e-mail that’s been deemed spam, and whether end users or the network administrator should manage it.

Educate your end users to identify and report any spam that does get through, and alert them to e-mail fraud. One clue to detect spam is if the sender’s e-mail address differs from the company’s name in the message.

Limit Web surfing on company PCs; an easy way for spammers to find live e-mail addresses is by lifting them from sites where visitors have input their address.

Adjust your Internet Explorer security settings to help prevent unwanted intrusions when you go on the Web. See Working With Internet Explorer 6 Security Settings for detailed directions.

Review the privacy policies of Web sites. When you sign up for Web-based services such as online banking, shopping, or newsletters, review the privacy policy closely before you reveal your e-mail address. If a Web site does not have a privacy statement posted, be cautious and consider contacting the site owners before sharing sensitive information.

Don’t open emails that appear to be from a dubious source. It is not wise to open any email message that appears to be from a dubious source. However, if you have already opened the message, don’t click on any links, including the unsubscribe facility – often spammers just include fake unsubscribe facilities in order to confirm that your email address is a real address. If you click ‘unsubscribe’, you may open yourself to a deluge of spam, both from that spammer and from others to whom they sell your email address. Note that for legitimate commercial electronic messages (those that have been sent with your consent), the unsubscribe facility must work, and it should be safe to use the facility.

Don’t reply to e-mail asking for personal information. Most legitimate companies will not ask for personal information via e-mail. If a company you trust (e.g., your credit card company) writes to ask for personal information, call—do not write—and report it. Be sure to use a number you found yourself, either through the yellow pages, a bank statement, a bill, or other source. (Don’t use a phone number provided on the e-mail.) If it’s a legitimate request, the phone operator should be able to help you.

Watch out for spoofed mail. "Spoofing" refers to duplicating a legitimate e-mail, such as a company’s newsletter. These spoofed mails may be used to trick you into downloading a virus or sending personal information, such as a credit card number. When in doubt, contact the company you think sent the e-mail.

Don’t buy anything from a spam mail. Some spammers make their living on people’s purchases of their offerings. So resist the temptation to buy their products if you don’t want to take the chance of getting on more junk e-mail address lists.

Be careful when downloading Adware, Freeware and Shareware. The process of downloading such software often requires you to provide your email address which may be used to send you advertisements, viruses, more spam or even download secret files into your computer which can compromise your PC’s security.

Never respond to popups by clicking on links.

Don’t forward chain e-mail messages. Chain mails may be hoaxes, or even a virus delivery system. Plus you lose control over who sees your e-mail address. Additionally, there are reports that spammers use chain letters to gather e-mail addresses. To check on the legitimacy of a chain letter or potential hoax, go to Hoaxbusters.

Conclusion The best defense against Spam is to be pro-active, and ensure that you use common sense when using email and the Internet.

David Furlong is a qualified and experienced IT specialist and Technical Trainer. His list of credentials includes MCSE, MCSA, Dip IT, and he is one subject away from completing a Masters in Networking and Systems Administration.

He is manager of the computer consultancy firm, Axiom Networking Solutions, and promotes AVG Anti-virus through his on-line store http://www.avg-antivirus.com.au.

GMail SPAM filter is fighting a losing battle. I am doing some ANTI-SPAM testing. For the past 4 months I have been very public with my Gmail email address, signing up for newsletters, using it on forms, and sharing it publicly on forums, blogs, and discussion boards. I expected to get SPAMMED to death, that’s exactly what’s beginning to happen. Everyday, I receive about 20 junk emails. I know that is small, but for someone who is use to never seeing SPAM in their inbox, it’s a quite bit.

I did this sort of testing, once before with Yahoo! Mail, and I took the time to get rid of all my SPAM (from coming into the inbox). I’ll share my secret.

1. First, you should have 3 email addresses; (@.hotmail, @.yahoo, @.gmail). These 3 email addresses should represent your public (personal) email address, your business email address, and your spam catcher). Remember the less you publicly use your email address, the less SPAM you’ll have.

