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.
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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/

Free Anti Spamming

Do you feel alone when it comes to battling cyber spam? If so, then you might want to try free anti spam software and programs. That’s right now you can start eliminating irritating spam with one- of- a- kind tools such as these. These will prove perfect in solving your cyber problems in absolutely no time. What’s more, this will help you rejuvenate your currently lagging cyber experiences without having to shell out as much as a penny.

The only risk when it comes to free anti spam programs and software will be the trickery involved behind these things. Since they are obtained for free, it’s always hard to track responsibility once the free anti spam software or antispam programs you obtained fizzles and backfires on your computer. However, there are worse scenarios than this. These scenarios are more than what you have bargained for. This is the very reason why you must read on all these at once!

First, a free anti spam software or anti spam program might just be a virus in disguise. Most virus agents know how much of suckers people are when it comes to freebies. As such, they embellish these viruses as anti spam programs or software, which can be yours for free. A user can only find out too soon that he or she has been had when the virus takes effect on the computer. Cleverly enough, the free anti spam provider will sell updates o the distressed user. Unethical as it is, it works.

Secondly, free software may come with over the top updating needs. Although the free anti spam software or antispam program may be legitimate, a user must always be keen on the updating clauses. Most free software come with charged updates. This makes up for the free program. However, you will soon find out that the amount you could have spent on buying an anti spam program or software with free updates, could have been less. This is in comparison with the amount you spend on your free one’s paid updates.

Thirdly, free software never helps anyone take legal action against such cyber assaults. Since it’s free, no one is deemed liable for the damage such disguised viruses inflict on anyone’s computer system. You will be lost in the dark when you discover the harmful effects such software has on your computer system.

Last, most of the free software are just trial versions. You can use them for too long and then they expire. What’s worse is the reliance level they sometimes build inside your computer. Some cleverly unethical free software providers actually trigger spam if you do not buy their product right away. Now this is something you would want to avoid all the time.

These are the very reasons why everyone must be clever enough when it comes to distinguishing whether certain freebies are worth taking or not. When it comes to battling spam, it is sometimes better to be alone and sure, than to go with the free and experience and awful lot of uncertainty.

About the Author:
Judge Paul
Want to know more about Free Anti Spamming
Article Submitted On: October 10, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Top 7 Ways to STOP Junk Email

Nothing makes me angrier than opening my email in-box to find over 150 messages, wading through them all, and discovering that 135 of the messages rate as nothing more than junk.

The problem with junk email or "spam" (the popular slang for unsolicited commercial email) only seems to get worse with each passing day.

Luckily, we can fight back in ways that will actually cut down significantly on the amount of spam we receive on a daily basis.

Try these tips and see if they can't cut the spam you receive down by at least half.

** Don't Respond

Much of the spam you receive contains an "unsubscribe" link saying something like "To unsubscribe, click here." Do NOT click that link.

Clicking it lets spammers know they've got a live email address!

** Use Mailwahser

Get a program like "Mailwasher" from Mailwasher.net that allows you to view the email you receive before you download it.

The program makes it simple to delete dozens of emails, including viruses, before they reach your computer.

** Use Your Filters

Your email program most likely contains filters you can use to weed out emails containing the usual spam words like "opportunity, $$$, sex, viagra" and a host of others.

You can set the filters to delete messages containing these words before ever downloading them to your computer.

** Use An "Assassin"

Spam "killer" services offer users high-powered filtering, often requiring a sender to prove their identity before an email gets sent to the recipient.

One such service, SpamArrest.com, forces email senders to go to a website and type in a random word before their email gets delivered. This service has gained a lot of popularity lately and seems reasonably effective.

** Use a Temporary Email

Maintain a public and private email address and never give your private email to anyone other than family and friends.

Go sign up for a free email account with Hotmail.com or mail.yahoo.com to use whenever you subscribe to a newsletter or request a free report. That way, if the spam ever gets too bad, you can simply abandon the free account and open another.

Your private email address should remain safe because nobody will know it except the people you trust.

** Never Post Your Email

Never post your private email address in forums, guest books, news groups or on a website. Spammers use little robots that comb the Internet looking for email addresses they can collect and sell to others.

Always use a free account or set it up so you can shut off the exposed email address once the spam gets too bad.

** Abandon Ship

Shut down your current account and just start over! This may seem a drastic move, but it may represent the best course of action if your sanity or your email box can't handle another offer for sexual enhancements, a great business opportunity, or a free cruise.

Notify everyone you want to know your new email address and get on with life.

(c) Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

About the author:
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use free articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links...
Simple "Traffic Machine" brings Thousands of NEW visitors to your website for weeks, even months... without spending a dime on advertising! ==> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com
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Keep Your Work From Home Newsletter From Being A Spam Filter Casualty

It’s hard to get your email through to clients, friends and family with all the Spam Filtering going on these days. If you are a Home Based Business owner that sends out a newsletter regularly you’ll want to keep the following tips in mind to make certain your Work At Home Newsletter is getting through all the Spam Filters.

Spam is defiantly a problem. At one time I was receiving almost 300 per day, spending a good part an hour sifting through the mass of junk was more than I could tolerate. So I too enlisted the help of a Spam Filter – Spam Arrest.

I do worry about losing out on emails that are important and interesting, but this is the price we all have to pay for those Spammers that have abused and are abusing the Internet.

Most Spam Filters use a Blacklist – these are clusters of email addresses and domain names that are known for sending out a lot of Spam. Recipients of Spam generate most Blacklists’. So your newsletter could fall victim to a click happy Spam identifier that clicks your email into the dreaded Blacklist vault.

