As reported from the New Scientist, a team of researchers from IBM, and Cornell University developed a new algorithm for detecting spam in emails, called SMTP Path Analysis. The algorithm works by examining the path information (probably by looking at the Received headers), and detects patterns that are likely to be the route of a spammer. "…the algorithm is not meticulous enough to efficiently catch spam on its own, but works well in combination with content filtering tools.

Engineers at ActivSoftware recently announced their new algorithm called ‘slow start outbound connection ramping.’ This new server technology attempts to avoid becoming flagged as spam by automatically monitoring delivery success and failure rates and adjusting simultaneous connections to an email service provider based upon those parameters. It begins with a very low number of simultaneous connections to any one ESP for any one IP address. It monitors delivery failure to success ratios and slowly ramps up the number of connections to that ESP from that particular IP.

In another recent attempt to help legitimate email senders avoid becoming flagged as spammers, researchers at ActivSoftware, using a bayesian spam filter, sifted through over two hundred thousand words flowing through their email servers and itemized the top 50, or so, words most likely to trigger spam filters. The words are organized by their spam to ham ratio, or illegitimate to legitimate email ratio.

The team analyzed many factors within this data, but the most compelling was the spam to ham ratios. Words such as click and here don’t rank as high, since they are used often in legitimate email. Whereas words like madam, rarely found in legitimate email, while readily found in spam email, had very high ratios. Using this method the team created, what they deemed, "A superior list of spam words."

The top twelve words follow:

• homeowner
• discreet
• madam
• materially
• unclaimed
• anticipates
• soma
• preapproved
• unconditionally
• beneficiary
• refinance
• intercourse

To view all the words visit the ActivSoftware Blog

Rob Thrasher and Pete Freitag are nationally published auhtors on the topics of email communications, marketing and software coding. Contact the authors

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 was supposed to eliminate spam email. This federal spam law that became effective January 1, 2004, was passed by Congress to get rid of junk email.

So why didn’t the law eliminate spam and why is it so difficult to stop it? Still today, more than 40% of all e-mail is still unsolicited sent to you by spammers even though that law passed.

The truth is email spammers make so much money they can afford to outsmart The Federal Trade Commission with sophisticated technology.

It is almost impossible to enforce this law although a few do get caught and pay the huge price.

Spam is not likely to go away anytime soon, and it’s difficult to eliminate spam email altogether. But there are some simple ways to significantly reduce spam from getting into your inbox.

Here are Four Fighting Spam Tips:

Protect Your Email Address

Don’t display your email address in newsgroup postings, chat rooms or in an online service’s membership directory. Sometimes email spammers use these sources to harvest email addresses.

Create Two Email Addresses

Another good tip is create two email addresses. Create one for personal messages and the other for public use, such as in newsgroups or chat rooms.

You can create an account with a disposable email address service. Have those emails forwarded to your permanent email address. If the disposable address begins to get spam, just shut if off and get another one.

Create A Unique Email Address

Create a unique email address because email spammers often use dictionary attacks to sort through possible name combinations at some Internet Service Providers. A common name, like johnsmith or thewilliams may get more spam than a unique name like 37xi6OWt8.

Use Email Tools

Most email accounts provide tools to filter out potential spam or ways to channel spam into a bulk email folder. When you’re choosing which Internet Service Provider to use consider their email options.

Although these simple methods might seem obvious, most people do not utilize them. You may be surprised how much junk email you can get rid of just by using these simple tips.

If you decide to eliminate spam altogether all it takes is installing an anti spam filter. Most are reasonably priced between $25 and $40 depending on where you get it. A good anti spam filter will block 100% of unwanted spam and will eliminate spam forever.

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

Spam is a term used to describe the sending unsolicited messages indiscriminately in bulk by means of electronic media. E-mail is the usual vehicle for Spam often advertising products like cheap prescription drugs and discounted computer software.

Confidence tricks have also found as new lease of life through e-mail. I think many of us know of the email from a government official, usually from Nigeria asking to use your bank account to move money and promising a big cut.

The first traces of unsolicited e-mail date back to 1978 and the term itself has its roots from a Monty Python sketch on TV. In the sketch set in a café’s, every item on the menu comes with Spam Luncheon meat. When a customer asks for something without spam, the waiter merely reiterates the Spam filled menu. So now you know. They even made a song about it.

Even though there has been media coverage of the problems with spam, there is little legal recourse to stop spammers targeting you. So what do you do?

Never ever respond to a spam e-mail:

Spam e-mail may often contain a link along the lines of "click here if you don’t want to receive these e-mails in the future". Rather than removing you from the list it confirms to the spammer that your address is valid and that there is someone reading the messages. Once a spammer knows this it makes your address valuable if they sell it on, and will result in you getting even more spam e-mails.

