Investment Spam is Dangerous

Learn how to identify investment spam that has costed investors million.

Since the year 2004, there has been a sharp increase in the amount of investment spam we are receiving in our inbox. I personally receive up to 10 emails per day containing offers or lures to invest in various scams. It is estimated that millions of dollars are lost every year by people who have invested money in something they read about in an email. For the purposes of this discussion, we will outline each of the bogus investment opportunities that are circulating the internet so that if you encounter one of them, you will not be tricked into investing.

Pyramid schemes are probably the most popular. Typically, you will be asked to invest a certain amount of money, and then you are promised a return when new investors make an equal contribution. Eventually, the pyramid either collapses or the person who initiated the pyramid is able to make a lot of money, but no one else makes anything.

A common scam associated with the stock market is referred to as the pump and dump. This is when a small group of investors who hold a large number of shares in a penny stock hype the stock to the general public. The resulting frenzy drives up the price of the stock, at which point the pumpers dump their shares at a high price before the rest of the investors realize that the company is worthless.

Sometimes, pump and dumpers will engage in short selling (short selling is perfectly legal; you borrow stock from someone else and immediately sell it, hoping that the price of the stock will go down in the near future so that you can buy it back at a lower price and return it to the lender at a profit). With pump and dump short selling, the borrower instantly sells the stock that was loaned to him and then goes around spreading bad rumors about the company to drive the stock price down so he or she can buy it back at a low price before returning it to the lender.

You should ignore any emails you receive that promote offshore investing or prime banks. Promises of huge returns from offshore investments are usually totally disingenuous. Prime banks are the top 50 banks in the world. Solicitors for prime banks will ask for your money so that they can invest it in high yield prime bank financial instruments. However, they will likely invest your money in high risk, speculative investment vehicles that have absolutely no connection to prime banks whatsoever.

I hope the information presented here has put you on notice. But, you should not necessarily ignore all of the investment spam in your inbox. You might receive an email containing a stock tip that could turn out to be very remunerative. Just make sure you research the company on your own before you buy the stock so that you can make an informed decision.

About the Author:
Jim Pretin is the owner of http://www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make a free HTML form.
Submitted on 2007-02-06
Article Source: http://www.articlesarea.com/

The Problem Of Demoting Spam On The Internet: Yahoo!’s Trustrank Approach

TrustRank is an attempt to counter the web spamming activities that threatens to deceive search engines’ ranking algorithms. It propagates trust among web pages in the same manner that PageRank propagates authority. However, tests would show that the combination of trust and distrust values have greater ability to demote spam sites than with the use of trust values alone.

The Assumption

A link between two pages holds an implied conveyance of trust emanating from the source page to the target page. Pointing to a link is a vote of confidence from the source that the target is able to provide content that will be of value to the user. It basically revolves around the ideal set-up that good sites only point to similarly good sites and will not knowingly refer people to spam sites. These good sites hold the trust of people which is then used in propagating trust through the link structure of the web.

TrustRank hopes to use a set of highly trusted seed sites to help in demoting web spam. The approach assigns a non-zero initial trust score to these seed sites while assigning initial values of zero to all other sites. A biased PageRank algorithm is used to propagate these initial trust scores to the outgoing sites where good sites are expected to get a decent trust score while spam sites are likely to get lower trust scores after convergence.

The possibility of a page pointing to a spam page increases as the number of links increases. It has been proposed that the trust score of a parent page be equally split among the children pages. There is the question as to the logic of having different trust scores for children pages in cases of multiple parent pages. TrustRank provides a solution by simple summation which has been not quite effective in curtailing the spam site’s efforts to raise their ranking.

The conveyance of distrust emerged as a natural extension of the conveyance of trust between links. Distrust may be an indication of lack of confidence to a source page due to its linkage to an untrustworthy page. Thus, when a link with a known spam page is established, the trust judgment of the source page cannot be considered valid.

TrustRank as it was originally conceived, proposed that trust should be reduced as we move further away from the seed set of trusted pages. However, the limited number of seed pages makes it impossible for the whole web to be touched by propagation. A well performing algorithm is needed to produce trust judgments at least for a larger fraction of web pages.

The seed sets used may not be able to sufficiently represent the different topics of the web. TrustRank tend to show a bias towards larger communities which can be remedied by the use of topical information to divide the seed set and calculate trust scores separately for each topic. The use of the pages listed in well-maintained topic directories can help in resolving the coverage issue. Seed filtering may be done to remove low quality pages or even spam pages that may inadvertently been included in the pool of seed pages.

