How To Prevent Spam On Your Internet Forum Board

Spam in forum boards consists mainly in two activities, that are the following ones:

• Spam Threads
• Spam Member Profiles

Spam threads are new topics in which spammers put lots of links, usually pharmacy drugs and sex related, in order to obtain links for their websites and gain some traffic from the search engines.

This activity, apart of being illegal, it is totally deprecated because it promotes website that may potentially sell dangerous products, scams or could even bring to phishing sites.

Moreover, letting those links stay alive on your forum board may let your pages on being penalized, if such links are categorized as “bad neighbours” from the engines.

Last but not least, users seeing too much trash on your pages won’t return on your site anymore, and you will progressively lose traffic along with having your content quality drop to nothing.

For such reasons spam prevention is essential in order to keep your forum board tidy. Therefore the main question is: how can you achieve the goal of preventing spammers infest your forum board?

First of all, you will need to moderate your board by yourself or having some dedicated moderators in order to delete spam threads when these appear. If you are using PhpBB you should find a hack to add a thread report feature so to make your regular users help you in the spam prevention task.

Also, if you want to avoid people to sign up just to put their spam website on their profile to be shown, you should activate the email confirmation on your forum script. Both PhpBB and vBulletin are supporting this feature.

Manual activation of the accounts from the forum admin may be an idea, but this would slow down new memberships and could be an unsustainable extra work from your side.

You could even remove the possibility to add a website on your members’ profiles but this could limit your legit users, and you want your community to have all the benefits you can give them.

A good solution may be to remove the live links from profiles and the member list, and this can be easily done with manual modification of your forum script. It is easily feasible on PhpBB and vBulletin as well.

If you don’t know how to do this, you can contact a professional forum promotion firm and make them do the job for you. For instance, my company is doing such jobs for the public.

About the Author:
Alessandro Golkar is the founder and CEO of ForumBoosting, the forum promotion and enhancement firm that established its operations in November 2005. They are helping forum owners to kickstart their board and revive old ones, putting fresh content on them, and making a proper search engine optimization on their pages. Paid forum posting is the main business, along with forum seo.
Article Submitted On: September 24, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Those Annoying Spam Emails

Commonly referred to as spam, unsolicited commercial email is becoming a big problem today. If you’ve ever had your email address on a spam list, then you know how annoying it is to have to wade through dozens of advertisements to get to the mail you want to read. Although there are laws in place, it is unlikely that people who send spam will adhere to these laws so your best defense is to filter as much of it as you can through software and protect your email address from being added to more lists.

What Spam Looks Like

Usually the emails are from some fake looking name and many of them may have subjects that try to lure you into opening them by promising a stock tip, pretending to be your friend or acting like they need information for an application that you never filled out. When you get an email like this that seems suspicious it is best to just delete it.

How Did They Get Your Address In The First Place?

Sadly enough, most spammers got your email address because you gave it to them! Sometimes when you order something your email gets sold to a list, but most times it is harvested from a web site. If you have your email listed in an online advertisement, on a website or have published it in a forum, it is likely that it will be harvested for one of these lists.

Unfortunately, once your email address is out there you will not be able to get it removed from their “list”. There is no point in replying to the spam or trying to use the unsubscribe button as the spammer has no intention of removing you from his list and in fact, by acknowledging that you received his email you are giving him incentive to send you more mail and possibly sell your email address to other spammers. Your best defense is to get a good filtering software and filter out as much of it as you can.

Protect Your Email Address

One thing that you can do is get a second email and only give that out to people you want to receive mail from. Reserve the original email for use if you need to have an email to order online or subscribe to a site. Other things you can do include:

Not answering spam emails
Never have your email address visible on any web page
Do not use an auto-responder when you will be away from your computer
Do not pass along chain emails

About the Author:
Lee Dobbins
Visit http://www.spam-canned.com to find out more about spam and how you can protect your email address. Browse the free article database at http://www.spam-canned.com/spamarticles1.html
Article Source: www.iSnare.com

All About Spam

Spam is annoying. Period. Why people would want to send all of us stupid messages about buying prescription drugs or getting some outrageously good mortgage rate is beyond me. Well, not really.

You might ignore those emails. But not everyone does. And that's why they're sent. Emails cost so little (or nothing) to send. So sending out a million of them could be a cakewalk. Let's say one out of every 1,000 recipients falls for their ploy. Someone just got 1,000 new customers!

How in the heck did those spammers get your address in the first place? Well, they actually use a variety of techniques. They use programs called spambots to search the web and pick up any email addresses that could be listed on websites. They use what's called the "Dictionary" technique, where they take a well-known email extension (earthlink.net, for instance), and make up all kinds of possible user names to go with it. For example, with me they could try the usernames "kara", "kara1", "kara2" and so on, until they can confirm one of those connected to an earthlink.net extension is a valid email address. Kinda like going page by page through the dictionary.

Ever fill out a registration form on a website and find a little checkbox, probably near the bottom, asking if you want to receive additional information, newsletters, or something of that nature? Often the box is checked, and in order NOT to receive the info, you have to UNCHECK it (or else). Well if you miss those types of boxes on the wrong kinds of sites, your email addresses may be handed to spammers on a silver platter. Well, almost. Often a zillion email addresses are sold for next to nothing to spammers on CDs. (Couldn't you almost call those silver platters?)

Many internet service providers (those guys that keep you connected to the internet so you can send and receive email) use a variety of methods to block spam before it ever gets to you. Nevertheless, we all know that some spam inevitably gets through to our inboxes. That's when we need to take a proactive stance and install some sort of software to filter it out!
© 2005 by Kara Glover

About the author:
Kara Glover
For help on installing anti-spam software, check out this article on Kara Glover’s website: http://www.karathecomputertutor.com You can also find more articles, tips and tutorials on topics such as Microsoft Word., Excel, and PowerPoint there. Kara is a Computer Tutor and Troubleshooter.
Feel free to reprint this article in newsletters and on websites, with resource box included. If you use this article, please send a brief message to let me know where it appeared: kara333@earthlink.net
Word Count = 375
Word Wrapped to 60 characters per line
URL: http://www.karathecomputertutor.com
author photo: http://www.karathecomputertutor.com
date of copyright: March 2005
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How To Rid Yourself of Bulk Email Spam

Have you ever gotten an unsolicited e-mail message (UCE)? Well, unless you signed on to the Internet using your e-mail account about 30 seconds ago, chances are that you have.

Unsolicited, 'junk' e-mail is almost the same thing as getting junk mail in your mailbox at home. There are two main differences though.

It cost the sender only pennies to distribute hundreds or thousands of these messages.

It can cost the receiver more to receive it then it did for the sender to send it.

Number 1, above, is self-explanatory. Number 2, however, is a little harder to understand for those who swear by unsolicited e-mail, which is often called 'bulk' e-mail and 'spamming'.

So here is an explanation that everyone should understand. Unless you have totally 'FREE' access to your e-mail, that is:

you don't pay for access.
you don't pay a phone bill.
you don't pay an electric bill.

then this form of e-mail costs the receiver more than it costs the sender. In some instances, such as on AOL and other online subscription services, it can cost you big time. Every single minute a subscriber is online using these services costs them $$$$.

The time it takes to open a message and just scan it quickly to determine if you will read it, respond to it or delete it may not seem like much, but when you add up all those messages at the end of the month, they can really hurt your pocket book.

