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/

Are You A Forum Spammer?

One of the most successful kind of websites for social interaction among people with common interests is a forum. There are forums for every interest in the world and many are used by industry leaders in business as well as celebrities. From sports to gardening, marketing to politics, religion to popular music, every niche has a forum.

For website owners, forums are an opportunity to get more exposure and brand themselves as a expert in their field. Giving advice, sharing stories, networking, and asking questions are the most commonly found content in posts, except for one type...

The Spammer

Unfortunately, many high quality forums are ruined by the entrance of spammers. There are several types of forum spammers, some more subtle and others who are totally blatant. It is generally considered good forum etiquette in include any kind of self-promoting links in your forum signature, a little post that gets added to all of your text posts. These signatures are most often in BBCode and occasionally in HTML.

The blatant spammer will simply use these code in their posts to promote links to whatever site they want. Often this is the case with inexperienced affiliate marketers who don't know how to appropriately promote their site so they post it in forums asking people to visit.

If this tactic ever works it can only be because of ignorance on the part of the forum members. What's worse is that the post is simply the URL embedded with obvious affiliate identity tags and the post itself brings no contribution whatsoever to the community, it's just an ad.

The next step is that these forum spammers figure out that nobody is clicking on their links so the decide that the obvious identity tags in the link are driving people away because nobody wants to be somebody else's money making machine. The now novice affiliate goes and gets a "tinyurl" to hide the affiliate tags in their link and then they start posting that one everywhere, once again, blatantly advertising without contribution. After a little while they figure out that they still aren't getting people to click on their link, and start finally recognizing that affiliate marketers use "tinyurls" like candy and most people know that is a tactic to make the website owner more money and even worse, people feel like the owner tried to actually trick them into clicking on the link.

At this point the affiliate discovers he or she can change the link text so it isn't so obviously an affiliate link, so while the posts themselves continue as ads, the text to click on is no longer the URL but a phrase full of hype that says something like "my program makes me lots of money" (which it usually doesn't) so now they are starting to feel a little more confident. The spammer, however, is starting to realize that the posts are getting lots of complaints and no friends are being made in the community.

The affiliate is starting to realize that people don't want to be sold to on the forums. His intention of capitalizing on the niche is not a problem, but the method of attracting clients is like trying to see the sunset by running east. It'll never happen unless the approach is changed.

The spammer then decides to make a choice. Spam the forum or join the forum for the same reasons the other members of the community do and simply include a subtle link in their signature and actually become a contributing member.

Don't be a spammer, play by the rules. You'll have more friends, generate more interested prospects, and escape being banned from the best forums in the world.

About the Author:
Tyler James Ellison teaches how to make fast easy money online marketing legally using automated systems and guerilla techniques to promote businesses.
Posted: 15-02-2007
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com

How To Tighten Up Your Email Security

These days email is a necessary part of communication. However, this also means that email is one of the most popular ways for a virus to infect your computer. You need to protect yourself from the threat of fraud and infection.

Viruses

Email attachments often contain viruses so you need to be careful whenever you open any type of attachment even if you know the sender. There are some viruses that can infiltrate your address book and then send email that is infected to everyone on your list. This means that you can get a virus from a colleague or a friend. The best thing to do is to communicate with the sender so that you know you are expecting an attachment.

Software for virus protection is your best bet against viruses. This software will scan all your email attachments when they are received on your computer. All computers that have Internet access will need to have antivirus software so that all systems are protected as one big whole. There are some viruses that will start with one computer system and then spread to the rest of the network, eventually encompassing all the hardware that is needed to access the Internet.

Phishing

Email can lead to fraud, which is yet another type of security risk. Phishing, is one type of fraud that will try to trick you into giving out personal passwords or banking information. This type of email will use the logo from a well known banking institution or online business after which they will ask you to update your banking information or your password.

Phishing provides a link that looks as though it is legitimate but that in fact will lead you to a false website. If you provide them with personal information you become a victim of theft or fraud on your credit card. This is also known as "identity theft".

Email content and subject lines can be your clue to phishing. Instead of using your name the subject line might say something like "To our valued customer". It isn't hard to find some variant for personal names so be on the alert.

Less of clue to phishing is when a link is included that has nothing to do with the text in the email. You can verify this by highlighting the link and paying attention to the status bar. For example, if the email text is something about Microsoft, and the URL is www.nowhereland.com, you have a good clue that the message you've received isn't really from Microsoft.

There is software that can detect whether phishing is occurring. Even though this software isn't fully mature yet it can at least identify if an email is fraud. Whenever you are asked for your credit card number or a password you should be suspicious. Always keep in mind that no legitimate banking institution will ask you to give personal information or to verify any passwords in the content of an email.

E-mail Backups

Your email, just like other data on your computer, should always be backed up. Most email programs will be easy to back up. All you need to do is export your email messages to a selected folder and then do a backup on this folder. You can use a backup program and put your email onto a writeable CD, DVD, removable disk, or any other type of media.

You also have the option of buying backup software that is specialized for backing up email. This software is moderately priced and eliminates the need to export your email to a folder.

You can automate most backup software so that backups happen at a time that is convenient without you having to lend a hand. You'll have to find time in your busy schedule to configure this type of software. However, you'll be no more busy doing the configuring as you would be if you need to replace an email that you needed.

About the Author:
Paul Wilcox writes about internet security and other related topics. Sign up for my free newsletter and receive my special report "How To Lock Your Computer Down - Internet Security in 2006" at www.internetsecuritysquad.com/freereport
Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com