Spam Assassin, Cloudmark’s SpamNet and Spam Arrest all use different methods of blocking spam. Spam Assassin uses a point system to conclude whether or not an email is Spam. If your Newsletter scores high it will surely be treated as spam and blocked. SpamNet blocks Spam two ways; the first, filters email based on keywords like “Free”, and the second allows users to mark email and submit identified Spam to be blocked to other users of SpamNet.

My personal favorite is Spam Arrest, because it offers you total control over your inbox. You can decide who is allowed to send you email by importing your personal address book, or entering your known and approved contact addresses directly into the system.

Emails from unknown senders will receive an auto-reply message containing a "challenge" -- if or when the sender completes the challenge (the response), their email is forwarded to your inbox, and they are then added to your authorized sender list.

The challenge is easy for people, but impossible for automated systems (i.e. spambots) to complete.

The Spam Arrest challenge/response system effectively blocks all the spam while still allowing friends, family and trusted contacts to email you without the risk of being filtered out by imprecise software systems.

So How Do You Keep Your Newsletter From Being Blocked?

Here are some tips to help your Newsletter reach your subscribers:

DO NOT send your newsletter unsolicited. Be sure your customers have requested to be on your subscriber distribution list – using an auto responder, like Aweber, that requires your subscribers to opt-in and confirm that then have requested your Newsletter will help keep you off the blacklists.

Use your Newsletter’s name in the subject line. Your subscribers should recognize your Newsletters name. Using subject lines that are full of hype and so called trigger words may get your Newsletter blocked by the Spam filters.

NEVER TYPE IN ALL CAPS. This will surely get the Spam filter red flags raised and your email forwarded to the dreaded blacklists.

Words like “Free”, “Limited Offer”, “Money” even “home business” will engage most Spam filters.

The simplest words like “remove” should be avoided as well. Use “unsubscribe” in your directions to subscribers that want to stop receiving your Newsletter.

Spammers most often use free email addresses – so you should avoid using them at all costs. Send your Newsletter from a reputable domain name – one that matches your own website would be best.

Never send attachments with your Newsletter. Attachments put a fear in most email recipients and will tag your email as Spam.

Your Newsletter will most likely have words within the text that trigger Spam filters – these words like “Free” and “Home Business” can be easily disguised by adding a period or hyphen between two letters – do not over do it though. It will not be long before this tactic will be a trigger for the top Spam filters, so keep up with all aspects of the best Spam filters so your Newsletter will reach your subscribers.

Copyright 2005 – Tim Somers, 3G Enterprises, LLC

About the Author:
Tim Somers "The Home Biz Honcho". Changing Your Life, Helping You Make Money While You Work From Home. Get Tim’s Top Ten Home Biz Opportunities – Free Report at: http://www.Home-Based-Business-Opportunity-Honcho.com If you are ready to start building a Residual Income – Tim will build you your very own Money Generating Website for FREE! http://www.Free-Make-Money-Site.com
Article Source: www.iSnare.com

What Spam Blocker is Best For You?

With the number of spam filtering solutions increasing each week it's getting tougher for consumers to make informed choices in their purchases.

There are 3 basic types of spam blocker:

1. Integrated
2. Standalone
3. Online

We'll look at each type of spam filter and at the end you should be able to decide what spam filter is right for you.

Integrated spam filters
This type of spam filtering software is the most common. Once installed it sits "on top" of your existing email software and installs a new set of buttons into your email software. In future when you collect email you'll see options for marking email as Spam, marking the email as Not Spam, Bounce the email back to sender, etc. The description and position of these buttons varies from one product to the next but their purpose remains the same.

Most integrated spam filters automatically place suspected junk email into a separate folder on your PC for you to review or delete later on.

The newer integrated spam filters are also "intelligent". They can basically learn the difference between what is spam and what is not and delete the junk email you don't want.

The most popular integrated spam filters are:

iHate Spam
Spambully
Spam Inspector

Integrated spam filters are most popular amongst people who want a one click solution to collecting their personal email and filtering junk email at the same
time.

Advantages:
One click solution.

Disadvantages:
Software specific. Some work with Outlook and Outlook Express only.


Standalone spam filters
These are less common than their integarted counterparts but that doesn't make them any less useful. A standalone spam filter is basically a separate piece of software installed on your PC that you use to check your email for spam.

Standalone filters have the big advantage of being able to preview your email on the mail server before it's downloaded to your PC. This one single feature has the huge benefit of allowing you to just download the email that you want as opposed to downloading all of your email, including the spam, and then sorting through it.

Using a standalone spam filter is a little more work simply because it's a separate piece of software that you have to run before you open up your email software. Most standalone filters do allow you to configure them so that your standard email application is opened once you've chosen what spam to filter. This suits some people and not others.

The most popular standalone spam filter is:
Mailwasher Pro

Advantages:
Doesn't rely on specific email applications to work properly.

Disadvantages:
Two step process. Load standalone filter and then your email application.

Online spam filters
There are really two types of online spam filters. One is for business use and one is for home use. A typical example of a business type product is iHate Spam server edition where the software deletes junk email directly from the mail server before the end user even sees it. Large companies employ this type of technology.

Home users will be using Spam Arrest or similar. Spam Arrest offers an inventive solution to spam whereby any email sent to the users account has a challenge request sent back to it which the sender must authenticate. The automatic junk email software used by spammers can't currently deal with this type of response.
Any failure to authenticate the challenge email results in the junk email being left to die in cyberspace. A user is authenticated with Spam Arrest only once for security just to make sure the software doesn't become a nuisance.

The most popular online spam filter is:
Spam Arrest

Advantages:
Users are guaranteed to only receive the email that they want or requested.

Disadvantages:
Any techncial problems with the Spam Arrest server and you have no defense against spam.