Articles like this one have been written by the hundreds, perhaps the thousands, and still 'junk' e-mail continues. Can we rid ourselves of it? My guess is no! There are software packages created almost every day, trying to block unsolicited e-mail. And almost every day a software package to negate them is created as well.

Is it right or wrong? I only know it breaks every rule of 'netiquette' according to many people on the Internet. But to be honest, some unsolicited e-mail I have received personally has been very valuable; some has been a total waste of my time and effort.

I personally do not believe in using unsolicited e-mail for any reason. I hope, as the Net matures, that others will see the wisdom in using e-mail in a responsible manner.

Copyright 2003 1DebtFreedom.com

About the Author:
Talbert Williams offers debt consolidation, debt reduction, credit card debt referrals and advice. For more information, articles, news, tools and valuable resources on debt solutions, visit this site: http://www.1debtfreedom.com/conversion
Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com

Spammers Use Subliminal Messaging To Push Their Wares

Report On New Spam Tactic

Anti-Spam experts at SophosLabs startled the world with a news item in the month of September (2006). Their systems detected a new kind of spam mail that uses animated graphic images to lure their customers.

Nothing earth-shaking, one would say. One has learned to live with the nuisance; they are like flies hovering around your face, which you simply wave away with your hand. The reason why this news became sensational and got picked up by all the news feeders was because of the word "subliminal" in it.

The news item that the spammers wanted to spread (and that got detected) was on Trimax Corporation, a small-cap stock. Such campaigns are dubbed "pump-and-dump" stock campaigns by people in the know. The trick the spammers deployed this time however, was to compose the main ad as a GIF image. After doing so, they went one step further and composed three other frames; each of these frames were of the same size, same color level and same format as the frame for the main advert (basic prerequisites for an animation to occur). These other frames had the word "Buy" placed randomly in two different hues, with and without exclamation marks for added emphasis. In the GIF construction program, they set these frames to appear after every ten to forty milliseconds. So, when the advert appeared in the mail, you got to see the main ad, and then these lil "Buy!" frames popped up every now and then.

Cool, eh! There are quite a few of these lovelies in my spam box, as I write this piece.

Cat And Mouse Game

It is the same cat and mouse game. As anti-spam filters become stronger, spammers keep cranking newer and more creative ways to beat them.

Up until two years ago, majority of the spamming community used text to communicate their love to us. Beginning last year, they came up with GIF messages which timid text-oriented filters couldn't block. When anti-spammers built their OCR (optical character reader) plugins that were capable of looking at GIF spam eyeball-to-eyeball; along came these animated GIFs which did the same thing - communicating their love to us - but now with a song and dance.

The trick that gives the spamming side an edge - for the moment, at least - is that the latest version of anti-spamming OCR plugin apparently only looks into the first frame for specific keywords ["BUY" is a keyword! :)]. After having satisfied itself that the first frame is innocent, it waves ahead the entire cargo. And there it lands in your inbox, waiting for you to open it!

Is It Truly Subliminal?

By its very definition, for a message to be truly subliminal, the hidden text/ image should not be discernible to the conscious eye. But the offending advertisement's BUY message is. And since it is visible, even if the anti-spam filter allowed it into the inbox, you as an intelligent reader can immediately make out that the message is spam. Whatever value the "pump-and-dump" spammers wanted the TRIMAX stock to shoot up to, I am sure it may not have succeeded. Or perhaps, may it have? (The latest ticker on Trimax is here.)

By setting the delay period for successive frames to appear to even less value, would it have been possible to flash the "BUY" messages without the eyes consciously detecting it? Meaning, would the message have become truly subliminal? Would they have achieved what they wanted to achieve? Gaaa! When is the next anti-spam version due???

The Controversy Continues

The advertisers are out to get Subliminal Messaging by its balls, really. Right from the word go, sensationalism has followed subliminality like a faithful dog. Whatever be the motivation of the likes of James Vicary or Vance Packard in the fifties, or the spammers in the twenty-first century, their shenanigans have only served to give subliminal messaging a bad name.

It is like a double-edged sword. Used correctly, subliminal messaging can be, and is, a good self-development tool. So while the spammer-antispammer battle continues out there, let's improve and enrich our lives with those beautiful audio and visual CDs!

About the Author:
Sanjay Agrawal is a Business Coach and self-development enthusiast. Get rid of the pain and the hurt in your life by listening to some excellent audio subliminal messaging CDs available here. Want a visual version that achieves the same thing while you are working on your computer? Get this.
(The complete news from Sophos, including the offending ad, and views & comments from the experts, may be viewed here.)
Copyright 2006. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in any way, and give author name credit.
Article Submitted On: October 26, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

How Spammers Fool Bayesian Filters - And How to Stop Them

Effectively stopping spam over the long-term requires much more than blocking individual IP addresses and creating rules based on keywords that spammers typically use. The increasing sophistication of spam tools coupled with the increasing number of spammers in the wild has created a hyper-evolution in the variety and volume of spam. The old ways of blocking the bad guys just don’t work anymore.

Examining spam and spam-blocking technology can illuminate how this evolution is taking place and what can be done to combat spam and reclaim e-mail as the efficient, effective communication tool it was intended to be.

One method used to combat spam is Bayesian Filtering. Named after Thomas Bayes, an English mathematician, Bayesian Logic is used in decision making and inferential statistics. Bayesian Filers maintain a database of known spam and ham, or legitimate email. Once the database is large enough, the system ranks the words according to the probability they will appear in a spam message.

Words more likely to appear in spam are given a high score (between 51 and 100), and words likely to appear in legitimate email are given a low score (between 1 and 50). For example, the words “free” and “sex” generally have values between 95 and 98, whereas the words “emphasis” or “disadvantage” may have a score between 1 and 4. Commonly used words such as “the” and “that”, and words new to the Bayesian filters are given a neutral score between 40 and 50 and would not be used in the system’s algorithm.

When the system receives an email, it breaks the message down into tokens, or words with values assigned to them. The system utilizes the tokens with scores on the high and low end of the range and develops a score for the email as a whole. If the email has more spam tokens than ham tokens, the email will have a high spam score. The email administrator determines a threshold score the system uses to allow email to pass through to users.

Bayesian filters are effective at filtering spam and minimizing false positives. Because they adapt and learn based on user feedback, Bayesian Filers produce better results as they are used within an organization over time. They are not, however, foolproof. Spammers have learned which words Bayesian Filters consider spammy and have developed ways to insert non-spammy words into emails to lower the message’s overall spam score. By adding in paragraphs of text from novels or news stories, spammers can dilute the effects of high-ranking words. Text insertion has also caused normally legitimate words that are found in novels or news stories to have an inflated spam score. This may potentially render Bayesian filters less effective over time.

Another approach spammers use to fool Bayesian filters is to create less spammy emails. For example, a spammer may send an email containing only the phrase, “Here’s the link…”. This approach can neutralize the spam score and entice users to click on a link to a Web site containing the spammer’s message. To block this type of spam, the filter would have to be designed to follow the link and scan the content of the Web site users are asked to visit. This type of filtering is not currently employed by Bayesian filters because it would be prohibitively expensive in terms of server resources and could potentially be used as a method of launching denial of service attacks against commercial servers.

