Why do you need anti spam protection? Because it is the quickest way to get rid of junk email. Although every single one of us complains about spam very few people do anything about it.

But once you install anti spam protection on your computer you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner. It’s not really expensive and is easy to install.

More than 40% of all e-mail today is still unsolicited sent to you by spammers. Even though the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 was supposed to eliminate spam, email spammers still send millions of unwanted email messages everyday.

Most people think spam is just annoying and delete it without thinking twice about it. But what happens if one of your children opens a spam email without you even knowing it?

Spam protection is one of the most critical components of your computers security. You need to eliminate spam as quickly as possible because just opening some of these emails can engage spyware programs and even damage your computer.

Anti spam protection tools help stop identity theft and prevent the spread of Internet viruses which often arrive inside spam attachments. But it still allows legitimate email from friends, family and co-workers to arrive safely.

Anti spam protection puts you in charge of what you want and don’t want coming into your computer. These programs are very cost effective and easy to install.

If you are ready to take back control of your Internet message Inbox and get rid of junk email, anti spam protection is the perfect solution.

Copyright © 2005 Spyware Information.com All Rights Reserved.

This article is provided by http://www.spyware-information.com where you will find free spyware cleaners, downloads, removal software, computer firewalls and valuable tips. For regularly updated articles about adware, spyware and protection from identity theft go to http://spyware-information.com/articles_1.html

Well it finally happened as predicted the SPIT is here; that is to say “SPAM over IP Telephony.” Yes indeed, they have found a way to send you VoIP SPAM and you thought you had some good news by saving a bunch of money on your long distance telephone bill, didn’t you? Well, guess what there are no Do Not SPIT Lists at the FTC and you would not want to be on one anyway, as the SPAM’ers would only use the list to fill up your voice mail?

Can’t we’ “Just say no to SPIT?” Well, we wish it were that easy, but it isn’t as there is no formal definition of what SPIT is? And hence there are no regulations. The Federal Trade Commission says they are working quickly to come up with a definition, but there will need to be public hearings, committees, mission statements and the like. Then a set of regulations on SPIT can be introduced? If this really makes your blood boil you are not alone and it could get worse. If SPIT comes in SPIT-wads, that is to say batches of unwanted SPIT, then you could lose disruptions of 1-2 seconds as it comes in on your phone call. Plus you might have anywhere from 40-100 SPIT per day of junk voice mails, which you will have to listen to the beginning and then delete?

Companies providing VoIP cannot block all the SPIT otherwise they might block your legitimate phone calls. “Oh Bob, I never got your voice mail, I though it was a bunch of SPIT, so I erased it, sorry I missed the meeting and presentation and you lost the $200,000 deal!” Looks like VoIP is a little more complicated than we thought? Think on this.

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

Spyware and Adware viruses have rapidly become the number one threat to your computer with over 90% of computers already infected. These include "Trojans", Web Bugs, Advertiser Software, Monitoring Software and more. Fortunately there are good spyware protection and adware spyware virus removal tools available. Sorting through them all to find the right one is a challenging task and an important decision to make.

Consequences From Spyware: hijacked browsers, reset home pages, changed search results, spam emails sent to you, slow browsers, toolbars added to your browser, and many more.

You Need To Understand What Spyware Is!

Spyware and Adware, also called "Malware", are files made by publishers that allow them to snoop on your browsing activity, see what you purchase and send you "pop-up" ads. They can slow down your PC, cause it to crash, record your credit card numbers and worse. If you’re like most Internet users, chances are you’re probably infected with these files. Simply surfing the Internet, reading email, downloading music or other files can infect your PC without you knowing it.

Q. So What is Spyware?

A. Spyware are individual programs that embed themselves within your computer and monitor your internet browsing activites. They can spy on your confidential information (passwords, credit card info, etc).

Q. What is Adware?

A. Adware are software applications that display advertising banners and popups. If you get inundated with popups chances are you have been infected by Adware.