Much work is being done to come up with methods that don’t rely heavily on human judgment for identification of spam free pages. As it is, searchers are highly challenged to locate pages that would serve their needs and not those that are intended for high ranking in search engines. Sites that do not provide any value to users are just too many to be ignored.

Semantic Cloaking on the Web

Semantics is the study or science of meaning in language that takes words and compares them with other words or symbols and determines the relevancy and relationship between them. Semantic cloaking is the practice of supplying different versions of a web page to search engines and to browsers. The purpose of the content provider is to hide the real content of the page from the view of search engines. The difference in meaning between the pages is supposed to deceive search engines’ ranking algorithms. Cloaking is one type of search engine spamming technique that makes it possible for non-relevant pages to occupy top ranking in searches.

Search engines are used by people when they need to find the most relevant responses to their search. It is typical for users to view just one page of results thus sites are hard put to compete for the top rankings particularly for popular queries. Increased traffic to a commercial website is equivalent to more profit.

Reputable content providers work hard to come up with high quality web pages to get their desired high ranking. Unfortunately, not all content providers hold the same view. These are the people that would try to reach high ranking through manipulation of web page features used by search engines as basis for their ranking algorithms.

Ranking algorithms assumes that page content is real. This means that the content seen by search engines is identical to that seen by actual users with browsers. With the use of the web spamming technique of cloaking, different versions are successfully supplied causing a big amount of confusion and disappointment for users.

Cloaking falls under the page-hiding spam category in search engine spamming techniques. Some cloaking behavior is considered acceptable. Cloaking is of two types – syntactic and semantic. Syntactic cloaking includes all situations in which different content is sent to a crawler and real user. Semantic cloaking is an offshoot of syntactic cloaking which employs differences in meaning between pages to deceive the ranking algorithms of search engines.

Syntactic cloaking may be acceptable in cases such as web servers using session identifiers within URLs for copies sent to browser and no such identifiers for copies sent to crawlers. This is in effect being used by web servers to differentiate their users. Search engines may interpret these identifiers as a change in the page. The cloaking behavior that needs to be penalized is the semantic cloaking.

There are various proposals on ways to counter the problem. One proposal suggests the comparison of copies from both the browser’s perspective and the crawler’s perspective. It may be necessary to get two or more copies from each side to be able to detect cloaking. Another suggests a two-step process that would require fewer resources. The first step implements a filter by use of heuristics to eliminate web pages that cannot demonstrate cloaking. All the pages that have not been eliminated will go through the second step for inspection. Features are extracted from about four copies and a classifier is used to determine whether semantic cloaking is being done or not. However, the reality remains that no ideal solution has been arrived at to effectively curb semantic cloaking. This is a technique that should not be practiced by anyone who wants to maintain good business ethics. The practice continues to undermine the search engine’s attempts to provide users with the actual information they need.

About the Author:
Danny Wirken
www.theinternetone.net
Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com

Anti Spam Software - How To Gain More By Installing It

Spam or unwanted / junk email is an attempt to force a message on recipients who often will choose not to receive it. It is flooding the Internet with commercial advertising on dubious products. Is anti spam software a solution to solve the problem?

Spam has become a worldwide problem and is expected to increase exponentially over the next few years, as regulations of spam through legislation have been mostly ineffective and slow. To put it in another way, we may say that the numbers of spamming methods have increased and improved over time and legislators have had a hard time to handle them. However, we can counteract this by installing an anti spam software in conjunction with an anti-virus software as well as internet security software into our computers. We can also learn how to fight against it at various anti-spam websites.

Anti spam software is a program that filters out spam email. It is an easy and powerful way to stop unwanted email. Most anti-spam software works at the network level, that is, protecting the user's inbox from spam before it even reaches the computer. The anti-spam software uses fuzzy logic and filtering to analyze each email as it arrives and warns the user if it is suspected to be junk mail.

Most anti-spam software also allows the user to preview the unwanted mail before deleting them. The user is able to deal with it effectively before the mail gets to the computer.

Some anti spam software can even be programmed to adapt to the user's personal preferences by learning the kind of email the user wants to receive. This intelligent software uses advanced learning filters to deliver an efficient approach in solving the problems of the user.

The unique up-to-date system of the anti-spam software ensures that the user is protected against the latest spam threats. This is a good way to stop mails with viruses or large unwanted attachments.

Most of the anti spam software is simple to install with easy to use steps so that the user do not have to waste too much time mastering it. It usually comes with a comprehensive guide, which normally includes some useful animated tutorial materials and frequently asked questions in the DVD software pack or the downloaded software. If you need further information before your purchase, check up the online help desk of the manufacturer.