As with all single-method spam filtering methodologies, Bayesian filters are effective against certain techniques spammers use to fool spam filters, but are not a magic bullet to solving the spam problem. Bayesian filters are most effective when combined with other methods of spam detection.

The Solution
When used individually, each anti-spam technique has been systematically overcome by spammers. Grandiose plans to rid the world of spam, such as charging a penny for each e-mail received or forcing servers to solve mathematical problems before delivering e-mail, have been proposed with few results. These schemes are not realistic and would require a large percentage of the population to adopt the same anti-spam method in order to be effective. You can learn more about the fight against spam by visiting our website at www.ciphertrust.com and downloading our whitepapers.

About the author:
Paul Judge, CTO, CipherTrust, Inc.
Dr. Paul Judge is a noted scholar and entrepreneur. He is Chief Technology Officer at CipherTrust, the industry's largest provider of enterprise email security. The company’s flagship product, IronMail provides a best of breed enterprise anti spam solution designed to stop spam, phishing attacks and other email-based threats. Learn more by visiting www.ciphertrust.com/products/spam_and_fraud_protection today.
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Spam Blockers: Unique Challenge For Business

"Under no circumstances will I ever purchase anything offered to me as the result of an unsolicited e-mail message. Nor will I forward chain letters, petitions, mass mailings, or virus warnings to large numbers of others. This is my contribution to the survival of the online community." -- Roger Ebert

The use of email has the potential to eliminate much of the costs associated with sending correspondence through regular mail. Invoices can be sent by email speeding up the payment process. Email can also connect individuals on a global basis in ways that have not been possible in the past.

Environmentalists were thrilled that fewer trees would be needed in a paperless exchange of communication, but there's been a blight in cyberspace known as spam. Those who receive spam emails are about as impressed as those moments at during the evening meal when all telemarketers seem to make calls. The truth is no one likes spam.

"Spam is putting the Internet in jeopardy." -- Phillip Hallam-Baker

Many companies have responded to the difficulties with spam by providing consumers with spam blockers that eliminate most of the spam messages that are sent via cyberspace.

While this is wonderful news for consumers it provides unique challenges for passing along information to customers though bulk mail features - even when your customer opts in to a company mailing list.

Many spam blockers see bulk mail of any sort as spam and will typically block those emails. Some programs allow you to review the mail marked as spam to determine if you want to accept it as regular mail, but other programs block it before it ever comes to your in box.

"The spam wars are about rendering email useless for unsolicited advertising before unsolicited advertising renders email useless for communication." -- Walter Dnes & Jeff Gin

If the above quote is the litmus test for 'spam wars' then this warfare is being won by zealous spam blocking software.

Many legitimate emails are now being sent to a large number of subscribers in a rolling delivery. By limiting the number of emails being sent to opt-in clients, business interests are finding better success in delivering requested materials.

Perhaps there will come a day when there will be a more sophisticated method of differentiating between legitimate bulk mail and spam, until then online marketers are finding increasing success through the use of blogs, optimized site content, forums and RSS feeds as an effective alternative.

About the Author:
Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. HighPowerSites is the easiest do-it-yourself website builder on the web. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with http://HighPowerSites.com at: http://www.highpowersites.com
Submitted: 2006-09-29
Article Source: GoArticles

Spam, What Is It Good For, Absolutely Nothing!

Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE), or spam has reached epidemic proportions, and continues to grow. According to American Online, of the estimated 30 million email messages each day, about 30% on average was unsolicited commercial email. As a result of its very low marginal costs, spam has become extremely prolific. Regardless of how many emails are sent out, the spammers' costs are low, and constant. With numbers like these, there is a tremendous burden shifted to the Internet Service Provider (ISP) to process and store that amount of data. Huge volumes of this junk may undoubtedly contribute to many of the access, speed, and reliability problems suffered by many ISPs. Further, many large ISPs have experienced major system outages as the result of massive junk email campaigns. Spam is an issue about consent, not content. Regardless of whether the UCE message is an advertisement, porn, or a winning lottery notice, the content is irrelevant. If the message was sent unsolicited, and in bulk then the message is spam.

This junk e-mail is more than just annoying; it costs Internet users, and Internet-based businesses millions, even billions, per year. When a spammer sends an email message to a million people, it is carried by numerous electronic systems on route to its destination. The systems in between are bearing the burden of carrying advertisements, and other unsolicited junk for the spammer. The number of spams sent out each day is truly overwhelming, and each one must be handled efficiently, and expeditiously by many systems. There is no justification for forcing third parties to bear the load of unsolicited advertising. Ultimately, these costs are passed on to YOU, the consumer.

Spam originates in one of two ways, it is sent directly by the spammer from and under their control, or via illegal third party exploitation such as open proxies or open relays. Spammers get your address in a variety of ways. If you sign up for, and provide your email address, these seemingly friendly sites can turn around and sell your email to advertisers. Additionally, if you have your email address on a Web page, it is easy for unscrupulous advertisers to "harvest" it, and add you to their lists.

There are ways to reduce the number of spam messages, however it is presently impossible to stop them all. Spam filters, are software applications that redirect emails based on the presence of certain common phrases, or words. These automated measures are prone to being defeated by clever spammers. Additionally, there is a risk of important emails being deleted as spam. In 2003, Congress passed a sweeping law, CAN-SPAM act of 2003, which basically prohibits the use of deceptive subject lines and false headers in all emails. Additionally, the FTC is authorized (but not required) to establish a do-not-email registry. The CAN-SPAM Act took effect on January 1, 2004.

Spam is based on theft of service; it wastes time, money, and other resources. Spam can and will overwhelm your electronic mail box if it isn't fought. Over time, unless the growth of spam isn't stopped, it will destroy the usefulness and effectiveness of email as a communication tool.

About the Author:
Jay B Stockman O.D. is a contributing editor for Spam Blocker Software Solutions Visit http://spam-blockeronline.com/ for more information.
Article Source: www.iSnare.com

How to Benefit from Comment Spam

It happens all the time. You have your blog up and running. You're writing interesting stuff and you're even getting some attention. All of a sudden there's a flood of comments on your site. Having comments helps a blog look busier, so everyone wants to get comments.

But comment spam like:

Get Rich Quick! Visit my site at…
Want to meet girls?! Visit www…
Low cost morgages for anywon! Check out www.

Grrrrr – these aren't comments, they're unpaid ads, taking up space on your site.(*and yes, they frequently have misspellings like the third one!)

It makes your blood boil. How dare they!? What right do they have, cluttering up your comment section with their advertising!

Comments that are off-topic and blatant ads are annoying. Most comment spam is self serving claptrap that needs to be deleted, and doing so is just the cost of doing business in the blogosphere.

But lately a new breed of blog comments have started arriving at blogs all over the web. Comments like:

"Nice job – keep up the great work!"
"I really enjoyed this post and I'll be back often!"
"Wow, you really made me think. Thanks for the insight!"

Unfortunately, these comments are not from legitimate readers, but instead they're from some pharmaceutical or casino site just trying to get free links.

You see, some comment spammers have even gotten clever, writing praise and reasonable comments that a blog owner would hesitate to delete, hopeful that maybe, just maybe, they're legitimate comments. This tactic ensures that the sites get free links all around the blogosphere.