Now you've seen what spam filtering options are available to you just ask yourself which one suits you most. If you're still not sure drop by www.spam-site.com and check out our product reviews - we have something for everyone.

About the author:
Niall Roche
This article was provided courtesy of Spam-Site.com which reviews and tests spam blockers for the business and end user.
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Does Your Website Host Fight Spam?

Virtually anyone with an email address knows what Spam is, and has, perhaps, considered giving up the speed, convenience, and simplicity of email because of it. Those who have their own websites are more vulnerable than the average person with a single work or home email address from their company or Internet Service Provider. Email addresses visible on a website can quickly become Spam magnets, as automated programs, similar in form to search engine spiders, roam the web, looking for addresses to which new broadsides of Spam may be fired. Website hosting companies generally provide their clients email accounts for use with their domain, but are you with a host that provides those email accounts with Spam and virus protection?

Local Blacklist Filters
Webmasters shouldn't need to seek out local filters for their site's contact email addresses. There are a variety of server level solutions a hosting company can offer to protect their users from unwanted emails. A most basic step is provision of a very rudimentary "blacklist" functionality to their users, allowing them to prevent future Spam emails from arriving from the same address. This type of filter is virtually worthless in today's Spam environment, though, as it is quite rare to see unsophisticated email arriving from the same address multiple times. Spammers have grown far more sophisticated than that. Blacklisting functionality is only really useful in avoiding email from other real people you don't particularly wish to hear from anymore.

Keywords and Regular Expressions
More advanced server level Spam filters are available. A small advance is accomplished using keyword filters. Keyword filters merely check for instances of a certain string of characters and deny the message if that string if found. The core problem with keyword-only filters is they can "over filter". Someone who puts "sex" on their keyword filter will find receiving local news and event announcements difficult if they live in a town named "Essex". Some filters attempt to address this deficiency by using "regular expressions" in order to build a sophisticated rule set to prevent Spam from reaching your inbox. Briefly, regular expressions are syntax rules used to identify certain strings of text or numbers. These rules can be set up to identify text patterns that are commonly used in Spam. They can become quite complex, but, as with most any filtering method, are not 100% bullet proof. Some filters that use regular expressions come with a basic set that can be appended by the user. Obviously this kind of feature is of little use to someone not familiar with regular expressions.

Bayesian Filters
Currently the most sophisticated filtering methods use Bayesian inferences. Bayesian filters take a large data set and determine the probability a message is Spam based on its similarity to previous Spam messages. The more emails that are processed and flagged theoretically make the filter more accurate. Services that provide filtering on an ISP or host level, like Postini's "SpamAway", filter billions of emails and provide the highest level of success and fewest "false positives". SpamAway is already highly intelligent about identifying Spam and doesn't require any "learning" commands or examples be provided. The online, browser based interface keeps flagged messages in an easily accessible "quarantine" and allows the user to check for any false positives. White list functionality is provided to aide in the prevention of future false positives. A hosting company offering such an advanced service takes Spam and virus filtering for their customers seriously.

About the Author:
Eric Lester
Mr. Lester has served for 4 years as the webmaster for ApolloHosting.com and previously worked in the IT industry an additional 5 years, acquiring knowledge of hosting, design, and search engine optimization. Apollo Hosting provides website hosting, ecommerce hosting, vps hosting, and web design services to a wide range of customers. Established in 1999, Apollo prides itself on the highest levels of customer support. Click for more hosting articles.
Article Source: www.iSnare.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

How To Choose Anti-Spam Filter?

The damage spam brings you is huge: loss of time, bandwidth and money, risk to delete a legitimate message together with junk emails. So, an anti-spam filter is not a whim but a necessity for almost all PC users who actively use email.

What criteria should you follow to choose the right spam filtering program? What capabilities must an anti-spam tool have to filter and cut off spam mail in most effective way?

Here are the main features a good anti-spam software must have to block spam effectively:

1) it should be a standalone spam filtering tool, which checks all incoming emails on the server, detects and deletes spam messages.

2) deletion of spam without receiving it in your inbox. This way you won't download all the superfluous kilobytes into your inbox and you won't see annoying spam mail.

3) powerful antispam filters built in one program that analyze the message from "outside" and "inside": message header, message body, and message source. Flexible whitelist and blacklist easy to edit and update are also very useful as they help save much time when filtering emails. Good anti-spam software must also have the Bayesian filter in its arsenal of spam filtering tools.

4) easy and safe method to preview emails marked as spam. Inherent in antispam technology is the fact that there will be false positives and false negatives, i.e., email can be flagged as spam even though it is not actually spam and vice versa.

5) flexible spam filtering. Spam emails should be moved to a separate folder. A good spam filtering software should provide the ability to recover an email if it was accidentally marked as spam and trashed.

Simply put, an anti-spam program must be a standalone, easy-to-use software supplied with powerful anti-spam filters able to be adjusted by every user for his personal needs. Now with all that said above you can choose the right anti-spam software among all spam filtering programs available on the Internet.

About The Author:
Julia Gulevich
Author is a technical expert associated with development of computer software like Anti-Spam Software. More information can be found at Anti Spam Filter Resources
Submitted: 2006-10-19
Article Source: GoArticles

Get Rid Of Spam

Every day, both dmoestic and corporate users of the internet receive considerable amounts of spam e-mail. They are not only annoying, but sometimes you can miss an important e-mail or newsletter simply because you lose it among the great number of e-mails that flood out your Inbox. Often you'll find that important people neglect to read your e-mail, because busy people like them hardly have the time and patience to browse through the huge quantities of spam mail they receive.