The user is able to add the email addresses of business and, e-commerce associates as well as friends to a personalized list. Emails sent by them are always recognized when received. At the same time, the anti spam software uses another customizable list of blacklisted email senders to filter out their messages. As the unwanted email will be bounce back to the sender, he will think that the recipient's email address is not valid and this may reduce future spam. It also allows the user to restore accidentally deleted emails.

In addition, most of the anti spam software runs well on the various operative systems such as Windows 95, 2000, NT and XP and is able to work with many existing email programs including Netscape and Microsoft Outlook.

About the Author:
Article by Ske Chay of http://www.broadbandbusinesssolutions.com Providing some comprehensive information on Anti Spam Software at http://www.thesoftwarebank.com
Posted: 11-11-2006
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com

How To Determine The Origin Of Spam?

Spam will continue spreading as far as it makes profit. If nobody buys from spammers or acts upon their scams, spam will end. This is the obvious and easiest way to fight spam. You can ignore and delete spam emails you receive. But you can also take vengeance on the spammer by complaining to the spammer's Internet Service Provider (ISP). The ISP will block their connection and maybe impose a fine (depending on the ISP's acceptable usage policy). Spammers beware of such complaints and try to disguise their messages. That's why finding the right ISP is not always easy.

Let’s look inside a spam message. Every email message includes two parts, the body and the header. The body is the actual message text and attachments. The header is a kind of the envelope of the message. The header shows the address of the message sender, the address of the message recipient, the message subject and other information. Email programs usually display these header fields:

From: shows the sender's name and email address.
To: shows the recipient's name and email address.
Date: shows the date when the message was sent.
Subject: shows the message subject.

The From: field usually contains the sender's email address. This lets you know who sent the message and allows you easily reply. Spammers, of course, don’t want you to reply and don’t want you to know who they are. Therefore, they put forged email addresses into the From: lines of their emails. So the From: field won’t help you if you want to determine where the spam email comes from.

Tip! With G-Lock SpamCombat you can easily preview not only the message text but also all the fields of the message header . You can choose the preview format by yourself. You can view the message as HTML, decoded message, or message source.There are also several Received: fields in the header of every message. Email programs don’t usually display the Received: lines but the Received: lines can be very helpful in tracing the spam origin.

Just like a postal letter goes through a number of post offices before it’s delivered to the recipient, an email message is processed by several mail servers. Each mail server adds a line to the message header – a Received: line – which contains

- the server name and IP address of the machine the server received the message from and
- the name of the mail server itself.

Each Received: line is inserted at the top of the message header. If we want to reproduce the message’s path from sender to recipient, we start from the topmost Received: line and walk down until the last one, which is where the email originated.

Just like the From: field the Received: lines may contain forged information to fool those who would want to trace the spammer. Because every mail server inserts the Received: line at the top of the header, we start the analysis from the top.

The Received: lines forged by spammers usually look like normal Received: fields. We can hardly tell whether the Received: line is forged or not at first sight. We should analyze all the Received: lines chain to find out a forged Received: field.

As we mentioned above, every mail server registers not only its name but also the IP address of the machine it got the message from. We simply need to look what name a server puts and what the next server in the chain says. If the servers don’t match, the earlier Received: line is forged.

The origin of the email is what the server immediately after the forged Received: line says about where it received the message from.

Let's see how determining of the spam email origin works in real life. Here is the header of a spam message we’ve recently received:

**************************************************
Return-Path:
Delivered-To: press@mydomain.com
Received: from unknown (HELO 60.17.139.96) (221.200.13.158) by mail1.myserver.xx with
SMTP; 7 Nov 2006 10:54:16 -0000
Received: from 164.145.240.209 by 60.17.139.96; Tue, 07 Nov 2006 05:53:35 -0500
Date: Tue, 07 Nov 2006 12:48:35 +0200
From: Pharmacy

Reply-To: umceqhzjmndfy
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Message-ID:
To: press@mydomain.com
Subject: Cheap Med*s V!agra Many Med_s QnNXpRy9
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
**************************************************

At first, look at the forged From: field. The email address in the From: and Reply-To: lines doesn’t exist. So, the spammer took care about directing bounced messages and all the indignant replies people may send to a non-existing email account.

Secondly, the Subject: line. It contains the variations of the “Meds” and “Viagra” words that are known to be met in spam messages. Plus, the subject contains a range of random characters. It’s obvious that the subject line is skillfully tailored to fool anti-spam filters.

