Spam
Spam is unsolicited commercial e-mail and it is extremely irritating. Once a spammer has your e-mail address in their database, other than changing your e-mail address, it is very difficult to stop spam from arriving in your inbox.
In this article, we will try to show you ways to avoid getting on spam lists in the first place, as well as filtering the spam that makes it through.
Spam is not newsletters, listservs or targeted opt-in marketing advertisements --- it is unsolicited, and many times, inappropriate, e-mail.
How Did I Get on the Spammer's List?
Most spammers use automated spiders to harvest e-mail addresses from websites, forums and newsgroups or purchase e-mail addresses from companies that sell your personal information.
The key to keeping off the spammer's list is to hide/remove all e-mail addresses from your websites & forums and to use "disposable" e-mail accounts from Hotmail or YahooMail or some other free service whenever a website requires that you fill in a valid e-mail address. Do not use your "real" e-mail address; save that for business, friends and family.
You can also try filtering, but the spam still comes in --- it just gets moved to a "spam" folder. In reality, once you're on the list, it is very difficult to get off the list. The only solution is to contact your ISP and have them change your address. After that, it is up to you to make sure that you stay off the lists.
Tips to Prevent Spam:
- Setup a disposable e-mail account for using on websites that require an e-mail address. There are many companies that offer free web-based email accounts that you can use. Save your real ISP e-mail account for friends and family. Here are a few places that offer free e-mail accounts:
- NEVER respond to spam --- even to unsubscribe. It is just an invitation to receive more. Keep in mind that this does not apply to legitimate newsletters and targeted advertising that you have subscribed to.
- Read the PRIVACY POLICY on websites that request your e-mail address. Most of them will state what they will or won't do with client information.
- If you must post your e-mail address on a website, try obfuscating your e-mail addresses by using some programming tricks. By effectively "hiding" your e-mail address from the spammers "harvesting" program, the amount of spam you receive should drop off.
Tip 1: For Forums & Newsgroups
If you must post your e-mail address to a forum or newsgroup, try adding a special message to the end of the address to confuse the automated e-mail harvesters. For example, if your e-mail address is john@doe.com, you could post it to the newsgroup as john@doe.com.removethispart. Any user wishing to respond to you would be smart enough (we hope) to remove the ".removethispart" from your e-mail address.
Tip 2: For Websites
There are some javascripts that you can integrate into your website that will dynamically generate any e-mail addresses that you want on your website. Many spammers will use programs that search the internet for e-mail addresses that are posted on websites. For example, the javascript:
<script language=javascript> - Turn off the "preview pane" in Outlook. Many spammers are embedding invisible GIF images (1 pixel x 1 pixel) in their e-mails. If the e-mail message is previewed or opened, your computer downloads the "invisible image" to your computer. This enables the spammer to track how many people are actually opening the e-mail, even if it's only to delete it. Unfortunately, it's a dirty, sneaky trick that is very difficult to protect against. There is a free plug-in for Outlook called "Chilton Preview" that is pretty good at preventing this trick.
Chilton also helps prevent against viruses, as some viruses can execute their payload just by being previewed.Chilton Preview:
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Peaks/8392/
- Use a spam filter such as:
Spam filters are not 100% effective. There is a likelihood that the filter will trigger "false-positives", that is it will filter legitimate e-mail, while also letting the occasional spam message through. You can also try utilizing Bayesian Filters, which actually "learn" what spam is, regardless of punctuation or spelling. For example, many spammers might use the number "1" instead of the letter "i" when spelling VIAGRA (i.e. V1AGRA or V!AGRA), or they might use spaces or punctuation to fool filters (i.e. V I A G R A or V.I.A.G.R.A). A simple filter might miss this, but a Bayesian filter can learn some the spammers tricks.
- Incinerate your computer and go back to the good old days of communicating by smoke signals! :)
<!--
var x1 = "username";
var x2 = "domainname.com";
document.write("<a href=" "ma" "ilto:" x1 "@" x2 ">E-mail Username</a>")
//-->
</script>
hides the user's e-mail address in the underlying html, and will only display it if the page is displayed in a web browser. A spammer's spider does not recognize the code as an e-mail address and cannot harvest it.
Tip 3: For Websites
You can also create an image of your e-mail address that is impervious to programs that scan websites looking for e-mail addresses. For example, you can use Microsoft Paint to create an image file of your e-mail address and then use that on your website:
Again, the spammer's spider cannot "read" the address, as it is a picture, not actual text.