Never publicise your e-mail address:

By only giving out your address to trusted family and friends you can keep email address safe. This will make it harder for spammers to get hold of it. If your are posting to forums or the like, never use your real address. Many spammers use programs that trawl through web pages harvesting all of the e-mail addresses that they find. If you have to enter an e-mail address when posting on a discussion forum, disguise it. For example, remove the @ symbol, instead spelling the address out as your name (at) your domain com.

Set up a new public e-mail address:

When signing up for online services or forums create a new public email address to use. There are many companies that provide free web mail addresses. By using your public email address when signing up for services online, any spammers that capture the address will send email here and not to your private address. You only need to check the account when you are expecting something, for example a confirmation email from a website, and the rest of the time it can safely be ignored.

Report Spam Abusers:

Spammers are using very sophisticated techniques to hide their true identities, which makes it very difficult to hold them to account for their behaviour. One thing that you can do is report them to the ISP where the message originated from (be careful this may not be the same as the domain the spam purports to be from) Hopefully , the ISP will close the spammers account, or take action to secure their systems against future abuse. Spam cop provide a handy service on their website to help you report spam emails to their originating ISP.

Block images being displayed in HTML messages:

Very often spammers will send HTML email messages with images embedded into the text. These images are called web beacons and are not actually sent with the email, but are linked from a website. When your email program tries to display the message, it goes to the web server hosting the image and requests that it is sent. The spammer use this request to confirm that you r email is valid and is being read this makes it much more valuable to them. Many email programs have a facility to prevent images from being displayed unless you specifically request to see them.

One final piece of advice is use the filtering tools provided by your email program to set up black and white lists. On the black lists you put known spam addresses and have them sent to a specific folder, such as Junk, the white takes addresses from your address book as those you would like to receive mail from.

Nothing is ever fool proof against spammers but following the rules above considerably reduces your vulnerability to spam.

**************************************************************************************************************** Create fantastic e-books and audio e-books without any knowledge of HTML etc. The "Dead Easy E-Book" creator visit http://www.pandas-with-typewriters.com for more info plus other great software. ****************************************************************************************************************

Note: You may use this article in your e-zine or on your site as long as the article and resource box remain unchanged

Copyright Mike Morris 2005

"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/

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

Nobody likes receiving spam and having to spend time dealing with it. Even with sophisticated filtering and avoidance mechanisms discussed in my previous articles entitled "Use A Spam Filtering Tool To Manage Spam And Save Hours Everyday" and "7 Steps To Effectively Take Control Of Your Inbox And Reduce Spam", these unwanted spam messages keep on appearing. By understanding how the system works, we can effectively take steps to significantly reduce the amount of spam that we receive daily.

What we have to understand is that email marketing is by far the most effective way to promote products and services on the internet today. The basis of this system it to collect as many email addresses as you can and repeatedly send email messages out to them. There is a legitimate way to do this and then there is the way spammers do it.

The legitimate way is to collect email addresses only from people who volunteer it to you on a website in return for some information that you offer. In addition to this every email sent out must include a link or instructions on how to unsubscribe. I would take it one step further and say that unsubscription must be instantaneous. Having to wait for a few days is unacceptable with the software tools available today. Following this method, you will only receive email messages that you have opted-in for and as soon as you are not getting any value out of it, you unsubscribe.

The spammers mode of operation is to collect email addresses by any and all means available. This could be by building software spiders to crawl websites 24 hours day looking for email addresses on any page. Usually they search for the HTML tag "mailto:" but as users have stopped hyperlinking in response, the spiders are getting more sophisticated and are putting together text like "john dot smith at domain dot com" into the proper valid email address "john.smith@domain.com". Some websites list all their employees contact emails on one page and is a prime target for spam. Harvesting guestbooks where emails are displayed is also a very common practice.

Other methods are more malicious and involve virus-like or worm software being installed on your computer and feeding the names in the address book back to a spam server that collects them.

Spammers trade email addresses for money. This is why the system is out of hand - it is an income producing activity. Every email address has a value to it and no matter how little the value, putting together a list of 100,000 can provide a neat income for a spammer. Most spammers have spam lists many times larger than this.

Spammers also include the unsubscribe link at the bottom of spam emails. These links when clicked and actioned, tells the spammers that this email address actually got through to a live person and that email address is now moved onto a much higher value list and is traded for more money. Those of us who have actioned these links have found the flood of spam coming in to vastly increase within only days.

So now to the question of how to use this knowledge to reduce the spam you get?