Q. What is Malware?

A. It is the short term for malicious software. Malware are more commonly referred as viruses, trojans, and worms.

Q. What is a Trojan virus?

A. A Trojan virus is software that breaks through computer security and disguises itself as something benign (harmless).

Q. What are Computer Viruses?

A. Destructive programs that disrupt the normal functioning of computer systems.

Is Your Computer Infected?

This is no longer something that you only see in sci-fi movies - spyware can attack anyone! If you’ve downloaded some music, files or documents and suddenly started getting annoying ads popping up on your screen, you could definitely be infected with spyware and/or adware software! Anyone who visits corrupt websites (you won’t know you have), clicks on deceptive popups or views a spam email message is vulnerable. Simply put, if you’re online, you’re at risk.

The Short Summary: Is your PC running slower than usual? Are you getting popup ads and do not know where they are coming form? Then you could have spyware software running on your computer without your knowledge.

The Solution: choosing an anti spyware software protection program immediately, to eliminate the threat to your computer, files, sensitive information and peace of mind.

Joe Borges helps you to keep your computer files safe. To learn the essential steps to protecting your computer and files on the internet and get a free trial spyware scan, visit our Detect Spyware website. Joe Borges is an Internet Marketer and Online Business Owner with experience in web development and implementation. He is also a professional SEO Consultant, helping internet businesses increase their web presence, website traffic and Search Engine Ranking. Get essential tips, tools and strategies that you can use right now to protect your computer and your most sensitive information by visiting: http://www.alertcomputer.com

By now you probably read a myriad of articles on how governments and technology masters are proposing to fight, reduce and/or eliminate spam, also known as electronic junk-mail. I don’t even have to start this article with the habitual introduction on ‘what is spam’, because I am certain you already know it and hate it. This article will not go into the questionable implementation and use of commercially available tools and technologies. Instead, I will touch on very basic common sense techniques that can efficiently reduce the amount of spam. This article is particularly useful for all those who intend to start an e-commerce business, or just put up a website, for fun or profit.

Fact #1:

Spam is here to stay. Whatever you hear from government officials, from Bill Gates, from software vendors, from PhDs in technology, the crude fact is, as one cannot stop the internet, one cannot stop spam in the cyberspace that exists today. Period – end of story.

Fact #2:

The volume and the offensive nature of the questionable practice of email spamming is increasing at an exponential rate, as I’m reading in reports published by statistics gurus such as Gartner. What do we do about it? The short answer is that there is no 100% fool-proof solution. However, implementing the suggestions and techniques that I will share with you in this article, can definitely help reduce it.

Tip #1:

Never publish your e-mail address on your web site.

The primary way that spammers obtain your e-mail address is through the use of spambots, or spiders (technical term for automated programs that run over the internet), that scour the web searching for the ubiquitous @ sign - the telltale indicator of an e-mail address. These spiders search your web page and harvest everything that looks like it might be an e-mail address. Then, the spammer will add the obtained addresses to a large list and, will use it to promote some obscene and/or bogus product or service. Lastly, the spammer will sell the list to other spammers and/or resellers and your email address will start perpetually circulating.

The only way to avoid having your address harvested in this way is not to publish it there in the first place.

Of course, you probably do want potential customers and other visitors to be able to contact you. At first glance, Tip #1 might seem self-defeating, but there is an alternative – read on!

Tip #2:

Use Mail Forms Instead of listing and/or linking to the actual, explicit email address.

The specifics of setting email forms (also referred to as web forms, mail forms, cgi forms) are not in the scope of this article, only because every web host uses various pieces of software, written in various programming languages to achieve this. Basically, the way it works is, your visitor gets to a page, fills up a few boxes with text, hits a “Submit” button, then the mail form processor sends you an email. Your email address can still be grabbed by persistent spammers, since it is usually hidden in the page, but there are several stealth techniques that I will discuss in detail in a different article. Also, most web hosting companies implement automatic spambot deterring techniques that you can take advantage of by merely using their hosting services.