But you can turn the tables, you can use some comment spam to your advantage, and it's amazingly simple. Keep the comment, delete their link. You'll get the benefit of a good comment without the spammer profiting at your expense. I even go so far as to replace their link with "Auto-Deleted by http://www.ArticleMarketer.com" – why not make it a self-serving link in the process?

If the link was from a legitimate reader who really intends to "come back often", you'll get a note by email or a follow up comment that protests your change. When you find out it's a real person who really liked what you said, you can make the decision to put the link back.

I personally have no trouble allowing legitimate links from my blog. That's what makes the blogosphere interesting.

About the Author:
Chris Ellington
Do you have any tips and tricks to make people more successful with their blogs? Can you help.
Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com

f Secure Internet Security Suite - Antivirus, Antispyware, Anti Spam, Firewall, Parental Controls

f-Secure Internet Security is an "all inclusive" suite of computer security products that offers excellent protection against computer viruses, Trojans, hackers, spyware, phishing attempts, and spam. fSecure Internet Security also includes a good parental control option, which allows parents to block known "bad" websites. Parents can also block access to any other websites they don't want their children to view, and the internet timer can be used to only allow internet use during specific times of day. fSecure claims to have the worlds fastest updates against new internet security threats, and also the most powerful personal firewall. f Secure has one of the best antivirus programs available, ranking number 4 in PC World's "top 10" anti virus products for 2006, just under Bit Defender, McAfee, and Kaspersky antivirus. fSecure antivirus also ranked #3 with TopTenReviews.com, receiving their prestigious "bronze" award.

I've been using fSecure Internet Security for about a month now, and have found it to be very easy to use. The installation is very simple, and a built in "wizard" walks you through configuration of the antivirus, personal firewall, and spyware setup. The ease of installation and setup is great, especially for PC novices who can just "set it and forget it". By default, the parental control software is not turned on, but the simple user interface makes this a simple thing to do if needed.

As with most computer security suites, fSecure "bogs down" your system a bit when the computer is first turned on, making it take a little longer to fully load. Once you're up and running however, you don't even know it's there. I'm running fSecure on a Windows XP computer with 1GB of RAM though. If you are using less than 512 MB of RAM, you will likely notice a serious performance drain when running fSecure or any other computer security suite.

The f Secure Internet Security interface is clean and easy to understand and use, and the initial default view provides all the information you need at a glance. You can quickly see the status of protection from viruses, spyware, firewall, and spam. The fSecure interface also tells you the status of your subscription, and lets you know when it expires. From the f Secure Internet Security control window, you can easily make configuration changes to the antivirus, antispyware, spam control settings, or personal firewall settings. By default, these settings are set to "normal" protection, which provides the recommended level of protection. Your other choices are "high", "off", and "custom", which allows more advanced users to finely tune and control the way fSecure works. The "normal" security settings produce the least amount of drain on system resources while providing excellent protection.

The "custom" setting allows more advanced users to control various aspects of fSecure Internet Security, including how often files are scanned for viruses and spyware, and which files should be scanned. From the custom configuration settings window, you can also control personal firewall rules and services, browser security, the level of spam filtering, and just about any other aspect of fSecure Internet Security.

All in all, I like the fSecure Internet Security Suite and find it to provide excellent protection against viruses, spam, hackers, and spyware. With all internet security suites, usually one of the "bundled" products is exceptionally good, and the others are merely "acceptable". F Secure's antivirus is by far one of the best virus protection products I have used, providing exceptional protection against zero day attacks and rootkits. The personal firewall is also very good, and I feel that my data is safe while protected by fSecure. The parental control software is pretty basic, and doesn't allow configuration for multiple users. If you want the same protection for everyone in your family though, it serves its purpose well. Internet security suites provide an excellent way for users to protect themselves against all the dangers on the internet. For the absolute best protection against viruses, spyware, spam, and hackers, it would be necessary to install the best individual products available.

For example, you might choose f-Secure for antivirus, SpyCop for anti spyware, Sunbelt Kerio for a personal firewall, and BitDefender for anti-spam. This "pick and choose" approach is not recommended for "average" computer users however, because running several different types of security software (and associated subscriptions) can get pretty complex and costly. Computer security suites are an easy, economical way to protect your computer from a host of internet security threats, and are therefore the recommended method of protection. http://goarticles.com/cgi-bin/add.cgi f-Secure is a very good "all in one" product for protection against viruses, spyware, identity theft, intruders, and spam. It costs around $80 for the software and a year's worth of updates. Once you own the software, it costs around $60 for a renewal subscription.

f-Secure Internet Security - Review
Computer Security Suites

About the Author:
Debbie Jacobsen is an information technology professional and author of Antivirus, Firewall, and Spyware Resources, Laptop Security Basics, and Computer Security for Everyone
Submitted: 2006-10-21
Article Source: GoArticles

Comment Spam - a Huge Problem for Word Press Blog Owners

The blogsphere is clogged with blogs about comment spam, but what exactly is comment spam? The first thing a blogger needs to establish is a clear definition. It is a form of spamindexing - in another sense, it is a form of splogging. This type of splogging hi-jacks blogs to advertise something instead of creating a fake website to promote it. The objective is to build links and increase their web page's rank.

The genius behind comment spam is impressive. Instead of creating a splog, or fake blog, a person will leave comments that includes a link to their website in other people’s blogs all across the Internet. This will raise their website's rank, and turns comment spam into another from of unsolicited junk mail.

Comment Spam is a 'white hat' SEO trick. It is not wrong, but it is not right. Google has taken the first step against comment spam by banning or penalizing both the websites and the host blog. Wordpress blogs are hardest hit because most webmasters do not install the module that prevents people from entering a link into the comment. There are default tools, but few blog owners understand how to activate them.

These unwanted and malicious comments affect a blog's rank in both the weblogs and search engines. The blog is damaged as well as the web site. Here’s how it works:

• Google bases a web page's rank on the relevance of the content to the meta keywords and title.
• Google also uses keyword anchored links and the content on the following page to establish rank. To explain this, let's say the blog is about flowers. The link in the reply uses the keywords 'make money' and leads to a website on finance. This means the blog page, and the following website will decrease in rank.

The most common perpetrators are comment spam robots. They hit every available post from a single blog. The sly spam robots pose a major problem because they leave their ad, but they also leave little comments, 'great post - keep up the good work.' This can be infuriating when attached to an editorial or something personal, like a story on spousal abuse.

There are ways of fighting back. Akismet, the spam catcher for Wordpress.com and many of their bloggers caught almost 2 million spam attempts in one day.

The first method to try is to install anti-spam plug-ins in Wordpress - and activate them. Both the Karma and Bad Word plug-ins need to be installed.

Another method involves skimming the blog, reading old posts and looking for the criminals who would violate your blogging attempts. One technique for foiling their attempts is to follow the link all the way to the affiliate site. Then, report them. Reputable companies WILL ban their affiliate link.

Little can be done for the kids who go through blogs and post comments about porn, or who simply like to swear and curse! Wordpress is working hard to stay ahead of this type of spam, though, and it is possible to update the file of abusive words.

CNet, January 9 2006, reported that comment spam is now illegal in the USA. This might have some effect, but only time will tell. Until then, use the plug-ins and stay informed.

