SPAM

E-mail spam is a menace.  The average e-mail user gets about 50 pieces of unsolicited commercial e-mail a week, and large Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like America Online receive as many as 1,000,000,000 a day.  That's a lot of zeroes, but it's not even the worst part:  Your online subscription can cost an extra $3 a month due to the additional bandwidth needed just for spam!

Deluged with complaints from subscribers who are sick of spam, many ISPs are fighting back with high-caliber filters that divert suspected spam before it gets to your inbox.  But, sometimes, innocent e-mail gets caught in the filter.

To make sure you're receiving all of your e-mail, you need to know what spam is, what it isn't, and how these new filters work.

What is spam, and how do spammers operate?

Spammers buy e-mail addresses for about $25 per million.  They earn money based on how many opens and clicks they get from the e-mail.  They often make a profit on as few as three clicks per 10 million spam sent.  Industry sources say a single spammer sends, on average, nearly 12 billion e-mails a year.

Truly malicious spammers will hijack smaller ISPs or web servers to launch their spam.  Recipients then complain, causing some filters to blacklist all e-mail senders from that ISP, even innocent ones.  All e-mail from anyone you know who uses that ISP, and even ISPs that are nearby in Internet terms, will be filtered.

Unfortunately, the blacklist method doesn't even stop spammers, who typically only send one blast from each hijacked ISP.

Fighting back
But there is a revolution afoot:  ISPs have launched an all-out attack against spammers.  Using strong filters with secret and ever-changing methods, companies like America Online (AOL), Earthlink, and Microsoft (on MSN) are stopping a significant amount of spam.

Most of these filters work in a similar manner.  The main change you'll see is an additional folder for your mail marked "Junk Mail" or "Bulk Mail."  E-mail considered spam by the filter will be routed to that folder instead of to your inbox.  After two or three weeks, the ISP automatically deletes all the messages in the folder. 

• AOL 8.0 automatically sorts your e-mail into "Known Sender," "Unknown Sender," and "Bulk E-mail Sender" folders.  Additionally, AOL allows you to report an e-mail as spam with the click of a button.
• MSN 8 uses similar technology, including a "smart" filter that learns what you consider junk mail.  You can review the filtered spam whenever you want.
• Earthlink sends the "Spaminator" into battle, automatically intercepting spam and allowing you to review it within a few weeks.

What isn't Spam?
Sometimes spam filters will capture e-mail that isn't spam.  The most commonly captured e-mail is from companies who send out newsletters, subscriptions, and catalog notices online.

Many mail-order retailers like L.L. Bean, J. Crew, and Victoria's Secret send e-mail catalogs, sale notices, and coupons.  HP, too, sends out a monthly e-newsletter (called hp newsgram), which is filled with creative projects and support tips that can be customized to the products you own.

These messages aren't spam because you asked to receive them when you registered.  And if the company is scrupulous, you may unsubscribe anytime you change your mind.

ISPs and these companies are working together to establish a gold standard of commercial e-mail behavior, such as very clear privacy policies, user-confirmed subscription policies, consistent "Sender" and "Reply-To" names, and quick unsubscribe functions.  This coordination will ensure you receive only what you want and nothing that you don't.

What you can do

Eight ways to Block Spam

1.    Don’t buy anything promoted in a spam.  Even if the offer isn’t a scam, you are helping to finance spam.

2.    If your e-mail program has a “preview pane,” disable it to prevent the spam from reporting to its sender that you’ve received it.

3.    Use one e-mail address for family and friends, another for everyone else.  Or pick up a free one from Hotmail, Yahoo!, or a disposable forwarding-address service like www.SpamMotel.com.  When an address attracts too much spam, abandon it for a new one.

4.    Use a provider that filters e-mail, such as AOL, Earthlink, or MSN.  If you get lots of spam, your ISP may not be filtering effectively.  Find out its filtering features and compare them with competitors

5.    Report spam to your ISP.  To help the FTC control spam, forward it to spam@uce.gov (“uce” stands for unsolicited commercial e-mail).

6.    If you receive a spam that promotes a brand, complain to the company behind the brand by postal mail, which makes more of a statement than e-mail.

7.    If your e-mail program offers “rules” or “filters”, use one to spot messages whose header contains one or more of these terms; html, text/html, multipart/alternative, or multipart/mixed.  This can catch most spam, but may also catch most of the legitimate e-mails that are formatted to look like a web page.

8.    Install a firewall if you have broadband so a spammer can’t plant software on your computer to turn it into a spamming machine.  An unsecured computer can be especially attractive to spammers.

Six Mistakes to Avoid

1.    Don’t post your e-mail address on a public Web page, such as eBay.  If you must post it, you can thwart spammers’ harvesting software by using “janedoe at isp.com,” not janedoe@isp.com.  Or display your address as a graphic image, not text.

2.    Don’t use your regular e-mail address in a chat room.  Instead, use a different screen name.  If it attracts too much spam, discard it.

3.    Don’t use and easy-to-guess e-mail address like “JimSmith@isp.com.”  Instead, choose a harder-to-guess one with embedded digits, such as Jim8mith2@isp.com.

4.    Don’t click on an e-mail’s “unsubscribe” link.  That informs the sender you’re there and therefore will put you on a “high value” list for even more spam.  Don’t do it unless you trust the sender.

5.    Don’t disclose your address to a site without checking its privacy policy.  And don’t forget to uncheck “check boxes” that grant the site or its partners permission to send you anything nonessential.

6.    Don’t forward chain letters, petitions, or virus warnings.  All could be a spammer’s ploy to collect addresses.

Smart ways to fight spam.

If you’re doing all of the above and you are still struggling with an onslaught of spam in your inbox, then about your only recourse is to use one of the commercial anti spam or spam blocker programs.  None are perfect.  Some do work very well, some don’t work well and the ones in-between do work to some extent, but have problems.  Some of them you can download for a free  trial to see if they work for you.  If they do, they are well worth the money to buy them. 

Statistics show that even after the implementation of the 2004
Can-Spam-Act, as high as 70% of all email is spam. Almost 3 of
every 4 email messages you get are junk!

Over the last few years, I've checked out and tried numerous "Anti-SPAM" software packages. I've settled on one called "I Hate SPAM". It is by far the most effective and complete Anti-Spam program I've ever seen.

We're all sick and tired of all the pornography, endless special offers, "earn thousands weekly", Viagra, enlarge body parts, and all the other junk email. Eliminate ALL of it with I Hate SPAM. No configuration or setup needed, install it once and it works seamlessly within Outlook Express!

Hate Spam? Get rid of it with iHateSpam
 

Create your own Spam Filter in Outlook Express (you don't need to do this with I Hate SPAM)

For step-by-step instructions on how to create your own SPAM filter in Outlook Express, Click Here.