First, understand that everytime you give out your email address to a website, that it can potentally be sold and traded. Therefore, if you are unsure about it, use an email address that is not your primary one. Webmail services like Hotmail and Yahoo Mail are perfect for this. You only get the messages when you want them and log into those services. I’ve used a Yahoo Mail address for this for years now. Everytime I log in there are more than a thousand messages but the one that I want to look at is at the top. I never have to delete these messages, Yahoo takes care of it automatically. The only requirement is that I log in to the service within a set period usually 90 or 120 days to keep the account active.

Once you are comfortable that the site concerned is legitimate, you can then change your email address to your primary one. On the other hand, if you start getting spammed, then you do nothing, let the spam emails build up and get deleted automatically by the system.

In my article entitled "7 Steps To Effectively Take Control Of Your Inbox And Reduce Spam" I discuss an elegant way to safely give out email addresses and shut them down in case they get spammed. This is by far the most effective method that I have used.

Other things to watch out for?

Spammers are facing tougher times and they are finding it harder to get new email addresses. While this is a good sign that means the general public are getting more educated, it does mean that we have to be careful of where our email addresses are shown or advertised. For example, magazines and newspapers often are great places for a spammer to collect email addresses. This is a much slower method but if we think about it, these email addresses are of much higher value because somebody has paid money to advertise and so it is bound to be a real address. This means that we have to think laterally in order to stay ahead of the spam game.

Last but not least, we can surely help significantly reduce the problem by not responding to any spam email message whether it is by clicking on a link, replying to the email or unsubscribing using a supplied link. If you really must look at the site, just type in the domain name part of it into your browser and leave out everything after the domain name. This will take you to the site without the spammers tracking identification code.

Together we can surely put a dent in this system by understanding it and staying one or a few steps ahead of spammers.

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

To clarify, I am not talking about rotten eggs or that horrible stuff the poor depression dwellers had to eat, I am talking about computer e-mail spam.

What is this spam I speak of?

Spam is best defined as unsolicited and unwanted commercial electronic messages or e-mails that are sent to large numbers of people.

Ask any computer user and the most annoying thing about having and using e-mail is the annoying amount of spam you get. It is predicted that spam could eventually kill the usability of e-mail unless effective barriers and law changes are introduced. In 2003 it was reported that 40% of all e-mail traffic in the US was spam up from just 8% in 2001. Over the past 6 months this figure has doubled. Hotmail a popular e-mail service, says that 80% of e-mail coming to their servers is spam.

You might say that I don’t get as much spam as I used to. Well this is thanks to internet providers and businesses filtering this out before you see it. One problem with spam filters is that occasionally users encounter false positives in which important and legitimate e-mail gets blocked. Due to these necessary anti-spam measures, the costs involved are huge. Not only does all this excessive internet traffic clog up the internet freeway, but all these e-mails are downloaded to servers before the anti-spam software deletes it. Businesses worldwide report that 20% of all e-mail received is spam. It is estimated that the true cost of spam for businesses in the United States alone is $8-9 billion US dollars per year.

Why is there so much spam?

The simple answer is that there is a market for spam. If people didn’t buy from spam e-mail there wouldnt be any spam. All the spammer needs is for one person, out of a few hundred thousand e-mails, to buy something and it makes the whole process worth while. Sending the spam requires little effort on the spammers part as the computer automates the process meaning that it is very easy to send out over a million e-mails an hour.

What is the world and in particular New Zealand doing about all this spam?

On the 23rd of February ‘05 the Information Technology minister, Paul Swann, released a proposed law will that make it illegal to send spam that originates from NZ. Only problem is that only 1% of spam originates from Australia and NZ, and to actually catch and prosecute a spammer is very difficult due to spammers being good at hiding there identity.

In April ‘05, a 30 year old spammer in the United States became the first person to be prosecuted for spamming. He was sentenced to a nine year prison term. He is described as a modern day snake oil salesman being the eighth most prolific spammer in the world, sending up to 10 million e-mails a day from his house. His income was $750,000 US per month, with one in every 30,000 e-mails sent generating money. He sent out so much e-mail that he received, on average, 15,000 credit card orders a month, each order worth an average of $US40. His total worth is $24 million US dollars, he advertised pornography, fake products and services. During the court case the assistant attorney general said and I quote "When your marketing to the world, there are enough idiots out there who will be suckered in."

Remember that spam is only a problem due to people purchasing from spam e-mail, if there was no demand there would be no spam, security firm Mirapoint, reports that 1 in 10 people buy something from spam e-mail.

So how do I protect myself from spam?

There are a three main ways to stop being spammed.