Tip #3:

Never follow the "unsubscribe instructions" contained in a spam e-mail.

Spammers often use bogus "unsubscribe instructions" to verify that your e-mail address is working. Following these bogus instructions will most likely result in your e-mail address being added to even more spam lists. Basically, the spammer now knows that the address that probably came from a scrape or from some unverified list or from a random generator is actually a valid one, there’s a person out there who got it and responded back. Your address will now be marked as "premium" on the black market and will become even more circulated, sold and used.

You can make one single exception to this rule, in the case when you know for sure that you subscribed to someone’s newsletter voluntarily, and that someone is a reputable company that you trust 100%.

Tip #4:

Don’t forward chain-letters, virus warnings, etc.

Most chain letters and virus warnings that you receive by e-mail are either hoaxes, or they are initiated by spam houses for the intent of getting every email address you know. Chain letters spread like wildfire and always tend to end up right back at the spam house, with the email address of everyone it was sent to. Before you take any action regarding an unsolicited virus warning, check the validity of the warning at http://www.sarc.com/, and/or http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/, and/or http://www.mcafee.com/us/security/vil.htm. I’ve never received a virus warning by e-mail that didn’t turn out to be a hoax; and many of these hoaxes advise you to delete key system files that will end up damaging your computer (and the computers of all your friends that you forwarded the bogus warning to.)

Tip #5.

Use POP E-mail Accounts & E-Mail Fowarding Creatively.

Another popular way of harvesting e-mail addresses is through your own correspondence. Every time you purchase something online or e-mail a company or organization, your e-mail address is available for addition to a mailing list. Don’t put too much faith in the privacy statements of web sites that you don’t have experience with. Spammers make their living by theft and deception - they’re certainly not beyond providing false information in their privacy statements.

Usually, when you purchase web hosting, all of your accounts come with some free e-mail forwarding and some free additional POP e-mail accounts.You can use these features to your advantage in your fight against spam:

First, create a new POP user just for the purpose of collecting spam. Call it anything you want, for example, unused@yourdomain.com - you’re never going to use it for anything but collecting spam.

Now, take a look at the spam you’re receiving and notice the address it’s being sent to. In many cases, spammers grab your domain name and just make up addresses to attach to it (info@yourdomain.com, sales@yourdomain.com, admin@yourdomain.com, webmaster@yourdomain.com are among the most popular). When you notice spam addressed to an e-mail address that you do not need for regular business or personal use, create an email forward that redirects mail sent to that address to the spam-catching POP account you created in the preceding step.

The spammers often harvest addresses from the domain name WHOIS system, grabbing your administrative, billing, and technical contact e-mail addresses to add to their lists. Use a unique e-mail forward for your contact information, and when the spam begins to arrive at that address, change your domain name record to reflect a new forwarded address, and redirect the old address to the spam-catcher POP.

Whenever you order a product or service online, create a unique e-mail forward for the company you’re ordering from. For example, if you’re ordering a CD from amazon.com, use amazon@yourdomain.com when you register with them (don’t forget to replace yourdomain.com with your actual domain name; and don’t forget to create an e-mail forward to deliver mail to a valid POP account.) This approach provides two benefits: 1) it allows you to redirect that address to your spam-catcher if you start receiving spam; and 2) it will let you know who’s selling your personal information to spammers - you can then decide whether those companies are deserving of your trust and future business.

[NOTE: Eventually, your spam-catcher POP account will fill up and exceed its quota, as allocated by your hosting provider. When this happens, e-mail that’s sent to that POP account will begin "bouncing back" with an error message to the sender. Don’t worry about that - it won’t hurt anything. If the spammers actually provide a valid return address (which almost none do), the bounce will serve as notice that you’re not accepting their mail.]

Tip #6.

Use spam filters.

Most reputable hosting companies use spam-filtering software and give you access to many administration features. Do your homework and check the features that came with your account.