Lastly, let’s analyze the Received: lines. We start from the oldest one - Received: from 164.145.240.209 by 60.17.139.96; Tue, 07 Nov 2006 05:53:35 -0500. There are two IP addresses in it: 60.17.139.96 says it received the message from 164.145.240.209.

We check if the next (and last in this case) mail server in the chain confirms the state of the first Received: line. In the second Received: field we have: Received: from unknown (HELO 60.17.139.96) (221.200.13.158) by mail1.myserver.xx with SMTP; 7 Nov 2006 10:54:16 -0000.

mail1.myserver.xx is our server and we can trust it. It received the message from an "unknown" host, which says it has the IP address 60.17.139.96. Yes, this confirms what the previous Received: line says.

Now let’s find out where our mail server got the message from. For this purpose, we look at the IP address in brackets before the server name mail1.myserver.xx. It is 221.200.13.15. This is the IP address the connection was established from, and it is not 60.17.139.96. The spam message originates from 221.200.13.15. It’s important to note that it’s not necessarily that the spammer is sitting at the computer 221.200.13.15 and sending spam over the world. It may happen the computer’s owner doesn’t even suspect of being sending spam. The computer may be hijacked by a Trojan, which is spreading spam without the machine’s owner knowing it.

We hope this information will help you identify the spammer's ISP and report them about spam so they can take proper measures.

About the Author:
Julia Gulevich is a technical expert associated with development of computer software like AATools, Advanced Email Verifier, G-Lock EasyMail, Anti-Spam Software Blocker http://www.glocksoft.com/sc/ More information can be found at Anti Spam Filter Resources http://www.glocksoft.net/sc/
This article was posted on December 01, 2006
Article Source: articlecity

The Trouble With Spam Is....

Each day we all face the same challenge. Spam. It doesn't matter if you're a home computer user or the head of IT for a multinational limiting or totally preventing the distribution of junk email to your computer(s) is now a daily chore.

The sheer frustration that spam causes combined with the number of lost man hours adds up to junk email being a very real problem for all involved. You have to filter through all the junk to find your own personal or work email. This on its own is annoying enough. When you consider the security risks from spyware, trojans, diallers and attempted identity theft spam becomes much more than just an annoyance - it becomes a minefield for any computer user.

So what can you do to block spam? The first step each user should take is to simply limit the number of people who know your personal email address. If you have a work email address then just use it for work. For home users only distribute your email address to people you know and trust. This simple move can cut your spam problems by 50%.

But what about all those online forms I need to fill in? No problem. Use a free email service like Hotmail or Gmail for this purpose. Treat it as a throwaway account that you can use as a buffer between your true personal email address and the rest of the world. Let it fill up with junk email and then just login once a week and delete everything you see.

Your password. It's amazing how many people set the password for their email account to abc123 or something similar. These passwords are incredibly easy for spammers to guess and would give them easy access to your mail account. The password for your email account should follow corporate standards of being 6 - 8 characters long and be alphanumeric (a mixture of numbers and letters). Make it longer if you can. Using a weak password is just asking for trouble.

If you're already receiving a ton of spam then you'll need to invest in a spam blocker. There are free spam blockers you can download and also also their paid equivalents. A great spam blocker can cost you as little as $30 and you'll see an immediate reduction in the amount of spam you're receiving.

Over and above installing software on your computer (especially for Mac users as your choices are limited) you could sign up for one of the web based challenge response spam blockers like Mailblocks or SpamArrest. Both of these services are ideal for somebody who's on the move a lot. Also because they're web based there's no software to install so they're perfect for Mac or PocketPC/Palm users.

Taking a pro-active anti spam stance is the next step. If you get junk email from people then check the mail headers and report any offensive email to the hosting company or ISP involved. Never, ever reply to spam directly. This simply confirms to the spammer that your email address is active. Also never click on any hyperlinks in any junk email - this again confirms your existence and can lead to a virus being downloaded directly onto your PC. Filter the spam, report the abusers, delete the remaining junk email.

Spam can be stopped. Not by some corporate giant or genius programmer. It can be stopped by each of you individually. Spammers rely on the widespread availability of email addresses and for people to reply to these emails or click on the links within the emails. The sooner people stop reacting emotionally to spam and simply filter, report and delete the offensive mail itself the sooner the lucrative market of bulk email will dry up for the spammers.

About the author:
Niall Roche
This article was provided courtesy of Spam-site.com which reviews spam blocker software and other anti spam utilties.
Circulated by Article Emporium

Phishing For Your Identity

Phishing (pronounced as fishing) is defined as the act of sending an email to a recipient falsely claiming to have an established, legitimate business. The intent of the phisher is to scam the recipient into surrendering their private information, and ultimately steal your identity.