About The Author:
Bill McRea
How do you solicit comments from your web sites reader while building an opt in email list. Answer The Commentator Not only do you ad content to your site, but our script also prevents Comment Spam. The Commentator is the solution.
Article Submitted On: October 05, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Online Cell Phone Scams And Spam

They’re out there. Individuals trying to make a quick buck at your expense. You labour hours on end to produce quality content on your website only to get repetitive requests for huge numbers of product or promises for the greatest deals online. As a webmaster for a cell phone and PDA site, I’ve had my share of spam and scams come through, mostly via email, some posted on my forum. The purpose of this article is to provide a few methods of detecting spam and scams, and provide a few examples as well. Take a look over and protect yourself from online cellular fraud.

Anybody catch the 60 minutes episode where Andy Rooney teaches faithful viewers how to detect junk mail? Junk email works in much the same way. Items with subject headings ‘Great deal’, or ‘limited time offer’ usually can wait, and definitely don’t have great offers hidden inside. Webmasters and consumers should have a golden rule, if you don’t know where an offer came from (you don’t know the sender) then delete it. Plain and simple. Most free email accounts, GMAIL, Hotmail, Yahoo!, have good filters that label incoming spam and scams as, well, spam. However, the majority of webmasters do not use free email accounts for the sake of professionalism. To these individuals, a basic virus detector usually includes email protection and generally will detect possible spam items before they hit your box. Having said this, if you’re doing link campaigns, or joining forums, etc., in order to promote your site, it may not be a bad idea to enlist the free online email account and prevent all the unwanted junk from hitting your work emails.

It’s been my experience that some people out there hand pick contact pages of potential victims, and therefore the email may be somewhat individualised to your site. Your name, the site name, or similar content, may be communicated within the email making it appear somewhat legitimate. Be mindful of your email accounts (contact pages) that are exposed to the world wide web. Some smart scammers have created bots that will automatically harvest emails that are sitting live on the web and input them into a spam list. Remember this when trying to determine whether something from the web is legit.

If an questionable email has contact information, Google it. If it’s a legitimate company contacting you, they should have some type of online presence. I’ve noticed that the majority of spam and scams have fake mail addresses, but no online address. Furthermore, emails usually come from online web accounts like Yahoo!. Not only can you search contact information, you can serach content as well. Chances are a webmaster has posted the contents on a forum somewhere wondering about its legitimacy. I can’t stress this enough, take 4 seconds and doabout the email before you consider replying.

With these simple and quick tips you should be able to identify the majority of scam and spam emails. If in doubt, delete. If something was important that you deleted, or legitimate, the individual will likely try to contact you again. With this in mind, here are some examples of spam and scam emails from the cellular and technology industry, my comments are in brackets.

Subject: WE HAVE LOTS OF GSM/NEXTEL MOBILE PHONES AT VERY CHEAP PRICES'''''''' [The subject always varies.]

PHONES SELLERS INCORPORATED 12 Ademola drive,ikoyi Lagos Nigeria [Many, many, many emails have come with Nigeria as the purported origin, doesn’t mean it’s from there, but out of country addresses are always suspect of being fraudulent.]

Dear Sir/Ma,

LETTER OF BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP. We are mobile phones wholesalers.We deals on all brands and models of mobile phones such as Nokia,Motorola,Samsung and many more at very cheap prices. We are using this medium to look for buyers of mobile phones.Do kindly reply back if you are interested and as you do you will be glad you do,thank's and God bless.

God bless. Fola David President.

[A variation of the above is instead of written body content, they will actually send a product list of the cell phones they require asking for a dozen of each. Sounds like great business!...Here’s the next one]

CONSOLIDATED PHONES LIMITED
152, OZORUMBA MBADIWE STREET
OFF KINGSWAY ROAD.
VICTORY ISLAND LAGOS, [no record of this address]
TEL: 0803-3870-694
FAX: 1- 817-0845, [not even a real number]
Email:consphones_ltd@seeqmail.com. [bad domain]
or consphone@galmail.co.za

Dear sir,
COMMERCIAL SALE OF BULK MOBILE PHONES
WE ARE EXPORTERS AND IMPORTERS OF GSM, TDMA, AND CDMA PHONES. [CDMA Phones do not run the majority of African networks.] WE ARE ONE OF THE LEADING COMPANIES IN NIGERIAN COMMUNICATIONS SECTOR, AND WE GIVE OUT OUR BEST IN SATISFYING OUR NUMEROUS CUSTORMERS. WE SELL IN BULK AND AT A VERY CHEAP RATE.

WE WILL LIKE TO USE THIS MEDIUM TO INTRODUCE TO YOU OUR VARIOUS PHONE BRANDS AND ACCESSORIES LISTED IN OUR PRICE LIST. THESE ITEMS ARE READY FOR SALE AND THE PRICE LIST IS AS GIVEN BELOW. WE WILL BE WAITING AND READY TO ASSIST YOU IN ANY INFORMATION REQUIRED BY YOU, AND ALSO, WE ARE READY TO DO BUSINESS WITH ANY COMPANY, INDIVIDUALS OR GROUP AS LONG AS THEY ARE NOT FRAUDULENT. [Of course you wouldn't.]

WE WILL SEND OUR RANGE OF PRODUCTS AND PRICE LIST ON DEMAND.
BEST REGARD.
JULIAN JONES (MISS)
Email: jonesjulian2001@yahoo.com [This email is different than the ones atop]
For: CONSOLIDATED PHONES LTD.

But two examples of two spam/scam emails. Keep your eyes peeled webmasters!

About the Author:
Barry Wireless
Visit http://www.discusswireless.com/ for useful consumer reviews regarding the latest email and online cellular scams and spam. Post your thoughts in our comprehensive cellular forum.
Article Source: www.iSnare.com

What You Need to Know about Anti-Spam Software for Outlook

Most people would define spam as unsolicited e-mail. They are e-mail messages which are mostly marketing schemes which crowd your Inbox. If you do not have an anti-spam software, you would have to sort through hundreds of junk mail before you can even get to read the e-mail messages which came from contacts whom you actually know.

This is not just time consuming but annoying as well. Some people even find it offensive when companies get a hold of their e-mail addresses and send them marketing correspondence through e-mail.

Microsoft Outlook is one of the most common e-mail programs used by Windows users. There are a lot of anti-spam software which can work seamlessly with Outlook, and this is one way of filtering junk mail from going through your mailbox.

Take a look at some of the top-rated anti-spam software which would work well with your Outlook e-mail program:

- SPAMfighter for Outlook

SPAMfighter has teamed up with Microsoft to develop an anti-spam tool for Outlook and Outlook Express users. This is an easy to install tool which would get rid of spam from littering your Inbox.

This is how it works: Once a new e-mail message shows up on your Inbox, it is tested by SPAMfighter. The tool has a feature which automatically detects spam, and if the message sent is considered to be junk mail, it goes straight to your spam folder.

There is also an option where once you click a button, spam mail is removed from the mailbox of other SPAMfighter users in over 200 countries.

It works seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express. The good thing about this tool is that you can help other online users by reporting spam once you receive it, and as soon as it is reported, the same message which will litter another Inbox will also be removed.

This tool comes in two versions, the SPAMfighter Pro and SPAMfighter Standard.