One solution to this problem is a filter or a free spam blocker. Many companies have designed filters for their customers. Many e-mail servers, especially the renowned ones that have a reputation to protect, have their own free spam blocker. There are several types of programs that can help you stop spam, including:

- the ones that are offered when you create a new e-mail address. Every company that provides e-mail service has a spam filter, including those that offer free accounts like Hotmail, Yahoo!, Gmail and so forth.

- there are also standalone programs that go through your mail folders regularly and do their best to separate valid e-mail from spam and unwanted mail. The main disadvantage with these free spam blockers is the fact that, when they do their checks, they use quite a large percentage of your computer's resources and sometimes also of your bandwidth. Before installing this kind of free spam blocker, you'll need to decide if this is okay with you.

- other types of free spam blockers are the ones that work as plug-ins to other programs like e-mail clients. The disadvantage with this kind of approach is that you need to download all your mail anyway, before the plug-in can do its stuff.

When you decide to use a filter, you must be sure that you update it or install new versions regularly, because marketing researchers working for spammres are continuously developing new ways of 'fooling' the filters. Filter makers must keep up by improving their software accordingly.

A free spam blocker works by looking for trigger words or phrases inside the text of the e-mails, and categorizing e-mails on that basis. Nowadays, there are special programs being created that are designed to pass spam through free spam blockers by re-arranging words or using a different language style in the e-mails. This is an unfair marketing strategy, of course, but if you want to be protected against it, you must always have an up-to-date version of your free spam blocker program.

Specialists recommend that you should review your needs and see what kind of filter suits you best. Each approach has its advantages and disadvantages. You must make up your mind whether you want to use the default filter on the e-mail server, or if you want to download all your mail before scanning them, or if you are willing to share your bandwidth with a standalone application. The best way is of course, if you can blend all the programs in one, but that's not always practicable. Still, it is advisable that you should not remain satisfied with the free spam blocker that your e-mail server provides, because you will probably continue to receive unwanted mail in spite of it. Using a plugin in addition to server-side filters is viewed by many experts as the most effective way of getting rid of spam, considering the trivial effort it takes to set up.

About the Author:
Matt Garrett www.Free-Spam-Blockers.Com www.Spam-Filters.net
Content Provider: http://www.my-articles.com

Save Time, Money and Hassle - Stop Spam

Spam can be an absolute nightmare, and one that seems to spiral out of control in some of my email accounts. If i've been away for a few days and haven't had a chance to check my emails, I dread having to open up my email client when I get back online in anticipation of hundreds or thousands of spam emails.

Although I simply delete these emails, for some, they seem legitimate messages that can often cause the recipient to become the subject of a fraudulent activity. An example of this that many people may have experienced are the emails that claim that you have won the lottery in some country that you probably haven't even visited, or emails that ask for you to help claim a substantial amount of money for someone who claims to be entitled to millions of dollars from a lost relative. These types of emails are laughable but for a lesser experienced internet user, they pose a great threat.

This was when I decided to use a spam blocker to prevent the hassle and time wasted deleting spam emails.

Spam has been around since the medium of email became popular. Even though there have been several laws passed that are trying to limit the amount of spamming activity, it still exists. A good way to stop the annoyance and the time wasted deleting spam emails is by using a spam blocker. They can also save you a lot of money in the scenario where you are unfortunate enough to receive a virus from a spam email. This has happened to me before, and I can honestly say I will now do everything possible to stop it from happening again because of the hassle and time it took to get my pc back to the way it was. In fact this took several weeks and numerous times formatting my hardware, which despite my best efforts resulted in quite a few programs and software being lost.

But why do people fall victim to spam emails? The truth is that the spammer is becoming cleverer in the way that they set up the scams. It was not so long ago that I received an email which was apparently from Paypal. The email was pretty well written and even the links seemed to point to the Paypal site. I felt it was not genuine though as it asked me to click a link to visit the "Paypal" site, whereas I had read some time ago never to click a link in an email to visit the site, but to type the address directly into your internet browser so that you can rest assured that the site is genuine. It is a distinct possibility that many internet users will have fallen for these types of emails.

Do not become a victim of the consequence of spam emails. A spam blocker is a simple solution that will prevent the emails from ever reaching your inbox. They can save you time, money, hassle, and any potential problems that spam emails possess.

About The Author:
Justin Brown
It is highly recommended that you visit www.spam-blocker-online.com to read up on how a spam blocker is essential online.
Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com

Ways Of Deceiving Spam Filters

Spam filters or spam blockers or spam eliminators have one purpose and that is to block, ban, delete unwanted, unsolicited commercial email and prevent them from entering your inbox. Their intentions are good since email is intended for personal communication but often abused by internet marketers and opt-in newsletters. However, spam filters are misunderstood little tool for they are merely software that aids and not to demand from it's owner or never to dictate it's owner what is spam or not. Our fault is laziness in way that we have all delegated the task of choosing what and what not to read in our inbox to a software.

Spam filters work in various ways but one common principle is that they isolate spam from not by means of patterns or words or keywords found on your email messages. They do this very fast often lightning speed and we can say that they've already "read" our email messages first before we have ever read it. Some will go into extent that it actually scans the email message and reads it for some spam are mascarading as a personal email but are not. They're real intention is ot sell you out.

So this little so-called "intelligent software" will do their "thing" and put messages straight to your spam box/folder or even worst delete it before you can even set your eyes on it. One colleague of mine decided not to receive email from me because my email end up on the spam folder. How cruel? A friendship destroyed just because people prevented their brain to think and sided with the spam filter. Spam filters can't give you freebies because it hates the word.

A person or programmer feeds it's words like: free, money, cash, opportunity, friend, $, investment, and many more to be filtered or scored out. A certain score was assigned to a word mentioned above and the more the word are mentioned in an email message the more your email message is considered as a spam. So the highest scorer get straight to the trash.