Who hasn't received an email directing them to visit a familiar website where they are being asked to update their personal information? The website needs you to verify or update your passwords, credit card numbers, social security number, or even your bank account number. You recognize the business name as one that you've conducted business with in the past. So, you click on the convenient take me there link and proceed to provide all the information they have requested.

Unfortunately, you find out much later that the website is bogus. It was created with the sole intent to steal your personal information. You, my friend, have just been phished.

Phishing (pronounced as fishing) is defined as the act of sending an email to a recipient falsely claiming to have an established, legitimate business. The intent of the phisher is to scam the recipient into surrendering their private information, and ultimately steal your identity.

It is not at easy as you think to spot an email phishing for information. At first glance, the email may look like it is from a legitimate company. The "From" field of the e-mail may have the .com address of the company mentioned in the e-mail. The clickable link even appears to take you to the company's website, when in fact, it is a fake website built to replicate the legitimate site.

Many of these people are professional criminals. They have spent a lot of time in creating emails that look authentic. Users need to review all emails requesting personal information carefully. When reviewing your email remember that the "From Field" can be easily changed by the sender. While it may look like it is coming from a .com you do business with, looks can be deceiving.

Also keep in mind that the phisher will go all out in trying to make their email look as legitimate as possible. They will even copy logos or images from the official site to use in their emails. Finally, they like to include a clickable link that the recipient can follow to conveniently update their information.

A great way to check the legitimacy of the link is to point at the link with your mouse. Then, look in the bottom left hand screen of your computer. The actual website address to which you are being directed will show up for you to view. It is a very quick and easy way to check if you are being directed to a legitimate site.

Finally, follow the golden rule. Never, ever, click the links within the text of the e-mail, and always delete the e-mail immediately. Once you have deleted the e-mail, empty the trash box in your e-mail accounts as well. If you are truly concerned that you are missing an important notice regarding one of your accounts, then type the full URL address of the website into your browser. At least then you can be confident that you are, in fact, being directed to the true and legitimate website.

About the Author:
Gaetane Ross has thoroughly researched the internet to locate the best High Income Business Opportunities that will enable you to start making money from your own home. http://4instant-online-business.com http://affiliates.4instant-online-business.com http://4instant-online-business.com/pips.html
Submitted on 2007-02-08
Article Source: http://www.articlesarea.com/

A Quick Look At Email Spam Filters

You must be eagerly finding for a way out to stop receiving Spam mails in your inbox. Take a quick look at email spam filters to get some idea on how to check spam. There are a number of email spam filters that you can use in your computer. For official purposes, you have anti server software spam where the spam filter is located in the server level to trap all email spam. They prevent them from reaching your inbox. The email spasm not only slows down the performance of the server, but also occupies a lot of storage space. Emails are the easiest and the best way for these viruses to spread.

Working of Spam Filters

Anti spam software and anti spam solutions are essential to aid you in getting a clean inbox. The server spam filter or anti spam server is a software application that scans all the incoming email messages. With the help of their configuration, they identify Spam and prevent them from reaching your inbox. The spam mails not only eats away the storage space and make selecting your personal emails difficult, they also can contain viruses. Using anti spam filters is necessary as it saves both your time and money. But even when you are using anti spam filters, it is recommended to check the messages just to make sure that no personal message has been marked as spam. Even the server spam filters marks email as “false positive” to those that are identified as spam, but in reality they are valid messages. There are various anti spam programs that identifies Spam and sends it to the junk mail folder.

Not all spam filters work in the same way. Some of them are pre programmed where the know spammers are inserted. They accordingly block them. Some of the programs filter the emails based on the keywords used in the mails. Some of the email spam filters are configured and you can easily customize it or the network administrator can also customize it according to the requirement of the company.

About the Author:
Oliver Turner
We have made a research to find the best acne treatments. Find it only on the best spam blockers source. All about spam blockers on LeanderNet - www.leandernet.com
Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com

What To Do When You Get Spam

When you go to your mailbox and find pieces of junk mail mixed in with important correspondence, you throw it out. It is a mild nuisance and you probably don't even give it a second thought. Unfortunately, most people do the same when spam arrives in their inbox. They just delete it.

While that does get rid of an individual email, more needs to be done to control what can become an overwhelming problem. Liken spam to cockroaches; see one in your cabinet and you know that you likely have an infestation that needs to be dealt with swiftly.