The first and the best form of defence is not to give out your personal e-mail address. Don’t publicise your address in chat rooms or fill in forms on a website. For this purpose, you are best to use a public e-mail address such as a hotmail account, as some web site owners are more than happy to sell your e-mail address to a spammer.

Secondly use an internet provider that controls and monitors spam.

Thirdly install anti-spam software on your PC.

Therefore in this day and age there really is no need to eat green eggs and spam!

Richard Warlow is a director of http://www.brontobyte.co.nz, a Computer Retailer in Christchurch, New Zealand, supplying to local small businesses and home users of computer equipment and servicing. I am also a toastmaster, this article was based on a speech given.

According to a recent study conducted by Ferris Research, a market and technology research firm specializing in messaging and collaboration, Spam will cost U.S. businesses over $10 billion in 2003.

Spam not only clogs our servers and in-boxes, but it also costs us hours and hours of lost time in productivity.

Although the estimated cost of Spam focuses mainly on lost productivity, this picture may be much broader than you realize.

Some of the more popular email providers, such as AOL (America Online), Yahoo! and Hotmail, are now utilizing filters to cut down on Spam. These filters are dumping Spam and/or bulk mailings into a separate location. Although this may cut down on Spam in your in-box, these filters are also dumping some legitimate email messages.

What’s more, some hosting services not only filter the email messages, but they’re also blocking entire hosting companies. For example, the blocking host may have gotten some Spam complaints about a few marketers that host with ABC hosting company. (Keep in mind, ABC hosting company may host thousands of sites.) Rather than block the offending marketers, the blocking host decides to blacklist the entire ABC host.

What this means is if you try to contact someone and their hosting company has blacklisted your host, your email will not go through — it will bounce right back to you.

If you suspect you may not be receiving all of your email, contact your host and ask them if they’re using Spam filters or have blocked entire hosting companies.

How Much Will Spam Cost Your Business?

How much time do you spend sorting through the Spam in your email each day? Add it up sometime — I’ll bet you’ll find you spend a lot more time than you even realized — time that could have been spent on your business.

If you’re publishing an ezine or sending out any form of opt-in mailings, how many subscribers are actually receiving your mailings? Most-likely, not nearly as many subscribers as you may think. How many lost sales has this cost you?

How many messages, such as information requests, customer support requests, etc., have you not received due to filtering?

How many messages have you replied to that your customers or potential customers have never received due to filtering?

As customer service says a lot about your business practices, how many customers will you lose?

The list goes on and on. But the point is this, Spam is costing you dearly.

Protecting Your Email Address

So how can you defend yourself? Well, it depends on which side you’re on — how to protect yourself, and/or how to make sure your messages are getting through.

In order to protect yourself against Spam, you first need to understand how your email address is obtained.

There are many unethical businesses online that collect and sell email addresses. They use robots that travel from link to link in search of email addresses. Their customers are led to believe that these email addresses belong to individuals who want to receive mailings. However, much of the time, this isn’t the case.

Never purchase a list of email addresses from anyone other than a reputable company. The only company I can recommend is Post Master Direct. http://www.postmasterdirect.com

To protect your email address from these robots, instead of displaying your address on your site, use a feedback form. Not just any type of form, but a form that doesn’t display your email address within the hidden form fields. The only form I can recommend is Master Feedback. You can pick up a free copy here: http://willmaster.com/master/feedback/index.shtml

Anytime you’re filling out a form online and you’re asked to provide your email address, make sure you review the site’s "Privacy Policy" to ensure that your email address will not be sold or shared with a third party.

Protecting Your In-box

To protect your in-box, you can use a Spam filtering software program. Although there are several available online, the best one I’ve found is Mail Washer. This program will enable you to view all the email on your server without actually downloading it into your email program. Once you’ve reviewed your messages, you can create filters and bounce the Spam messages back to the sender. Although you can pick up the program free, consider supporting the developer and register the software for a small fee. http://www.mailwasher.net

Avoiding the Spam Filters

If you’re sending out a mailing to an opt-in list, there are a few steps you can take to make sure your message won’t trip the Spam filters:

1) Avoid using trigger words, such as Spam, fr*e, r*move, etc. Although the list is far too broad to list here, you can learn more by reading the following articles:

Spam Filters Run-Amuck by Timothy A. Gross http://www.iprofitsystems.com/articles/spamfilters.html

CLIP & SAVE guide to avoiding Spam filters by Debbie Weil http://www.imakenews.com/wordbiz/e_article000094161.cfm

2) Avoid using JavaScript within your messages.

3) Avoid using "bad" words.