Spam filters compare incoming mail against several "spam blacklists" and automatically delete e-mail sent from any source included on any of those lists. Please note that blacklists and spam filters in general are not perfect - there’s not a filtering product available on the market that won’t 1) occasionally let spam slip through and get delivered, and worse, 2) occasionally reject valid e-mail as spam. Note that any mail deleted as a result of server-side spam filtering is not recoverable. There are other spam filtering options available to you to install locally - this gives you the choice of what to filter and what not to filter, and gives you the opportunity to recover valid e-mail that was mistakenly deleted by the filter.

—
Andrei co-owns Bsleek - a company that specializes in web design, hosting, promotional items, printing, tradeshow displays, logos, CD presentations, SEO and more. Andrei has amassed an extensive technical knowledge and experience through his career as the CIO for a major travel management company and through his past careers in military research, data acquisition and airspace engineering. He also consults for Trinity Investigations, a New York based PI firm.

—
Bsleek - Intelligent permission based email marketing

"Not sure how to say this — but just for fun I clicked on a credit card application, and then cancelled IMMEDIATELY! Well, two months later my count as of this day: 2948 spams for credit cards, loans, easy credit, etc. About 370 spams a week, or about 53 A DAY! While I know money support is nice, and I don’t subscribe to the paid edition of TourBus BUT if I did, would I get more moral staunchness on your part re: allowing spammers to use your site? SHAME ON YOU, BROTHER! — PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH!!!!!"

I’ve Been Spammed! (And I’m Blaming You)

I get emails like this occasionally, from people who have visited the TOURBUS website, clicked on an advertisement and then were unhappy with the results. Some blame me for spam, others for customer service problems with the advertiser.

I can’t understand why some people have the misconception that every advertiser on a reputable website is somehow vetted or vouched for by the website operator. To think so would be applying a much different standard to the online world than to print or broadcast media.

If you pick up a copy of the NY Times and browse through the classifieds, certainly you don’t assume that everyone advertising there is completely honest, and that the Times is endorsing their product or service. And if you buy something from a TV infomercial, you don’t blame the television station if the product doesn’t meet your expectations.

Caveat Pre-Emptor?

So why are the concepts of "buyer beware" and "due diligence" conspicuously absent on the Internet?

Even for advertisers that appear in the TOURBUS newsletter, with whom I deal directly, there’s no way I can check them all out to ensure that everyone will always have a perfect purchasing experience. I do, however, have a policy of "If you can’t get satisfaction from the advertiser, I will personally make it right." And of course I’ll no longer allow bad faith actors to advertise in the newsletter. But for the website ads, we don’t even have the means to check out individual advertisers. Because web ads are served by third-party advertising networks, we don’t even have control over which speficic ads appear on the site, except for the fact that they should be contextually relevant.

Protecting Your Privacy

Spam is the bane of the Internet, and we hate it as much as you do. In fact, the publishers of Tourbus have been quite active over the years in educating their readers about spam, where it comes from, and how to avoid it. Because we respect your privacy, we have always pledged that we will not rent, sell or otherwise reveal your e-mail address to any third party. And since we started in 1995, we never have!

Your email address is safe with us, but if you click away from the TOURBUS newsletter or website to a third party offering a product or service, you have to realize you’re on your own, and use the same caution that you would when making any purchasing decision — online of offline. That’s not because we’re mean or greedy, it’s just common sense.

Online consumers should ALWAYS read the advertiser’s privacy policy to see how their email and other personal information will be used. No privacy policy? Vague (or endless) privacy policy? No sale!

(Oh, and for the record, there is no paid version of TOURBUS.)

BOB RANKIN… is a tech writer and computer programmer who enjoys exploring the Internet and sharing the fruit of his experience with others. His work has appeared in ComputerWorld, NetGuide, and NY Newsday. Bob is publisher of the Internet TOURBUS newsletter, author of several computer books, and creator of the http://LowfatLinux.com website. Visit Bob Rankin’s website for more helpful articles and free tech support.

What if we could defeat SPAM? What if no one could hijack a Zombie Computer? What if SPAM did not come from half way around the world? What if SPAM did not take up so much of our bandwidth?

