Rules to protect from spam
October 8, 2007 | Category: Anti spam software, Block spam, Spam filter
Here are a couple of tips to help you fight and protect yourself from spam.
Do what you can to avoid having your email address out on the net.
There are products called “spam spiders or email harvesters” that search the Internet for email addresses to send email to. If you are interested, do a search on “spam spider” and you will be amazed at what you get back. Interestingly, there is a site, WebPoison.org, which is an open source project geared to fight Internet “spam bots” and “spam spiders”, by giving them bogus HTML web pages, which contain bogus email addresses. Refrain from putting your important personal or business email addresses in forums, newsletters, blogs, comments etc. Eventually, it’ll be caught up by a harvester or a spammer looking for email addresses.
Use form emails, which can hide addresses. There are also programs that encode your email, like jsGuard, which encodes your email address on web pages so that while spam spiders find it difficult or impossible to read your email address. If you own a website or a blog, make sure you encrypt your email address before putting it on the web. A little javascript code can help you in that and there are a lot of free programs available on the internet that will do it without going into coding. You can learn more about hiding your email address here - http://javascript.about.com/library/blemail1.htm and there is a simple javascipt/html encoder also available.
Get spam blocking software. No wonder this is one of the best ways to stop spam. There are many programs out there for this. (go to www.cloudmark.com or www.mailwasher.net for example). You may also buy a professional version. Whatever you do, get the software. It will save you time. The software is not foolproof, but they really do help. You usually have to do some manual set up to block certain types of email. Two noteworthy programs are: SpamFighter Pro and SpamWasher. 
Use the multiple email address approach.
There are a lot of free email addresses to be had. If you must subscribe to newsletters, then have a “back-up” email address. It would be like giving your cell phone number to your best friends and the business number to everyone else. Make disposable addresses for different purposes. For instance, use disposable email addresses in web forms or for newsletter subscriptions or comments postings. There are many email services that let you do so, like Yahoo Mail, Emailias, Spamex. If you find one of the aliases getting a lot of spam, just turn it off or delete it and start using new one.
One interesting service that I have found is Temporary Inbox. They provide you with a temporary disposable address which you can use to one-time temporarily subscription to newsletters etc. Here are the benefits:-
- The mails are deleted automatically after 6 hours
- You can delete the mails manually as well
- You don’t have to register the account first to use it
- This service is faster than all other similar services
They even have a temporary forwarding facility available where in you can have all the temporary emails forwarded to a different account of yours. You can create an email address@temporaryforwarding.com, which forwards all mails to your private email account. You can use this forwarding email address to register at websites/boards/lotteries and so on.
Remember attachments from people you don’t know are BAD, BAD, BAD.
A common problem with spam is that they have attachments and attachments can have viruses. Corporations often have filters that don’t let such things pass to you. Personal email is far more “open country” for spamers. General rule of thumb: if you do not know who is sending you something, DO NOT OPEN THE ATTACHMENT. Secondly, look for services that offer filtering. Firewall vendors offer this type of service as well.
Email services now have “bulk-mail” baskets. If what you use currently does not support this, think about moving to a new vender. The concept is simple. If you know someone, they can send you emails. If you don’t know them, put them in the bulk email pile and then “choose” to allow them into your circle. Spam Blocking software has this concept as well, but having extra layers seems critical these days, so it is worth looking into.
Never click on images or pay heed to unsubscribe requests in spam mails
Usually when you make any unsubscribe attempt to stop receiving spam from inside a spam mail, it just confirms to the sender that yours is an active email address. This will result in receiving more spam than before. The same goes for images inside junk mail, they are usually linked or contain webbugs. Spammers use web bugs to find out which of their bulk messages have been read, therefore revealing if the email address is being used (active). The Register reports that “83 per cent of unsolicited commercial HTML emails sent to these accounts contained hidden tracking codes that notified the spammers as soon the messages were opened. Opening such messages (even in the Outloook/Outlook Express preview pane) results in yet more junk, natch, thanks to information gleaned through the hidden tracking codes.” Active email addresses are even sold to other spammers.
Blocking and Filtering Spam with Cloudmark Desktop
October 7, 2007 | Category: Block spam, Spam filter
Spam. Nobody likes it. Nobody wants it. No, we aren’t talking about the canned meat, but those unsolicited, unwanted, irrelevant, or even inappropriate messages that hit our email in mass quantities. While most mailboxes have some type of spam filtering software built into their system, they never seem to do a very good job of catching what you want them to catch, and letting through what you want them to let through. Therefore, it becomes increasingly important to turn to some type of additional spam filtering product. One such filtering system, designed for Outlook and Outlook Express users, is receiving rave reviews for its superior detection and low rate of false positives (i.e,. what you want to get through does).
Cloudmark Desktop, formerly known as SpamNet and SafetyBar, uses a unique community-based filtering process. This community-based filtering system relies on users to report any new spam. Within minutes of a spammer being reported, they are placed on a blacklist. At that point, no other member will receive that particular spam. Cloudmark also applies the same basic process to phishing email scams. Here are some of the features of Cloudmark Desktop:-
- Easy toolbar based installation that starts blocking spam, fishing scams and even email-borne viruses
- Fast and lightweight. Does not hog on resources
- Effective, accurate with high spam blocking rate
What is interesting is how Cloudmark creates a digital reputation model of reporting spam. Each user starts with a neutral reputation. A user’s reputation will rise if they are among the first to identify undesirable content. On the flip side of the coin, a user’s reputation falls when they falsely reports spam. The result is a system that is automated, highly scalable and resistant to tampering.
An added bonus is that because the software doesn’t depend upon the user to configure its settings, it installs in minutes and is easy to use. Cloudmark blocks over 98% of spam from reaching your inbox and boasts over one million users worldwide.
The cost of program is $39.95 for a one-year subscription. The subscription is renewable annually. For those wanting to test drive the product, a free 15-day trial period for either your Outlook or Outlook Express is available.