- CA Anti-spam Software for Outlook

CA, which is formerly known as Qurb anti-spam software, can also be integrated with Outlook. The application is now known as eTrust Anti-Spam which aims to stop all spam messages from even reaching your Inbox. As soon as eTrust Anti-spam is installed, it will work so well with Outlook or Outlook Express that you would think that it is a feature of your e-mail client.

- Norton Anti-Spam Software

Norton is one of the more popular anti-virus software. Their Norton Anti-Spam program filters your mailbox on several levels and it works well with Outlook and Outlook Express. Another feature of this program is blocking pop-up advertisements.

- Anti-Spam 1.3 for Outlook

Any version of Anti-Spam for Outlook will remove more than 90% of spam on your mailbox. With this application, you can train the software to classify the messages on your Inbox as 'spam' or 'friend'. After some time, it will be automatically configured and will instantly classify your messages as junk or something that should show up on your Inbox.

Here are other anti-spam software that you can use seamlessly with Outlook:

-Cloudmark Safety Bar -SpamBayes Outlook Add-in -Outclass -Ella for Spam Control -Outlook Spam Filter -Trend Micro Anti-Spam Pilot

These applications will do the job for you by sifting through the hundreds of spam mail that you receive everyday so that you can have a spam-free, uncluttered mailbox.

About The Author:
Dave Poon is an accomplished writer who specializes in the latest in Internet Safety. For more information regarding Anti Spam Outlook please drop by at http://www.bye-bye-spam.com/
Submitted: 2006-10-18
Article Source: GoArticles

Anti Spam Software

Spamming is a problem, which most people encounter when it comes to the use of computers. This is the unwelcome receipt of e-mails and the automatic pop up of unwanted windows. As such, actions that combat these technological hazards arise. This is where the technical term, antispamming comes in.

Anti spam defines various actions, which are done to combat these kinds of cyber hazards. They may manifest as antispam software or antispyware. One common version of this antispam stuff would be the Microsoft antispyware. However, no all encompassing anti spam law has been passed yet. Although some countries have already acted on such issues, anti spamming is still a problem experienced by the cyber world. This is because no worldwide cyber law has been passed yet.

Common antispam software, or even the Microsoft anti spam, functions in a very generic way. First off, it allows the user to set the definitions for spam. Once the perimeters have been set, the antispyware will now commence in its antispam reviews. Once the antispam review is over and done with, you can now start cleaning up your system. Thus, your cyber systems will be free from the net clogging caused by spamming. Without the spamming, you will be able to enjoy the net without the interruptions. It will help you maximize your electronic mail space, web pages, personal URL and others. Furthermore, you won't be at risk of accidentally deleting your personal mails together with the spam. It's good isn't it?

Sadly, this peace of mind is not meant to last. Just like viruses and other pop up mechanisms, spamming also elevates to harsher levels as time passes by. More advanced spamming techniques are created every day. As such, the new ones become undetectable to the earlier versions of Microsoft antispyware, anti spam software, and other anti spam review materials. You may find this as sick but it is the truth. Unless you don't want to use the net, you will have to bear with these anti spamming measures at all time. Don't worry about these though. If you just choose the right program, then you won't have to worry about paying so much for your updates. Since it's net based, it won't even take as much time.

To combat the advanced spamming techniques, any user will have to connect to the Internet. This will give the necessary updates, which will elevate the status of your antispyware to the next level. Doing so will empower your computer systems against the latest spamming versions. Most of these antispamming software techniques are free of charge so you don't have to worry about a thing. As long as you are within the terms and conditions of your service provider, then everything will be A- OK!

With all these protective measures against spamming, your cyber experiences will be as enjoyable as ever. You must try this now and experience surfing without the spamming. We guarantee that it's an experience worth fighting for? What are you waiting for? Start anti spamming now!

About The Author:
Kistina Robin
Get most updated information about Anti Spam Software
Posted: 19-10-2006
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com

Stock Spams Are Often Stock Scams

While most people find spam an occasional annoyance, it’s also becoming the main way to target individuals and take money from them. With convincing stock tips and market advice, these scams are luring investors into their games and making them feel as though they could make a lot of money for almost no effort. That’s why every investor needs to know how to protect themselves.

The definition of spam is an unsolicited piece of information that is sent to the person’s email box. Most spam emails are sent to hundreds and thousands of recipients, hoping that one or more are convinced by the bogus offer and give their money to the scam artist. In terms of stock scams, these are emails that give the reader tips about stocks in an effort to create a high enough demand for the stock that the price goes up. During the process, the scam artist sells their own shares of the stock for a tremendous profit (also known as the pump and dump scam).

Many people already have filters installed on their email boxes that will weed out the junk emails and prevent them from being seen in many cases. However, some spam can get through even the toughest filters by looking as though it were information that you might have requested.

Another scam that is the ‘risk free’ scams that might guarantee that the person will reap the benefits of the described information. While there may be some legitimacy in this kind of scam, the investor should realize that things are never guaranteed in the realm of stocks and other financial matters—thus probably a scam.

Inside information is illegal in the investment world, so any spam that might include wording such as that is only trying to create a demand in a particular stock so that they can reap the benefits of that false demand. This is very similar to the pump and dump as the investor is being ‘pumped’ full of information that is useless.

A more complicated spam that may be received deals with IPOs (initial public offerings). This is when a company approaches an investor with an opportunity to receive free stock credits (with an administrative fee) when the company completes the IPO. However, the scam is that the later transaction never takes place and the fees are kept.

Any spam that might be received offering riches and promises of great stock tips is something that an investor should be wary of. In most cases, these are spam messages that the investor never requested, and thus the information is probably not in that investor’s best interests.

If an investor should be scammed in any stock transaction, they should contact the SEC investor complaint center.

About the Author:
Joel Arberman is the Managing Member of Stock Aware, LLC. We publish a free investment research and analysis newsletter. Learn more at www.StockAware.com
Content Provider: http://www.my-articles.com

A Beginners Guide to ISP Inbox Delivery

We’ve discussed blacklisting, I wanted to spend some time looking at where the rubber hits the road for email delivery: the ISP inbox.

Let’s be very clear about this for consumer facing campaigns there are 4 major ISP’s that manage the majority of consumer inboxes.

- MSN/Hotmail

- Yahoo Mail

- AIM Mail

- Gmail

What Does this Mean?
Basically unless each of these mail platforms relays your message to the primary folder, your email campaign is far from optimized.

What Causes mail to be delivered to a bulk/spam Folder?
All of these ISP’s allow their users to report spam with a ‘report spam’ button. The ISP uses this feedback to create a profile for your mail. If users are reporting your mail as spam you will run into problems.

What Can I do to make sure I do not create ISP Spam complaints?
AOL recommends keeping spam complaints below 1-3 percent of traffic, depending on volume. This figure is unique to AOL's user base; it's too generous when applied as a general standard. Be at or below the range of one complaint per 6,000 to 8,000 messages, or 0.013 percent.