No person or software can tell me what is spam or not for I have not prevented by the use of my brain. Remember the saying "Another man's trash is another man's treasure.", so it is with spam. "Another man's spam is another man's opportunity.

So how can you deceive this spam filters and get your message across to your intended recipient.

1. Limit or if possible don't use the words: "free, money, cash, opportunity, for a more listing of these scored out words, try sending a message to yourself using either yahoo or hotmail account once it get straight to the trash, chances are you have the banned word.

2. Speak in a foreign language, perhaps, your own native language will do. Majority of spam filters are programmed in English but watch out there are already multi-lingual spam filters out there.

3. Work on your wordings, make it short. Send a test email to your yahoo or hotmail account, if it gets to the inbox, then you can send that email, if not try rewording your message. try my spam tester here: http://www.nabaza.com/safelist.htm or here http://www.nabaza.com/autoresponders.htm

4. Insert symbol or extra letter in the filtered word, for example instead of saying "free" say it like: "freee", "f.r.e.e.", "F*r*e*e*". I think you get the point. Your message will appear coded bringing us back to the military age of the internet where only the militaries can use the internet.

5. Don't send an email at all, that way it won't be filtered. Try fax machines. Use forum, blogs, rss, i.m. (instant messenger) or desktop alerts.

6. Use randomly generated words so you're recipient will think you're crazy and so he/she will move your message to his/her trash.

7. Use a website and post your message there. Email the recipient just the url or web address and let him/her click on it, chances are he/she won't click thinking that the web address is a virus or a trojan.

8. Abbreviate your words like those sent on SMS (short messaging system) or in telegrams or just like in morse codes.

9. Turn your messages into a graphic either a .jpg or .gif will do. Write in a piece of paper and scan it or use a graphic editing software and write your entire message there and save it as .jpg or .gif and send it in an email as file attachments.

Ok, I'll stop there before I become a laughing stock. Now for a very effective way of communication, use desktop alerts, what are desktop alerts? Know them and download 1 or two of them here: http://www.Nabaza.biz

About the Author:
William Nabaza of www.Nabaza.com specializes in domains, webhosting, webmaster's tools, netpreneur's articles and resources. Stands out as a freebie provider, business opportunity provider and the like. Visit his site at www.nabaza.com or contact him directly at william@nabaza.com www.nabaza.com/resources.htm
Content Provider: http://www.my-articles.com

Free Spam Blockers Vs Paid Ones

Free spam blockers Vs, Paid ones are a topic that lurks at the back of your mind before opting for one. You may face the need of protecting your computer from the damages that spam can do to your computer. They not only occupy storage and memory space of the computer, but also spread viruses that can crash the whole system. It is best to avail the trial period to judge the type of spam blocker that suits your need.

Free spam blockers Vs, Paid ones

It is becoming impossible to stop email spam for both internet users and online business owners. Spam not only eats away the storage and memory space of the computer, but also poses various other problems. They can force your ISP to disconnect your internet connection. The virus in the spam can slower down your machine and cause the whole system to crash. It can not only steal all your confidential information, but also delete completely from the computer all the files and documents that you have stored. Thus, the spam blockers play a very important role in protecting your computer from any such damages.

A Free Trial before Purchasing

You can either buy a spam blocker or freely download it. Even though both are designed to perform the same function, yet there are some unique features and guarantee period that distinguishes a paid spam blocker from a free one. Be it paid or free, these anti spam software make use of anti spam programs to track spam. They are beneficial in avoiding phishing. You get a variety of this software like Spam Bully, Spam Inspector, and Zaep. The best part of free spam blockers is that you can easily update the version and keep your system up-to-date by downloading the new version. With paid spam blockers, you will have to buy them every time some new version is available to install it.

The Norton Anti Spam 2005 is a paid one that operates on almost all the platforms like Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows Me. They filter email on multiple levels and operate on POP3. Even in the toolbars of Outlook, Eudora and more, they add anti spam filter options. They not only block spasm but also pop-up ads. Another paid version is the Spam Alarm that filters in only the good messages against a huge load of messages. Most of the times the free spam blockers are effective in only blocking spam. In doing so, they may sometimes even block useful messages that they detect as spam. The paid ones cater to this need carefully and are often provided with anti-virus scan. Whatever spam blocker you use, it is best to use the trial first before installing it on your computer.

About The Author:
Oliver Turner
We offer the best anti spam programs info website. Check it out on spam blockers research. All about spam blockers on http://www.leandernet.com/Spam_blocker/Spam_blockers.php
Article Submitted On: September 26, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

What Is The Best Technology To Stop Spam

Legislative measures failed stop Spam up till now. Since Spam is basically a human problem you can do something about it using anti-spam technology. Anti-spam software is the only thing we have now to block undesired messages. It's not a foolproof method however. Let's see why.

Most anti-spam software use inspection techniques to detect Spam emails. The anti-spam program analyzes incoming messages and checks the message content against a known profile of Spam. Something like it asks a question "Does this message look as Spam?", and based on that analysis the anti-spam program takes the final decision to allow the message or block it. At best this approach can delete most of the Spam emails allowing only a few ones getting through.

The analysis method is not as reliable as it seems. If you slacken the rules, you'll get much Spam in your inbox. If the rules are too strict, you'll stop all the Spam with the risk to block quite legitimate messages. A legitimate email incorrectly blocked as spam is called a false positive. If you get a lot of false positives, you will need to read all the Spam emails looking for good messages among the rubbish. But this completely disproves the need of anti-spam software.