To begin with, do not respond to the spam - ever. There are usually two ways that spam recipients make this mistake. First is the opt-out clause that appears at the bottom of the email. It appears to be a legal statement giving you the right to remove yourself from this mailing list. Unless you legitimately authorized the company to send you mail, in which case this is not spam, do not follow this link. Most often this link is simply a way for the spammers to identify your email address as valid. Now they can sell your address to other spammers and thank you for making their work easier by continuing to send you the spam you didn't want in the first place.

The second manner in which this error occurs is when, out of total frustration, you reply to the sender with a firm statement of your disgust. This usually happens when the spam is pornographic material and despite your best efforts, keeps appearing in your inbox. Sometimes the reply will not work because the sender's email address is a fake one and it will just bounce back to you as undeliverable. Count yourself lucky because the alternative means that they now have a confirmation of your address.

Next, read the email header. The header contains the full path of computers through which the email passed to get to you. Most pieces of email pass through at least four computers - the spammer's, their ISP, your ISP, and finally yours. Since the stated from address is usually a fake one, this is the most reliable way to track down the spammer's ISP, at the very least.

Each computer that the spam travels through will add lines to the header stating who they are, who the mail came from, and where they are sending it. Headers can seem complicated, but in most cases you will be able to at least recognize other ISPs. If your mail is through Yahoo and you see "juno.com" in the mix, then you know that you can report the spam to Juno.

When reporting spam, you will need to cut and paste the full header path into the email to give the experts the opportunity to track down the offender. To read an email header, you typically just right click on the email and then choose properties, options, or header depending on which email program you are using.

Finally, forward the spam to a number of authorities. The first would be the spammer's ISP. If you cannot tell who that may be, send the spam to your ISP. Additionally, several websites are available to help you report spam, like spamcop.net.

Second, forward the spam to the Federal Trade Commission at uce@ftc.gov. While they will not take action on your behalf, they will add the spam to a database compiled on known UCE (unsolicited commercial email).

If the spam is a "419 Scam", or Nigerian Advance Fee Fraud, fax a copy of the email and its headers to the United States Secret Service. You will know this spam when you read it - an exiled African leader of some sort needs your help and bank account information. These scams have defrauded many and need to be taken seriously.

Now you may delete the spam.

About the Author:
Lewis Leake
Posted: 20-09-2005
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com

Spam Guard Your Business

Have you started or are you thinking in starting an easy home business?

Then be carefull because spam guard may harm your business!

I bet that you know that the bulk e-mail marketing technique it's widely used on Internet, it's free, it's easy and it's fast...

But on the long run it can cost you more than you will gain with it!

Many people identify bulk e-mail with spam. Spam used to be referred about posting or broadcasting ads to unrelated discussion groups, but now this term has grown meaning "any unsolicited e-mail" or "any e-mail sent to people that didn't ask for it". And the Internet Service Providers are taking steps in order to spam guard themselves, that can be very dangerous to your business if you decide to use bulk e-mail as your promotional tool.

If the people that receive your unsolicited e-mail, complaint to your ISP and or your virtual host service, you may end up loosing one or both of them. This means that your web site will be shut down, and you will lose your connection to the Internet.

Of course that you can get another ISP and virtual host server, but this will harm you in three ways:

* It will be a waist of time

* It will cost you money

* It will damage your reputation

So this free medium for online promotion, can be the source of too many problems, and the best that you can do, is to do not get involved with it.

But SPAM GUARDS can give you problems...

EVEN WHEN YOU DON'T WANT TO SPAM!

And this brings us to our next topic...

FREE SPAM GUARD CHECKING

Let's say that you're about to mail out your e-zine...

You can't have an idea of how many will actually REACH your subscribers and how many will get filtered, junked, trashed, or stomped by ISPs, HotMail, Yahoo! Mail, etc., along the way.

Why?

Simple answer... spam guard software.

You know how important e-mail is to YOUR business, right? What if I told you 10%, 20%, maybe 50% or more of it is not getting through?

Spam has reached epidemic levels. So much so that ISPs have been forced to combat it with filtering spam guard software.

Alas, many legitimate marketers are getting caught up and hurt, even though they are not the target.

Now, instead of JUST hoping for the best...

With our spam guard checking feature, you can know exactly what to do to reduce the "spamminess" of your e-zines and promotional e-mail!

As a result, you will know that your e-mail and newsletters are being delivered directly into INBOXES of your clients and affiliates...

... and NOT sent by spam guard software into the Junk Mail Folder.

It's no longer just enough to send the mail...

You must be sure that you can reach the INBOX!

What should you do to protect your honest business from being recognized as spam by spam guard software when it is not?