Minimize Complaints
Minimizing complaints always starts with practices used to collect e-mail addresses. It should be obvious by now sending unsolicited e-mail only gets you in trouble. Mailing lists with the lowest complaint rates are either confirmed opt-in or properly managed single opt-in. If you have a solid permission-based list but still find incoming complaints are higher than the optimal rate or are rising, consider the following:

- Brand your subject lines. Mail systems with spam complaint buttons offer it at the inbox level. A recipient need only to scan subject lines and decide which messages not to delete immediately. A subject line such as "Exciting offers for you, Bob!" will surely be marked as spam. Consider using your company or newsletter name in brackets at the beginning of your subject lines.
- Consider including unsubscribe instructions at the top of your e-mail, in addition to the footer. Some users use the "report spam" button as an unsubscribe method and won't scroll through an entire message to find that link.
- Include instructions for users to whitelist your domain. This prevents a user-based filter from mistaking your message for spam and either diverting it to the spam folder or prefixing "[SPAM]" to the subject of the message.
- Provide a preference update page. Disclose how your organization will use a subscriber's e-mail addresses, and how often. Allow subscribers to select preferences on the opt-in form, and link from e-mail to a preference or profile update page.
- Avoid spammy looking content. Try not to use garish, bold fonts; large, red letters, and the like. Avoid images with poor compression quality. A clean, readable design isn't as likely to be mistaken for spam.
- Don't over e-mail. If recipients expect to receive a few informational e-mail messages each month from your company, don't suddenly start sending two or three each week.
- Don't send unexpected e-mail. If subscribers opted in to receive your "Trends & Tips" newsletter, don't send them your hard-sell e-commerce messages, unless they clearly requested them.
- Include opt-in information. If possible, add to your e-mail admin area information, such as the subscriber's e-mail address, date of opt-in, and how she potentially subscribed (product registration, white paper download form, sweepstakes entry, etc). With many subscribers receiving dozens of commercial e-mail messages daily, it's easy to forget signing up for your newsletter -- and then to file a complaint.

What Can I do to test my ISP deliverability?
We recommend you use a service like EmailReach. Their trial is free and let�s you know where you stand in about 5 minutes.
http://www.emailreach.com/default.aspx

Following these guidelines should help you to avoid being bulk foldered by the main ISP’s.
-----------------------------------------------------
Interested? Want to know more about the site Email Reach? Come and visit http://www.emailreach.com

About The Author:
Verna Jill H. Jabat, a Webmaster staff and part of Agents of Value. For more details about me please visit http://www.agentsofvalue.com.
Published 06/9/2006
Article Source: http://www.EzinePlug.com

Arm Yourself! To Win The War Against Spam!

Unfortunately, fighting SPAM has become an ever increasing challenge in every day online life! :(

Even with the passage of the CAN-SPAM legislation which took effect in the United States in January of 2004 (see http://www.spamlaws.com/federal/108s877.html ), ,this does not seem to have diminished the volume of *spam* at all (as you may also see in the article "CAN-SPAM legislation proving useless against spam" at: http://www.newstarget.com/001412.html ) and appears to have simply "pushed the spammers offshore" :(

I, personally, used to receive over 200 spam messages just overnight while I slept in just one of my email boxes! :(

However, by helping you Arm Yourself with the proper tools and techniques, in this article, we hope to help you Win the War against SPAM!

Although, there are many differing opinions regarding the definition of what is and what is not SPAM, we do not wish to enter into that debate in this article. Rather, we will define SPAM simply herein for the purpose of this article to mean "any unwanted email message".

So, if you didn't ask to receive "an unwanted email message", of whatever kind, then ...
How did these "spammers" get your email address in the first place to sent it to you?

Well, there are many, many ways in which spammers can get "a hold" of your email address :(

Every time you post a message in an open forum wherein your email address is "visible", there are those spammers that go and "farm" these email addresses from these public forums and send spam to them.

Every time you register your email address at a site that does not "promise" not to share it with or sell it to someone else, that site may be selling your email address to a spammer.

If you have your email address explicitely stated in any of your web pages, even just in the HTML and perhaps not "visible" on the page as such, e.g. in a field, there appear to be spammers who go and "farm" email addresses straight out of your web pages' HTML and send spam to them too.

Once one of them has got it they seem to tend to share, sell, etc. your email address with even more spammers and on and on it goes.

So, does that mean you should stop posting messages in public forums, registering at web sites and/or making your email address available through your web sites?

NO! ... Absolutely Not!

Why should we relinquish the battlefield to the *spammers*?
When by Arming Ourselves with the right tools and techniques, we can Win the War against SPAM!

So, how do we Arm Ourselves against SPAM?

As the saying goes ....
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure", right?

So, let's start Arming Ourselves by discussing the ways in which we may prevent spammers from getting a hold of your email message in the first place.

You may wish to limit your posting of messages in open forums wherein your email address is "visible". You can disguise (or "munge") your e-mail address when you post it to newsgroups, chat rooms, bulletin boards, or other public forums For example, you can give your e-mail address as "wh0Am1@example.c0m" by using the number zero instead of the letter "o" and "1" instead of "I". This way, the reader can interpret your address, but the automated programs that spammers use cannot. And you may wish to only register your email address with web sites, etc. whom "promise" not to share it with or sell it to anyone else.

However, again, I "bristle" at the thought of letting the spammers win and in any way curtailing my online activities and/or force me to relinquish any benefit of our wonderful online / virtual world due to their unscrupulous behaviour! ;[

Preventing spammers from "farming" your email address(es) out of the HTML of your web pages is a much easier weapon to weild to prevent unscrupulous spammers from getting a hold of your email address(es) in the first place.

There exist some very nice and easy to use tools that will help you encrypt your email address such that you may include it (encrypted) in the HTML for your web pages, your visitors may still click on your email links to mail to you and spammer won't find it to "farm" for their spam mailing lists! One such email address encrypter that we use regularly and recommend is the HTML E-mail Link Encrypter, which is one of the many webmaster tools and utilities you may get as part of your copy of the Fast Selling Software (see below).

Despite our best efforts at prevention, it is still highly likely that some spammer somewhere will eventually get a hold of your email address and start spamming you, and as we mentioned before, once one spammer has got you on their spam list :( ....

Thus, despite all of our preventative measures, it is unfortunately most likely an inevitability that you will receive some spam sometime.

Therefore, we also need to arm ourselves with the weapons to combat spam whenever it "shows its ugly face", right?

Even though the spammers may have gotten a hold of your email address, there are weapons we may employ such that you don't even ever have to see most of it! :)

Some of these "weapons against spam" employ an intermediate email box wherein any email message sent to your email address from an unknown sender receives an automatic "challenge/response" message requiring them to go to a site, where they must verify themselves as a legitimate email sender, rather than some kind of "spam-bot", e.g. by typing in a "verification password". Then you receive only those messages from verified senders from this intermediate email box. IOHO, one of the best of these type of "challenge/response" intermediate email box systems, which we use, have been pleased with and therefore recommend, is Spam Arrest, for which you may find out more information and try it for yourself for Fr^ee via the information and link in the resource box below.

These type of "challenge/response" intermediate email box systems are great for eliminating spam from "spam-bots" and/or when the sender and/or reply-to email addresses are not "real people". However, there are still some spammers that will "pass the challenge" and then you will have to manually go up and "block" those senders from your seeing any further messages from them.

Similarly, if you own your own domain / web site(s), some web host providers offer spam blocking/ filtering that you may use for your domain. Some of these types of spam blockers / filters also allow you to enter regular expressions to determine all of the senders addresses and/or messages containing a particular "string", matching the regular expression "pattern" entered, to block. These types of spam blocking/ filtering are great to combat spammers who use multiple sender and/or reply to email addresses that change frequently and/or randomly (and probably automatically generated), but from a common domain and/or with a definable pattern. However, these types of spam blockers/ filters often require that you log into your domain / web hosting account and add a filter for each spammer's set of sender addresses and/or matching message text to be blocked.