The main disadvantage of the analysis method is that the filters that work fine today can stop working tomorrow. Spammers can also try an anti-spam program to tailor their emails so that they will get around the filters. As far as the developers improve their anti-spam programs, the spammers perfect their spam techniques. That's why we get V1agra and C1alis and many other misspelled words in spam emails. Certain sophisticated techniques allow spammers make an email message that looks differently to a human person than the same message is read by a computer program, for example, when an email contains a text readable for the recipient but the program sees it as a picture. Such kind of spam emails is growing in popularity for spammers now.

A step forward in the analysis techniques is the Bayesian filters. Previously the decision if a particular email is legitimate or spam was made based on how this message was measured up against a general profile of Spam. The Bayesian filters inspect your own inbox and build the databases of good and spam words based on your own incoming messages. This makes possible to adjust the Bayesain filters for every user because the conception of Spam is subjective to some extent. By telling the Bayesian filters that this message is spam and that one is legitimate, you teach the filters to recognize the emails that you personally consider to be spam.

Whitelist and Blacklist do not solve the problem either. Adding trusted email addresses to the whitelist is not quite safe as it seems to be. Nowadays viruses are known to use the email addresses from various address books to forge the messages and send themselves out. It's not possible to add all the email addresses or even email domains to the blacklist either. Spammers do not use real email addresses to send spam. Today you get a spam email from this domain and tomorrow you can receive the very same spam email from a different domain. If you blacklist all the spammers' emails, this will result in the blacklist of an interminable size and slower work of anti-spam software.

Simply put, the war between the spammers and their victims continues. Although there is no perfect solution for the Spam problem today, take care and keep your anti-spam filters in fighting trim.

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

Wham Bam Spam And Scam

Every day, I get several hundred e-mails, some days over a thousand. A lot of these are spam - according to a recent Doubleclick survey 62% of the mail in our inbox is considered SPAM.

But I don’t use a spam blocker - I don’t like them. I have plenty experience of sending e-mails to my friends who, when asked, tell me they didn’t receive them. I use different e-mails from yahoo and MSN when I’m signing up for newsletters and free offers around the net - I keep my main personal e-mail pretty restricted.

The other thing is - and please don’t hate me for this - I don’t really mind spam. I don’t like it for sure and I would never spam anyone myself - but neither do I think that all spammers are evil monsters with the horns, pointy tail, cloven hooves and pitchfork ensemble.

Of course, I’m not trying to sell anybody anti-spam software so I think this could have something to do with it.

I have a delete key on my keyboard, which I can use to delete multiple e-mails - it’s power and efficiency is awesome, one minute they’re there, the next they’re toast!

I draw a distinction between a spammer and a scammer. They can be one and the same but not always. But let me tell you what really hacks me off in the wonderful world of internet e-mail marketing. Two things, let the rant begin:

Shotgun Gurus

Gurus who operate lists which bombard you with offers and information completely unrelated to the original topic you signed up for.

As far as I’m concerned the fact that I opted in to some information course about building an e-mail list doesn’t give you the right to send me information on additives which will increase my fuel economy. Neither am I interested in being a keyword owner on your crappy word page or the free offer from your very good friend with the one time only opportunity to upgrade for only $300 before I even get to see the free offer. As for that great new software where the price might double sometime soon - take it and shove it.

RE: The Email You Never Sent

Like I said, I sometimes get over a thousand e-mails a day. However, I don’t often (autoresponders aside) send more than a dozen in any given day. They are usually important to me and sent to a relatively small group of friends and customers - so I can normally remember the subject line.

So, if you’re a guru, then the fastest way to get me to unsubscribe from your list - and ensure that I NEVER buy anything from you in future - is to send me an e-mail dressed up as a fake reply with the subject “RE: Whatever It Is You’re Trying To Sell Me This Time”.

If that’s the best you’ve got then you ain’t no guru. Get a proper job.

About The Author:
Hamish Hayward
Starting A Home Based Business ......
Discover the key criteria you must evaluate when starting your own online or offline business.
Article Submitted On: October 22, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Free Spam Blockers

Remember when spam was just another horrible thing you would never eat? And then you grew up a little and spam became the lyrics to a great Monty Python song. And now spam is something to avoid at all costs. Or, in the case of free spam blockers, at no cost at all. Everything is better when it’s free, right? Such is the case with blocking out annoying spam from your email account, too.

Free spam blockers are popping up all over the internet. Kind of ironic, isn’t it, that some pop-up ads are advertising spam blocking technology. The problem with spam isn’t really the content, of course, it’s the time spent winnowing through all those e-mails in search of the ones that really contain useful information or are from people with whom you want to contact. The best free spam blockers in the world are not only free, but don’t take up any space on your computer. Yes, I’m talking about being very careful to whom you give your e-mail address.

The plain simple truth is that any time you fill out a form that asks for your e-mail address, you are just asking for spam. Maybe the site where you filled out the form sold your address to mass marketers and maybe they didn’t, but chances are if you have ever given your e-mail address to a company rather than an individual, you received spam because of it. And if you’re like most people doing business on the internet, you’re spending anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour and a half just checking your e-mail every day. You don’t have time to wade through the spam pool. That’s why getting yourself one of the reliable free spam blockers out there is so important.

You can almost instantly tell when you’ve come across one of these free spam blockers because of their oh-so-clever name. For instance, Spamhilator, SpamButcher, or SpamKiller. And you want to know a secret? They are almost all exactly alike. Oh sure, there are little differences that may mean a lot to you personally, but frankly it doesn’t matter. The best thing you can do is download them as a trial version—and with so many on the market offering trial versions, it makes no sense to ever download any of the free spam blockers that don’t offer trial versions—and check them out to make sure they do what they promise. And if they do what they promise, do they do it with a minimum amount of fuss and muss and maintenance on you part.