Send your marketing letters and e-zine issues to my special autoresponder, and you will get a Spam Guard Check Report.

Even if you don't have an ezine or newsletter you should check your e-mail signature file!

Why?

Simple answer... the average marketing sig file can contain enough "spam triggers" to throw you into Yahoo! Mail's Junk Mail folder.

STEPS TO SPAM CHECKING YOUR MARKETING TOOLS

USE THE SPAMCHECK TEST

Send an e-mail to spamcheck-RB@sitesell.net with the word TEST (in caps, no quotes) preceding your subject in the Subject line.

I repeat, because it's important...

* Start the subject line with... TEST .... or the spam guard software will assume it's spam, and follow up with your usual e-mail or ezine's Subject

i.e. if your Subject is:

"The best home business"

you should write:

TEST "The best home business"

* On the body of the e-mail put your ezine's issue content or your marketing e-mail's content

* Send it to: spamcheck-RB@sitesell.net

And that's it, that's all there is to it!...

You will receive an Instant free spam guard checking, and a free Report telling you the results. :-)

Written by Dr. Roberto A. Bonomi

About the Author:
Dr. Roberto Bonomi is a successful e-book writer that shares his home business ideas at: http://www.easy-home-business.com. And you can post free your own articles, or find free articles for your web site or ezine at http://articles.drbonomi.com.
This article was posted on September 05, 2006
Article Source: articlecity

Do Your Autoresponders Drive Your Customers Crazy?

Writing chained auto-responder messages to sell a product is a good idea in principle, but in practice it can LOSE you clients just as well if you don't get right.

A chained auto-responder is a sequence of emails that gets delivered automatically when someone subscribes to this autoresponder.

It is used in marketing to deliver mini-advertisements, teaser courses, demo extracts, testimonials or stepped sales letters, and all of this is designed to get the client eventually to click on the "buy me now" link for the main product that is being promoted.

There are three main problems with chained auto-responders. Avoid these, TEST your linked auto-responders before you inflict them on the general public, and you should see significant increases in your sales.

Problem No. 1 - No Content Beyond Selling

This is THE most VIOLENTLY annoying class of chained autoresponders - message after message from the same place, trying to sell you something, in so many different words. YUCK!

What marketers who don't THINK seem to forget is that folk who own and manage PCs and email aren't that stupid.

They can read and write, you know, and they are not IDIOTS.

After two or three repeats, they will immediately delete such messages from their inbox and probably put a spam block on the sender domain for good measure.

That's not what the marketeer had in mind, I should wager ...

Problem No. 2 - Too Little Content

I remember one "mini course" which contained nothing but teasers and virtually no useful information whatsoever.

Once again, look, marketeers!

If you want people to "try" the product, you need to give them at least a little taste of it.

Don't hold the glass with the sample wine under their nose, and when they reach out, oops, that'll be $875 dollars please ... but we do have a "money back" guarantee ...

This is just ANNOYING, it's even dishonourable and an angry person does not make a good customer.

Problem No. 3 - Too Much, Way Too Much ...

I subscribed to another auto-responder teaser mini course just a few days ago, and here, the folks in charge had done a 180' U-turn on the two points above, most likely because they got it that those content less/content poor efforts don't work to sell more of their product.

In their desire to have it be known how marvellously content packed the main item was, they created this huge long document, of at least 20, 25 paragraphs for the first instalment of their chained auto-responder.

Gee.

Now I don't know about the rest of the planet, but I'm actually quite a busy person and I get STACKS of emails every day.

I try and cut down the time I spent on dealing with email because it does get out of hand, and on this occasion I was into something else anyway.

I took just *one look* at the plethora of writing and went, "Oh god, I don't have time for that right now ..." and left it.

Have you ever left a non-priority email for later ...?

Yeah, you know what I mean.

But then, the very next day, the 2nd instalment arrived. I opened it and damn me, there's another REAM of goodness knows what, but now I've missed the boat because this is No. 2 and I haven't read No. 1 yet!

I hastily closed it, feeling guilty and moved on.

But then, No. 3 arrived - another book length instalment. I just couldn't handle it anymore.

I deleted the lot.

Now that's a terrible shame because there may have been valuable information I never got, and the guys who wrote this spend AGES doing it.

So, here are my suggestion for chained auto-responders copy.

1. Head it with, "Busy? Save me! I contain important information!" or words to that effect.

2. Keep it SHORT. Pick out ONE USEFUL thing and just - tell me THAT. So I can glance at it and say, "Hey, that's useful! Cool! Thanks, guys!" When I mean short, I mean anything above three paragraphs is way, way too long for an autoresponder email in this day and age.