What if no one tried to sell us junk we did not want? What if SPAM was actually targeted, such as not sending male items to females or denture ads to teenagers?

What if the Federal Trade Commission had better tools to get these people? What if it did not take years to define SPAM? What if the CAN SPAM Act was not taken as a challenge by perpetrators?

What if we no one invented SPIT (SPAM over IP Telephony) which threatens to disrupt VoIP? What if no one used SPAM to try to steal someone’s identity? What if Phishing did not exist thru SPAM? What if we were not asking today what to do about Pharming?

What if the Viagra Spammers knew that you just have never had a problem getting it up? What Chinese Spammers did not send SPAM with a bunch of symbols you cannot read and could care less what they say? What if SPAM just went away?

What if you had back the time you wasted on sifting thru the SPAM? What if you could send the SPAM back times 10, 100, 1000 or 10,000? What if you could fight back, what then? Why do people send SPAM and why do you hate it so much?

What if the real Spam or ham in a can could sue all of them for hurting their brand name? Ah, yes what if…What if We Stopped SPAM?

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

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/mailwasher

Mailwasher 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.

Balraj Dhaliwal is an Internet Consultant for BSD Register, a well respected and liked domain and hosting provider because of its no nonsense simple approach to getting things done. Visit BSD Register at http://www.BSDRegister.com

Spam has probably joined death and taxes as one of those things that just can’t be avoided. However, there are prudent steps that you can take to reduce spam or even prevent it, especially if you run or are thinking about running your own website.

One of the chief ways that your email ends up on a spammer’s list is because of the action of spambots. Spambots are robotic programs that systematically go through the world wide web collecting information, in much the same way that search engines crawl the web. However in the case of the spambots they are not seeking information to index in a publicly used search engine. They are collecting any email address that appears in the html code of the web pages they visit. These email addresses are then sold to advertisers.

If you are launching a brand new website and proudly put your email address info@yourdomain.com , then very soon you will start getting spam email to this virgin email address, due to the relentless searching of the spambots. It’s a dilemma; you want your web visitors to be able to contact you but you don’t need hundreds of spam emails adding to your burden of unsolicited mail.

Here are a few things that you can do.

1. Use a form to collect feedback from your site. If you use a form to collect information from your web visitors then you don’t have to publish your email address on your site. However, you have to be careful about which kind of form collection method you use. Some form systems require you to put your email address in the html code of your web page. Although your email address is not visible when looking at the page in a browser, it will be collected by the spambots. Remember, the spambots are not human beings, they are only collecting the information that appears in your html code. Choose a script where the email address is kept on your server.

2. Render your email address in the form of an image: Instead using text to show your email address, make a jpg or gif image with your email address. You can match the normal background and text that appears on your page so that the image looks like your normal text. Someone viewing the site can just copy the address down and use it in their email program. Don’t try to be clever and link your image link to your email address, because the spambots will find your address in your html. Once again, the spambot is a robot is “looking” not at your visible web page, but, “under the hood”, at your html code.

3. You can scramble your email using special software or through an online utility. If you go to http://natata.hn3.net/ you can download the Natata Anti-Spam Encoder. You will end up with clickable mailto links which are invisible to spambots.

You can also visit the site: http://www.proles.net/emailencoder/ and scramble your email (but make sure that the link text does not contain your actual email address.

So, it is possible to maintain the interactivity and usefulness of your website, but also to protect your email address from the ruthless spam merchants.

Copyright 2004

Donald Nelson is a web developer, editor, and social worker. He has been working on the Internet since 1995 and is the proprietor of A1-Optimization, http://www.a1-optimization.com, a firm providing search engine optimization, copywriting, reciprocal linking, and other web promotion services. He publishes a monthly ezine, A1-Web Promotion Tips, available at http://www.a1-optimization.com/newsletter.html

Everyday, e-mail users find their inbox overflowing with messages from people they don’t know offering things they don’t need. Due to spam, e-mail users waste time everyday deleting junk mail from their inboxes. Sometimes, important e-mails get lost because the capacity of the e-mail account has reached its maximum due to the unsolicited messages.