The key to using free spam blockers is maintenance. You got one in the first place to give yourself more time to do what you need to do. So why would you want to use a spam blocker is high maintenance itself? Go through all the free spam blockers that interest you and then narrow them down until you find the one that works completely in the background without throwing out stuff you really need and that doesn’t require you to keep checking up on it. That’s the one you want.

About the Author:
Matt Garrett www.Free-Spam-Blockers.Com www.Spam-Filters.net
Content Provider: http://www.my-articles.com

Why Do We Need Anti-Spam Software?

Spam, otherwise known as junk email or unsolicited commercial email; is quickly becoming on of the most prevalent complaints of internet users. Not only is it annoying, but it is quickly becoming a dangerous and potentially expensive problem for businesses as well as individuals.

How is it dangerous?

First and foremost, spam is one of the leading causes for clogged networks and slow connections. American Online, one of the nation's largest internet service providers; transmits over 8 trillion spam email messages a year. Those messages tie up valuable bandwidth and can slow down entire networks. Although end users will rarely see a significant change in their connections, they can rest assured that a noteworthy portion of their monthly bill is paying for that lost bandwidth.

Most spam includes images or weblinks within it commercial content. Although some of it is begin or at worst annoying, an increasing portion contains sexually explicit content. Spam messages frequently contain pornographic pictures or links to sex-related websites.

These messages are not suited for children yet can easily be accidentally opened by minors. In addition to simple sexual content, some of the most severely sexually explicit spam can contain images of such illegal and offensive acts such as bestiality or child pornography.

Aside from slowing connections or carrying unwanted pornography, spam is the leading cause of transmitted computer viruses. Computer viruses are programs which run malicious code which can damage computer systems, delete files and steal personal information. These viruses are often hidden in an email messages as attachments such as a pictures. Email transmitted viruses can render entire systems inoperable and delete important documents forever.

How can you stop it?

The easiest and most simple way to stop unwanted email is to employ a spam blocker. Spam blockers are manufactured by a variety of companies and be anywhere from free to costing upwards of 50$.

There are three basic types of spam blocking software. The first is a key-word blocker. These programs examine the header and body of an email message looking for a series of predefined criteria. For example, a program could be instructed to flag or block any email message containing the word "sex".

Although seemingly straightforward, the spam blocker also has to stop any spelling variation of sex such as sexx or s_e_x. Although this type of spam blocker can do very well at stopping spam, it also has a tendency to block personal emails which may or may not contain flagged words.

The second type of spam blocker is an address list blocker which blocks or flags any emails not coming from a predefined list of addresses (such as the user's address book).

Although this type of spam blocker does a very good job of not blocking personal emails from friends or family, it can inadvertently delete important messages from users not on the original predefined list. This can make it very easy to miss potentially important yet unexpected emails.

The third type of spam blocker is actually a hybrid of the aforementioned varieties. It will filter emails from known friendly accounts directly to the inbox while holding potentially dangerous emails in the filter. The user can then go in and sort through emails from either friendly strangers (non spam emails from unfamiliar addresses) or unfriendly strangers (spam emails from unfamiliar addresses).

Although these programs do require a slight amount of user interaction, they can protect your computer and keep you from inadvertently deleting important emails.

About The Author:
Robert Michael is a writer for Lib Antispam which is an excellent place to find antispam links, resources and articles. For more information go to: http://www.libantispam.com/
Submitted: 2006-10-08
Article Source: GoArticles

Methods To Fight Spam!!!

Fighting Spam..

Industry experts estimate that three out of every five e-mail messages that are sent today are spam.

This is not only a nuisance; it is costing us all time and money which could be better spent on productive ventures.

Bizwala is committed to fighting spam & blocks a great deal without customer intervention. Our systems are updated daily and we are always working to improve our spam filtering.

Though we may never be able to block it all, we can offer some suggestions to combat spam effectively.
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Q: How can I prevent spam from reaching my e-mail account?

A: People who send spam compile their mailing lists in many ways. Methods to compile such lists include:

Sending spam to e-mail addresses that are most commonly used. A common tactic consists of building lists of targeted addresses that use frequently used words such as "webmaster" or "info" (for example, "webmaster@mydomainname" or "info@mydomainname").

Obtaining e-mail addresses that are automatically "harvested" from web sites by specialized software.

Compiling lists of e-mail addresses that are either chosen or generate at random (for example, " joe1@mydomainname", "joe2@mydomainname" or "joe3@mydomainname". This method is becoming increasingly frequent.

Because spammers often send spam to undefined e-mail aliases such as aabbcc@domain.com, ccddee@domain.com, mfrds@domain.com, you can combat the receipt of spam effectively by not using a catch-all address . (The catch-all is an alias that is used to recieve mail sent to undefined addresses/aliases .)

Q: What is spoofing and how can I fight it?

A: "Spoofing" occurs when a spammer uses some version of your domain name in the "From" address field. Spammers use spoofing to try to hide their identities and to pass blame for spam to innocent Internet users. The large amount of spam messages -- many of which are sent to invalid address -- result in a significant amount of "bounced" e-mail (that is, mail that returned as being undeliverable). Unfortunately, bounced mail is sent back to the address found in the "From" line of the spammed message.
Typically, the "From" line is also an undefined e-mail address not found in your mail settings. To combat receiving bounced mail messages, you can use the "devnull" alias that we mentioned in the previous question and answer.

Q: Even if my account is not generating any spam, can the mail server I use get blocked because of spam?