Therefore, an even better weapon we have found, use and recommend, for "stemming the flow" of spam, is a PC / client based application called MailWasher, which is one of the many very helpful and beneficial tools in Vcom’s SystemSuite for which you may find out more information in the resource box below.

MailWasher is great because it allows you to quickly and easily distinguish "friends from foes (spammers)", "bounce" unwanted email messages and "blacklist" the spammers such that you don't have to hear from them again!:) ... and all from your PC! When you "bounce" a spam message the sender of it receives an automatic response indicating that your email address was "not found / invalid". Therefore, rather than receiving verification of a valid email address, as from a challenge/response system or removal request, the spammer is more likely to believe your email address is invalid and remove you from their spam list! ;) When you "blacklist" a spammer in MailWasher, it automatically "tags" all of their messages to be automatically "bounced" and then deleted. Further, MailWasher allows you to combat spam on any number of your email addresses, again all from one place / application.

We have effectively employed all of these weapons against spam and have successfully reduced the previous torrent (of over 200 spam messages per night in one of my mailboxes) to a mere tickle and are definitely on the way to Winning the War against SPAM! :)

We hope this all helps you all Win the War against SPAM! :)

- Michael S. DeVries

About the Author:
Michael S. DeVries is the Moderator of The Virtual Consulting Discussion List (http://www.TheVCF.com/vcdl.phtml) and Principal of The Virtual Consulting Firm (http://www.TheVCF.com). You too can Arm Yourself with these weapons and Win the War against SPAM!, at: http://www.thevcf.com/vccenter.phtml#SPAM
Article Source: www.iSnare.com

When Hormel Takes The Fight Out of Spam

In the past few years Hormel Foods Corporation has been doing the legal rounds in preventing software companies from using the word "spam" in the branding of their junk email fighting products. An Associated Press (AP) article recently said Hormel was afraid this practice of software companies may dilute its brand name.

It is totally understandable that Hormel is merely protecting one of its most treasured brand names. They are afraid that the day may come when people will start wondering why they named their product after junk email. Maybe Hormel is just not giving people more credit. Or maybe they know something that experts in the information technology (IT) arena have known for a long time.

The topic of junk email prevention has fallen under the broader category of computer security these days. In fact some will say that email security is one of the IT manager's worst nightmares. Emails are a common venue of computer virus infection. Virus makers are coming up with newer and more sophisticated means of exploiting email as a way to defraud users. One of the causes of today's rash of identity thefts comes by way of email, more popularly known as phishing email scams.

Ask any IT manager what their take is as to why so many users become victims of computer viruses or online fraud. Their answer will invariably be along the lines of "user habits and reckless behavior". To reinforce this, a noted German network security expert said this past week in an IT conference held in Australia that it would take twenty to thirty years to educate people about computer security. It may sound exaggerated but it certainly reflects the frustration of an expert towards why users make it easy for attackers to compromise their computer systems. Actually it need not take so many years for people to learn but their very habits and behavior impede the learning process.

Consider why there is so much junk email floating around, many of which have probably found their way into your inbox. It is because of the user's habit of forwarding email to everyone in their address book just because a line in the body of the email tells them to do so. Consider why there are so many victims of email scams nowadays. Because when an official looking email arrives, say from their bank, telling them to update their account information and password, the user's impulsive behavior takes over and they go do as they are instructed. There is also this prevailing "it couldn't happen to me" mentality and that is precisely the kind of behavior that cyber criminals pounce on. The common denominator here is that the user has this habit of not going the extra mile in doing some sort of checking first.

Securing your personal computer will take only twenty to thirty minutes. There is no dearth of products around that will help in securing your computer. Notwithstanding some IT experts' criticism that some of today's security products are inadequate, they are still your best bet in preventing your computer being compromised. Leave the research to them to come up with better products.

So when Hormel Foods wants to dissociate their Spam brand name from junk email prevention software, they probably know that given the average computer user's lack of regard for computer security, the day may actually come that these same users will think they named their product after junk email. After all, the Spam brand name has been around for almost seventy years and it would not be that successful if Hormel Foods did not know a thing or two about consumer habits and behavior.

About The Author:
F. Aldo
Webmaster of Virus Protection For Beginners and just happy to be of help! Come and share your computer security articles with us.
Article Submitted On: October 13, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

How Spammers Obtain Your Email Address And Why They Send Spam

You probably know that Spam is unsolicited and undesired e-mail message. Spammers are the people who send Spam. Spam is a serious problem. It is important today as never before because almost every other email message we receive is Spam. So, the question arises how spammers get your email address and why they send you Spam. Spammers can obtain your email address in three ways.

One way is to guess a mailbox name for a publicly listed domain name. Many organizations have the email addresses where the first part of the email address is a general word such as "info", "sales", "accounts", "support", etc. People often use the email addresses beginning with their first name, for example, John, Sandra, Julia. Spammers simply put the first names before the @ symbol followed by a domain name, and get possible email addresses.

Secondly, spammers can gather email addresses from the Internet. They use programs that search web pages looking for email addresses. If there is your contact email address in your web site, or if the email address is embedded into your profile, your email address will be obtained by spammers. The third way to get your email address is to buy email lists. Some dishonest companies can make money by selling the customer's information to spammers. Spammers can also bribe unscrupulous employees of companies to get a copy of the email list.

Once spammers got a list of the victims' email addresses, they start spamming. They do it to make money. In general, there are two kinds of spam messages:

1.Offering trashy and fraudulent goods or services (e.g. Viagra, Cialis, medications, fake Rolexes, software programs, etc.)

2.Stock scams working on "Pump and dump" schemes. Spammers encourage you to invest in a particular company's stock, in order to quickly inflate its value and enable the spammers to make a fast profit.

By sending their undesired messages spammers have for an object to contact thousands or even millions people in the hope to hit one or a few dolts who actually will buy their crappy products. No dolts, no spam. But out of a million people, you will always find one or two.

Most of the Internet protocols that computers use to talk to each other are anonymous. Your email server thinks that any email server connecting to it over the Internet is giving its name properly and that the email it sends is legitimate. Spammers abuse this trust relationship to send you their garbage. The Internet protocols cannot be changed in a moment so we need another solution to the problem of spam.

Legislative attempts produced no effect. It's not easy to track a spammer located in USA sending spam using a mail server from Russia to mailboxes in Australia. Spammers are also known to use Trojans to hijack one's computer and make that person send spam on behalf of the spammer. The "victim" doesn't even guess about it. These people would be caught up in any comprehensive Spam legislation.

However that may be you can take some measures to protect your inbox against spam flow by yourself. There is a wide choice of anti-spam products available on the Internet. You only have to choose the right one to block Spam before it reaches your inbox. There is no guarantee that you will get absolutely no Spam but at least you will reduce its amount.

About The Author:
Julia Gulevich
Author is a technical expert associated with development of computer software like AATools, G-Lock EasyMail, Spam Blocker. More information can be found at Anti Spam Filter Resources
Submitted: 2006-10-26
Article Source: GoArticles