Even if e-mail users ask the senders of unsolicited messages to stop bothering them, some spam just won’t go away voluntarily. The good news is, you can fight spam. There are several techniques available to defend your inbox from unsolicited e-mail including blocking addresses and tracing key words that are generally included in unwanted messages. There are techniques that work automatically and techniques where the user has to train the filter. Listed below are common ways to filter spam and keep it away from your inbox.

White-list and Blacklist:

In this system, also known as blocking, the user organizes a list of trustworthy addresses or domain names and these white-listed e-mails go straight to the user’s inbox. On the other hand, the user can blacklist addresses or domain names that send unsolicited messages and make these e-mails will be blocked and go directly to the trash folder. These lists can be maintained at the mail server or on the user’s computer.

Fingerprint:

With this technique an algorithm assigns all characters in an e-mail a numeric value, which it uses to calculate a numeric representation. This "fingerprint" is checked against the database of known spam fingerprints. The algorithm also accounts for whether an e-mail is identical to others received multiple times, generally a good indication of spam.

Heuristic filtering:

This kind of filter checks e-mails against a list of spam like keywords and phrases. The more words or phrases are found, the higher the e-mail score.

Bayesian filtering:

This filter is trained by the user, who categorizes received e mails as spam or not spam. The filter assigns probability values to each "token" (a word, a phrase, a symbol, or HTML code) based on how often it occurs in spam as opposed to regular messages. An e-mail’s score is an average of the token scores. This mechanism has a high rate of success as a filtering technique.

Summary:

Currently, you cannot completely eliminate receiving spam, but you can utilize spam filters to reduce the amount of messages you get every day. The #1 way to fight spam is to enable a mail filter which will watch your incoming mail, search it for indications of unsolicited content, and help you keep you inbox clean.

ITX offers a robust spam filter that will enable you to manage e-mail more efficiently and effectively. Unlike traditional spam filters, ITX’s filter utilizes a combination of mechanisms: advanced statistical analysis based on Bayesian filtering, blacklisting, and anti-virus scanning.

About ITX Corp:

ITX Corp is a business consulting and technology solutions firm focused in nine practice areas including Business Performance, Internet Marketing, IT Staffing, IT Solution Strategies and Implementation, Technical Services, Internet Services, and Technology Research. To learn more about what ITX can do for you visit our website at http://www.itx.net or contact us at (800) 600-7785.

About Jonathan Coupal:

Jonathan Coupal is the Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of ITX Corp. Mr. Coupal manages both the day-to-day and strategic operations of the Technology Integration Practice Group. Mr. Coupal and his team build a high level of trust with clients, establishing ITX as their IT partner of choice.

Website owners face a unique challenge. Making an email address public to communicate with your visitors also makes that address a magnet for spam. Learn how to minimize your risk and still provide that important email contact.

Having a host that provides exceptional Spam blocking services is a must these days. Webmasters and business owners can find their domain email particularly at risk to Spam as their email addresses may be freely available on their websites for both humans, and so-called "spambots" to find. By following a few simple guidelines, you can reduce the stress on your Spam filters by making your email a far harder target to hit. Note that most of these tips are "preventative" in nature. If you read one and know you’ve already exposed your email to that very threat, then you will either need to lose that address or make sure you have a really good filter.

Fooling the Sensors

As a webmaster or the owner of an online store, you want visitors to have a simple avenue of contact. Placing your email address on your site provides this simple avenue, but that avenue is wide, and more than just your customers will journey down it. Having an email address properly formatted and linked from your website makes it the perfect target for spambots. Much like search engine bots that spider the web cataloging information, these bots harvest email addresses for use in mass market email lists. Keeping your email visible to humans but invisible to bots can be accomplished a variety of ways.