2. If you wish to use your public or business email address, each site you travel to, (which you plan or must share your email address) you should check the site Privacy Policy. You don’t have to study the policy, but finger through it and see what their policy is about sharing your information. If the policy doesn’t have this clause or the site doesn’t have a Privacy Policy (visibly linked) then be skeptical and assume this site plans to share your information. Many sites claim to be legit and have a privacy policy in place, but through the backdoor they sell your information, so never put all trust into the privacy policy, just make good judgment. The best thing about managing your SPAM is that you can speculate how someone got your email address, because your amount of SPAM is down to a minimum and you are securely managing your email address. Any place you need to enter your email address and you feel skeptical about using your public or business email address then you should enter your spam catcher email.

3. Your public (personal) email address should be used for public trusted sources, such as: on forums, discussion boards which you frequent. You should use this address only on sites which you trust and visit on a day-to-day or occasional basis. Your public email address should be used for sign-up forms (only sites you want information from). Your public email address should also be used to subscribe to newsletters which you initiate. Your public (personal) email address should be your most commonly used email address for basic day-to-day communication. This is the email address you should share with family, friends, and co-workers.

4. Your business email address should be used for business contacts. In fact, your business email should NOT be a free email address, it should be an email address with your company, your website, or your business name (example: @.yourcompanyname.com). If you don’t have a company, business, or website then use a free email address and make this your email address for professional purposes, such as putting this email on your resume, etc. This should be for extremely trusted sources. You should only share your business email address with individuals you connect with one-on-one on a professional or business level. Example: You shouldn’t share this email address with the customer service staff of a company, but you should share this email address with the CEO of the company. This is your exclusive email address. In some instances you may share your business email address with the customer service staff, but the source should be trusted and you should make good judgment.

Example: If the company plans to send you sensitive information via email, like money market account information. Your business email can be used for signing up at sites which you will use your credit card and is a highly respectable and honest site, world renown. This email should only be used with those whom you trust with your information and trust will not share or send you advertisements. You should only use this email address to get company related information or information which directly affects you or your business on a consumer or business level. You should NEVER publish your business email address on any website, forum, discussion board, or any other publicly available media.

5. Your spam catcher email address is the email address you should use at any time you feel skeptical, when you don’t trust a site, or when a site doesn’t provide you information that you wish to receive. Many sites have products, programs, or services which you want, but to register or to move forward you must enter an email address (and most of the time the email address must be valid and confirmed), therefore you should have a spam catcher email address, for non-trusted sources. Using your spam catcher email address you could easily register at any site while using a valid email address, which you can log into and confirm the authenticity of the email addresses.

6. Use the ‘Report Spam’ feature of your email client. Most online and now even software (local install) email clients have a ‘Report Spam’ feature which blocks the delivery of future mail from the sender. It is important to make good use of this feature, because it will help keep your inbox free of unwanted mail. The only email addresses you are worried about receiving spam from is your personal email address and business email address, the spam catcher email address should not be an account you log into daily, you should only log into your spam catcher email address to confirm an email.

At this point you shouldn’t receive any spam into your business email address account, if you followed the steps above, but if you do then make sure you use the ‘Report Spam’ feature so you can block future delivery. Use the ‘Report Spam’ feature immediately when you receive spam so there is no delay and to be sure you don’t miss a spam message. In your personal email address account you will probably receive spam messages or unwanted mail, if you do then make sure you use the ‘Report Spam’ feature each time you receive a piece of unwanted mail, within a few months and good email address management (following the steps above) you should never or rarely see any spam coming into your inbox.

If you receive any mail into your inbox, then make sure you use the "Report Spam" feature within the email client. This should soon eliminate any mail you do not wish to have. Following the steps above is imperative to getting a good clean inbox. Managing your email address is ultimately your responsibility and you should know who you share your information with. Most people use only one email address for all their communication, this technique is not the best option. You should use at least 3 email addresses adhering to the steps above. You can simply log into one account, your personal email address or your business email address and just have the email from the other forwarded to the account you log into most.