3. Keep it TOTALLY FOCUSSED on the product you are selling. I'm on autoresponders where you wouldn't begin to guess for all the waffle, testimonials, side tracks and "personal messages" what I'm supposed to be BUYING at the end of the day!

4. Give people a chance to keep up. Space your messages three days, don't inundate us. Or better still, test this for yourself. One hell of a lot of "internet marketing wisdom" is completely out of date now because it was researched back in the days when we got four emails a week, and not fourteen thousand each. Time has moved on and requires NEW thinking, and different strategies.

My last tip on chained autoresponders is as follows.

Subscribe yourself to OTHER PEOPLE'S efforts.

Don't look at them as a marketeer would, but as though you were a human being in front of their computer, if you know what I mean by that.

You can learn what pleases and what works, and what doesn't.

Mark out to yourself what you like and use this in your own efforts, and avoid what really turns you off.

Lastly, keep working at your chained autoresponder copy until you have something that really works, and really brings in lots more sales.

They are a great resource - if handle them right.

About the author:
Silvia Hartmann is the author of MindMillion and you can get a FREE course, delivered by autoresponder (!), the 60 Second Wealth Creator, at http://mindmillion.com/60/
Circulated by Article Emporium

Mail Server Blacklists and Spam

A white-list is a list of email senders whom you trust and would like to receive mail from. Conversely, a blacklist contains those that are not to be trusted. Blacklists need to be configured and administered on a server, at the ISP (Internet Service Provider) level or on your network. If you do not have such access, and most people do not, you can use the blacklists by choosing email services from companies that use such blacklisting techniques.

A mail server is designated as having an open relay when mail is processed in a location that is not local to either the sender or receiver. The mail server is unrelated to either party, and as such, has no business processing that email. Think of driving from your home in Washington, DC to your friend's home in Boston. If you pass through New York City on the way, that is to be expected. However, if you stop in Dallas, the route becomes suspect. An open relay mail server, whether intentional or not, is allowing mail to be routed through it that shouldn't be. In this way, spammers distribute large volumes of junk email in order to disguise their actions. Open relays used to be very common, like public mailboxes. You can drop a letter into any one without any notice of who you are. Spammers ruined this by using open relays to surreptitiously send spam without identifying themselves. When blocked by the administrator or ISP, they simply move on. They regularly scan IP addresses looking for open relay servers. When they find one, they exploit it.

Blacklists contain a database of open relay mail servers and those known to be a source of spam, and are used to filter email coming from those machines. The sender will receive a bounce message or mailer deamon telling them that their email is undeliverable. Often, the sender does not realize that they are on a blacklist or that their server is an open relay. They find out only when they attempt to send mail to someone who is uses a blacklist to filter for spam. If the sender is a spammer, the process is working. If the sender is you, the process is also working because it will force you to take steps to close that open relay or complain to the company who is handling your mail. By closing the holes in the email relay network, the spammers will be forced to stop sourcing their spam in this way. This is but one way to slow down, not stop, the spammers.

Blacklists have a very high probability of false-positives if used in blind faith. Depending on those that maintain the blacklist, email sent in good faith could land innocent people and mail servers on a blacklist. This usually happens to one of two ways. The first is through the procedure most blacklist providers use to find open relays. They simply do what the spammers do and scan IP address to look for a server that will allow them to connect and send mail. Once the program finds an open relay they add the server to the blacklist. The system administrator of the server is usually never notified. There can be mistakes made in this process leaving the administrator with a huge problem when mail starts getting lost or bounced back. Second, you may receive an IP from your provider that was previously blacklisted, even though it may no longer be an open relay. To avoid this, check the IP address against the known blacklists and ask your provider for a new one if it indeed appears.

Do you know whether your ISP maintains an open relay? If you discovered that your employee was doing work for someone else while on your time, you would certainly put a stop to it. Open relay mail servers are doing exactly that and need to be confronted. A mail server should be configured to only relay messages from authenticated users on the network. If properly protected, the server will simply tell the sender that they do not work for outsiders and bounce the message back. More and more, administrators of servers are blocking the open relay. This has been instumental in slowing down spam.

About the Author:
Keith Londrie II is a successful Webmaster and publisher of spam-resources.info A website that specializes in providing tips to help eliminate and avoid spam. Getting rid of spam that you can research on the internet in your pajamas from the comfort of your own home. Visit how to combat spam Today!
Submitted on 2006-09-15
Article Source: http://www.articlesarea.com/