* Don’t link your email with a "mailto:" hyperlink

* Spell out your address, for example "sales at yourdomain.com"

* Display your email graphically, but don’t link the graphic

* Advanced users may consider displaying email using Macromedia Flash, as most bots can’t understand links embedded within Flash. This preserves the ability for humans to quickly click your email address and send. This is not to suggest your entire site be in Flash, simply a single email "button."

Keeping the Secret

This may seem like common sense, but simply minimizing the exposure of your email off your website, as well as on, will aide in stemming the tide of Spam. Your professional email should be used as sparingly as possible. Don’t use it to sign up for personal newsletters or enter into contest forms on other sites. No matter what assurances of privacy a site may provide, the likelihood an address will be Spammed increases each time it’s used. Keep your professional and personal matters highly separated. If you want to get a newsletter, even a professional one, use a home address or consider the use of a free email account. There are a variety of services from large Internet portals like Yahoo and Google. Not only are they free, but they also provide built-in Spam filters, making their use far more preferable for "high risk" situations.

Finally, though it should be completely obvious, don’t respond to unsolicited mass email in any way. Don’t click on their links, reply to the mail, or buy their products. It should be obvious, but the fact is, the reason we all continue to be deluged with unsolicited emails is actually quite simple. They are still profitable to the people sending them. Even if their response rate is in the tenths of a percent, they still make money and thus still send out more. The people who respond are the ones that ensure a Spam filled future for us all.

The Removal Scam

Spam arrives, but, not to fear, there’s a helpful removal link at the bottom. Click, submit, reply, whatever- they come in many flavors, and all of them are potentially deadly. Though a natural response it to use these removal tools, it’s that natural response upon which Spammers prey. Following "removal" instructions may do one of two things. It may remove you from the list, or it may simply be the confirmation a mass emailer needs that the address asking to be removed is, in fact, a real live email account. Instead of stopping unwanted emails, the email account will only receive more, since it has become more valuable than before. It’s more valuable because there’s a confirmation someone is actively using it. Are all removal links scams? No, they aren’t. Some removal links are legitimate. Determining whether a removal link is completely valid is difficult. Never click removal links from unsolicited mass emails, they are most suspect.

Last Lines of Defense

The final lines of defense are filters. Keeping your professional email as quiet as possible and safe from roaming spambots are the primary preventative measures you can reasonably be expected to take. All that remains are filters, on both a server and local level. For site owners, having a host with strong anti-Spam and virus filters installed on your server is your best line of defense. A wide variety of server side filters are available, such as SpamAssassin and SpamAway (from Postini). This kind of service stops Spam and viruses from ever reaching your inbox. Ideally, like SpamAway, the service will provide a web based interface to verify it’s quarantined emails and make sure nothing was "over filtered".

Less effective and generally redundant in face of server side filters, are filters built into email programs. These filters will generally be simple blacklists or filters built on regular expressions. Some may have may have more advanced Bayesian filers built in that can "learn" from being fed a selection of Spam email. It’s preferable such a filter reside on the server and process a large amount of emails in order to be most effective. Postini’s SpamAway functions beyond the server level, intercepting Spam and virus filters before they reach their intended destination’s network.

Conclusions

Keeping your business email as confidential as possible is the best preventative measure against Spam. If you need to have contact email on your site, ensure that it is not directly linked or formatted in such a way as to make it an easy target for spambots. The ideal solution is a simple button in Flash that humans may use like any other button but that is unreadable from a bot’s perspective. Beyond confidentiality, ensure you have strong, robust filters for your site’s email addresses. This is the only option for an address that’s already been picked up by the mass emailers. It’s difficult to completely staunch the flow of Spam, but good filters can put a stop to most of it.

About the Author:

Mr. Lester has served for 4 years as the webmaster for ApolloHosting.com and previously worked in the IT industry an additional 5 years, acquiring knowledge of hosting, design, and search engine optimization. Apollo Hosting provides website hosting, ecommerce hosting, vps hosting, and web design services to a wide range of customers.

Established in 1999, Apollo prides itself on the highest levels of customer support.

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