You can also send email from the account under either your personal or business email address. Setting up forwarders and multiple sender accounts is not a hard task in the 3 major online email clients. For some additional steps may need to be taken, like with Yahoo! you must have a paid account to forward your email, but from Gmail you can automatically forward your email where you like for FREE. So, if you forward your Gmail email to your Yahoo! account and setup multiple accounts within your Yahoo! Account then you are in good shape. Use the Hotmail account as your spam catcher. This is just a thought, but you can set it up any way you like, its your preference.

Currently, I have a paid Yahoo! account and I use my Yahoo! account as my business email address. I use my Gmail account as my personal email, and I use my Hotmail account as my spam catcher. My Yahoo! mail is forwarded directly to my Gmail account, and I have a sender account setup in my Gmail account, which will send mail as my Yahoo! email address. I use Gmail Notify and know instantly whenever I receive new mail from either my public (personal) or business email address. I rarely log into my Hotmail account, only to confirm an email or just to login so my account doesn’t close. This proactive approach has kept my inbox clean for years and now I’m sure it will help you with your fight against SPAM!

Ant Onaf is owner and founder of Journal Home a website which host blogs for authoring and managing. He is an accomplished webmaster, internet marketer, content writer, and IT consultant. Visit his blog Ant Onaf Internet & Technology Blog (http://www.antonaf.com)

A server spam filter is a software application that scans incoming email messages, identifies SPAM based on preset configurations and isolates the unsolicited email so that it never reaches the email inboxes of the personal computers in the computer network.

SPAM is the slang term that is commonly used to describe unwanted, unsolicited commercial email or junk email. It is not an acronym so it doesn’t actually "stand for" anything.

SPAM email generally consists of commercial email that is delivered to recipients who did not request information from the company or individual who sends it.

Receiving loads of unsolicited commercial email can put a drain on businesses and individuals because they have to sort through email, eliminating the unwanted email messages, which is sometimes a time consuming process that can seriously inhibit productivity as well as being incredibly frustrating.

Time is money and wasting time to manually delete SPAM messages is not a wise thing to do.

Additionally, sometimes SPAM email contains viruses which can result in downtime for computer users as well as being a threat to the stability of a personal computer or computer network and the data stored within.

Scam artists also send unsolicited email as a part of phishing schemes which are intended to collect personal information for identity theft purposes, and other similar fraudulent reasons.

With a server spam filter, you can automate the process of eliminating spam at the receiving source - the server level - before it ever reaches the personal computers in your network.

This is a recommended task to automate because it saves personal computer users loads of time as well as protecting the personal computers and the network from damage which can result in downtime and lost data.

If the SPAM messages are not delivered to individuals in an organization, then the fear of someone falling for a scam and compromising financial or other confidential data is eliminated.

Because anti-spam technology is not perfect, it is a good idea to have a network administrator check the mail messages that are filtered out periodically to make sure that the server spam filter is not catching messages that are not actually SPAM.

When this happens, the email capture is sometimes referred to as a "false positive", meaning that the server spam filter positively identified a message as SPAM when it was actually a valid message that should not have been filtered out.

Some anti-spam programs have an option where identified SPAM can be sent to a computer user’s junk email box so the computer user can actually go through the filtered out messages at their leisure to make sure that bona fide messages have not been falsely identified as SPAM.

If this process is used and false positives are identified, the computer user needs to notify the network administrator so the configurations in the spam filter can be adjusted to allow receipt of email from the specific sender through the server.

Undoubtedly, it is a good idea to install a server spam filter in order to save your company time, money and heart-ache that can be associated with system failure.

When reviewing your options, do realize that all anti-spam products are not created equal. There are varying features regarding the way that SPAM is identified and the way the system is administered.