If you’d like to ensure your messages are getting through, consider opening email accounts with the popular providers. You can send your mailings to these accounts and monitor their reception. If your mailings land in the dump, you can make some adjustments or even contact the company.

If you would like to test your outgoing email messages to ensure they won’t trigger a Spam filter, Ken Evoy offers a great service called SpamCheck. This free service will enable you to send a copy of your publication, or any email message, to a specific address and it will return a report of possible words that will trigger the Spam filters.

Send your publication including the subject and body to: mailto:spamcheck-websource@sitesell.net

Conclusion

The Spam problem continues to get progressively worse. Although there isn’t a simple solution to the problem, the information provided in this article should assist you in not only avoiding Spam, but also avoiding the filters for your legitimate mailings.

It’s really a shame we’re even in this position. However, we cannot allow Spam to continue to infiltrate our businesses. We must take the necessary steps to ensure our success.

Copyright © Shelley Lowery

About the Author:

Shelley Lowery is the author of the acclaimed web design course, "Web Design Mastery" (www.webdesignmastery.com) and "eBook Starter - Give Your eBooks the look and feel of a REAL book" (www.ebookstarter.com)

Visit www.Web-Source.net to sign up for a complimentary subscription to eTips and receive a copy of Shelley’s acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing Strategies."

You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your ebook, or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the author bylines are included.

Curiously enough, the word spam is a negative reference to that pink, hulk of meat that comes in a can that, most people say, has no nutritional value whatsoever.

In more common internet terms, spam is one or more messages sent repeatedly and massively to countless e-mail address, often resulting in flooded and crowded mailboxes all over the world.

What started out as another insistent branch of internet advertising has now evolved into something that the U.S. government is gravely concerned about.

Even without knowing the word "spam," you are most probably aware of an annoying circumstance when you opened your mailbox to find countless of worthless messages, often linking you to equally vague and suspicious websites and offers.

Internet experts have declared that spam costs money for both consumers and internet providers. Why? Simply because the consumers have to waste time in opening e-mail that is not relevant to their lives, and therefore throw away precious minutes that they have paid for through their for providers.

This may not seem to be of such great magnitude if we’re just talking about spam that took 10 seconds to open, but think about something like 5,000 people all over the country each opening 10 spammed e-mails and you’ve got an alarming number, and this is already thinking very conservatively and small-scale.

As for the providers, they are the ones who get a barrage of complaints whenever their clients get flooded with spam.

The cost of providing free minutes to placate these customers, plus dispatching staff to work round the clock, plus the added stress of assuring their clients that they are not in league with the spammers, all make up a very difficult and costly business.

Concerned U.S. officials have been fighting spam for almost a decde now. And while there are now several software that can detect and filter spam, hackers have also become better at grabbing mailing lists and developing their own software to bypass all these filters.

Suddenly, you can’t just tell if an e-mail is spam by simply looking at the subject line where garbled characters often appear. You’ll find that not only will they address you with your first name, you’ll also see that the sender has a name that seems vaguely familiar to you.

It seems that spam is everywhere. You can’t join mailing lists, internet newletter subscriptions, or even go into online gaming without expecting to get spammed along the way.

People nowadays are cautioned to be careful whenever they are prompted for their e-mail addresses.

It would also not do to trust a spam’s content. Oftentimes, these e-mails contain invitations to vague and shady businesses such as pornography, multi-level marketing companies, miracle cures, and obscure products, products that are so totally worthless that it’s proprietors would certainly not invest in good money to have them advertised the normal way.

In truth, using spam as an advertising tool costs less on the advertisers, and more, much more, on the consumers.

What To Do About Spam

Most spammed e-mails give you the option to be removed from their mailing lists -all you have to do is click "remove" or "unsubscribe." Experts, however, warn that this is just misleading information.

The truth is, all you would actually get out of doing this is validating your e-mail address as a working one, therefore giving these hackers more reason to include you in more mailing lists to eventually sell to more and more clients who will surely send you more spam.

Even as the concerned officials battle it out with hackers and spammers, there are also ways that you can participate, even indirectly:

1. Make sure that you wade through your e-mail to actually find out if an innocent message got lost in the sea of spam

2. Notify anti-spam groups of new tactics that you observe, either firsthand or through your close friends and family

3. Don’t fight spam with spam. If you are angry at having been spammed, don’t threaten the spammers or worse, send them your own spam. This would be really wrong, not to mention ironic

4. Be patient with your provider. Chances are, they are doing the best they can to fight spam.

5. Don’t hit that "remove" or "unsubscribe" button. You now know that it doesn’t work. Tell other people about it.

James Monahan is the owner and Senior Editor of SpamTour.com and writes expert articles about spam.