Unfortunately, yes. The main cause for blacklisting your mail server depends on where the spammed e-mail is ultimately received and how the ISP who maintains that location reacts to spam and to spam complaints. Many account holders with Bizwala forward e-mail messages that are sent to there hosting account. For example, a message sent to info@mydomainname could be forwarded to myaccount@aol.com or myaccount@yahoo.com. At other times, clients may be forwarding e-mail messages to accounts that are invalid or otherwise not in use. The processing of the forwarded e-mail message is handled by the mail server that your account uses (specifically, the MTA or Mail Transport Agent). Because a Bizwala mail server is the MTA, it is possible that the mail server could be blacklisted even though you (or any other Bizwala client) is not responsible for sending the spam in the first place.

In short, you must be careful about where you forward e-mail, how you report spam, and to whom you report it.

Note: Bizwala reserves the right to terminate a client's services for violations of our Acceptable Use policy. Unacceptable use includes forwarding e-mail messages to addresses that are invalid (not within the client's control) and/or sending mail with malicious intent.

Q: How can I filter spam in my Inbox once I receive it?

First, do NOT click any links in the spam or try to reply or unsubscribe to the spammed e-mail message. Often, these links will subscribe you to even more spam lists despite the fact that those links appear to promise that you will be unsubscribed. And, as spammers are always looking for legitimate e-mail addresses to spam, replying to a spam message in any way only tells the spammer that your e-mail address is valid.

Second, some e-mail programs have built-in functionality that deals with spam that reaches your Inbox. Outlook 2000 (and newer) is one such a e-mail program.

Outlook creates a folder called Junk Mail, where you can move junk e-mail and then review it before deleting. Or, you can have junk e-mail delivered to your Inbox, but color-coded so you can easily identify it. The list of terms that Outlook uses to filter suspected junk e-mail messages is found in a file named Filters.txt.

You can also filter messages based on the e-mail addresses of junk and adult content senders, allowing you to move or delete all future messages from a particular sender. You can review the Junk Senders list and add and remove e-mail addresses from it.

If you do not use Outlook 2000 or higher, please refer to your mail program's help files for any information related to spam filtering.

Q: Are there any low cost programs out there that I can install to help filter the spam?

A: Yes. There are many programs available that use a variety of methods to help e-mail end users filter spam. Effective spam prevention should include client-side software (that is, software that is installed on your local computer). Below are some links that you may want to visit:

Cloudmark Safety Bar: http://www.cloudmark.com

Realize that there are many products on the market that you can install on help filter spam. However, as we are not affiliated with the vendors or authors of those products, we cannot specify which of those products would work best for your specific situation. We ask that you "do your research" in order to locate which product is best for you.

Q: The spam that is reaching me is being sent to defined e-mail accounts. What can I do about it?

A: If any of your defined e-mail addresses are receiving too many spam messages, it may be well worth it to you to change your e-mail address. For example, if "info@mydomainname" is the recipient of too much spam, it may be a good idea to delete "info@mydomainname" in favor of "information@mydomainname. We realize that this may be a tough decision, but such an action could be a huge benefit as it would immediately reduce -- if not entirely eliminate -- the amount of spam that you would be receiving at your e-mail address.

Q: How can I prevent my e-mail address from being added to spammer's mailing lists?

A: As mentioned above, spammers use a variety of methods to compile lists. We have created a help document that will give you some useful tips about how to prevent your e-mail addresses from being added to lists.

Protect Your Privacy

If you plan to enter your information to any Web site, please review the Terms of Service and Privacy Policies of the Web site. If the policies do not clearly indicate what will be done with your information, you should reconsider posting any details to that Web site.

Publishing Your E-mail Address on Your Web Site

Instead of having a simple "mailto" link on your Web site, such as "Please e-mail me at joe@example.com," consider using an approved form mail script that allows Web site visitors to fill out a form to send you e-mail. Bizwala offers such a script free of charge. This will help prevent e-mail address harvesting robots and other spammers from capturing your address. email support@bizwala.net if you need assistance in setting up a spam deterrent form mail

Member Profiles

Try to stay away from creating and posting a member profile, on any Web site, for others to see publicly. Spammers are always reviewing such information for new e-mail addresses.

Product Registration

Many of us register products online. Many times the product registration form has options pre-selected that enable the company to solicit you by e-mail, even though you may not want it. Be sure to review the options you are selecting and any options that may have been selected for you by default.

Posting to a Newsgroup

Never post anything to a newsgroup with your real e-mail address. Consider cloaking the address or using a "disposable" e-mail address. Consider creating and using an e-mail address from one of the free e-mail address providers.

Do Not Reply to Spam or an Unsubscribe Request

Never reply to a piece of spam or request to be unsubscribed. Your reply confirms that your address is working and provides the spammer the opportunity to add your address to their list or sell it to another entity. This actually helps facilitate more spam.

Report Spam

An effective way to help prevent spam is to report it to the ISP or mail administrator where the spam originated. Such reports help ISPs to identify the user or users who sent the spam. Report the spam, including full headers from the spam, to the ISP abuse department or postmaster e-mail address.

Federal law strictly limits the information that online service providers may disclose about their users. However, e-mail messages do contain some information about the sender.

E-mail headers contain an Internet Protocol (IP) address that corresponds to the sender's Internet service provider (ISP). A line in the e-mail message contains an 8 to 12 digit number, separated by periods. For example: "Received: from [123.456.78.91] by . . ." The "123.456.78.91" represents the ISP's unique IP address for the sender. Most spam headers have multiple "Received: from" lines. If the e-mail message has not been forged then, in general, the first such line from the bottom is the true origin of the spammed message.

After you identify the IP address, you can search to determine which ISP provides this person with Internet access. A Web site that attempts to determine the actual computer with that IP address is located at http://www.arin.net/whois/index.html

-Article written by
Wendy Jo McLeod
Spam solution providers

About the Author:
First name: Wendy, last name: McLeod, wendy_mcloed working for Bizwala.com as a seo Spam solution providers
Article Source: NewFREEArticles.com