Some filter out email messages based on keywords used in the messages, some are pre-programmed with blacklisting of known spammers, and most all have configurations that can be customized by an end-user or network administrator.

It is a good idea to review several alternative products in detail and to determine which products best meet the needs of your company.

Searching the internet for spam filter reviews is a good way to learn more about individual software packages, their features and their functionality.

Copyright Christopher J. Enders. Are you at the end of your rope, fed up and confused by all the scrambled internet marketing advice you’re getting? Whether you are new to internet marketing, or a website owner who wants to make more money from your website, learn the proven strategies that will sky-rocket your internet business at http://BiznessTips.com.

If you are a business owner and you rely on email, spam is going to be a major concern. How you address it can make a big difference in employee efficiency. Email spam has been a nuisance and has gotten even worse over the last several years. Email spam slows down server performance and can eat away at storage. Cleaning all those bad messages out of your inbox is time consuming. The easiest way for viruses to spread is via email.

Having a strategy to deal with email spam and viruses threats is essential for any business to survive and be productive. You can limit the negative impact to your business by having policies and guidelines in place.

Tips to avoid getting email spam:

can fill out. Some spam mers use robots that crawl web pages looking for

email addresses. Your web site designer should be able to help you with this.

account like hotmail or Yahoo mail.

not spam you may get a lot of email offers you do not want.

account is active.

or forums. These measures may help to reduce spam, but if you have an old email address you may want to change your email address or deploy a spam filter system. There are several choices for anti spam systems you could buy software that runs locally on your PC to filter the spam, but this can be expensive, does not prevent virus infection, and is not a good choice in a networked environment. Managing individual machine spam software is inefficient.

If you have limited technical resources you can outsource you email spam filtering to a hosted anti spam and virus solution provider. Spam filter service providers colocate their spam and virus filters in data centers with redundant power and network connections. You will need to change your mail exchanger on your dns servers to point to the service providers spam filters. Your service provider will then scrub your email for spam and viruses. They then forward your email to your mail server minus the spam and viruses. This gives you a few extra layers of protection. In the event of a network outage or server downtime your email is held and is delivered when the network or your server is available minus the virus and spam. Spam filter services also scan for viruses; this adds another layer of defense to the virus software already running on your network.

If you have an organization with more than one hundred email boxes investing in your own spam filter appliance is the most cost effective solution if you have the technical expertise to manage the system. A spam appliance sits in front of your email server and blocks spam and viruses. The price of the spam appliance will depend upon your number of users, amount of mail and storage requirements.

Fighting spam is no longer be a losing battle if you have a good strategy to deal with the threat.

John Tourloukis is the founder of Fast PC Networks Data Center Colocation, Disaster Recovery Services, and Spam Filter Service.

It seems more and more these days, I am seeing increased similarities with spam and the flu. With Yahoo and AOL in the news lately about a possible pay to email to avoid spam, this brought be to think about the flu and spam correlation.

If you cannot beat it, or at least stop it completely at this time, why not try to make money off of it (that is unless there’s a permanent solution against it). Right now you could easily relate this statement to spam or the common cold/flu.

We can easily relate spam emails to the virus that will cause you to get sick. With some of the top email providers, you have the option of upgrading your email (pay of course) and have the option of increasing the number of filters to help combat the war against spam. With the flu/cold, we try our best to avoid it, purchase products to help prevent it, and once we do get it, off to the store to get the good ole cold/flu medicine.

With Yahoo and AOL, which I am sure you have probably heard of by now, a possible (most likely) option of paying to avoid the spam filters so your email will get to its intended place. Maybe it is time to start phoning people again?

It will be interesting to see how paying to avoid the spam filters will work out for some of the major players such as Yahoo and AOL. I just hope if the pay to email does come through, I just don’t see an increase in spam emails, but I guess as time goes on, that is very unlikely.

Gerard Manning is an SEO Consultant for Search Engine Marketing Firm Manning Search Marketing based out of Atlantic Canada.