from Tom Ashworth

 

Spam. Everyone hates it, and it’s become a fact of life for personal and business users alike. Many accounts come with anti-spam programs that run the risk of cutting out genuine emails using overzealous filters; and many more sift through mountains of spam in search for genuine emails (sound familiar?!). There has to be a better way – and guess what, there is.

Submitting your email address online can lead to a lot of spam (signing up to newsletters or updates, for instance), but the main (and in many cases, the only) cause of spam arriving in your email box is having your email address on your website, or on other websites on the Internet – try searching for your address in Google to find the obvious culprits! The email address is then crawled by Spam Bots* and will be the less than happy recipient of 10 Viagra emails a day for the rest of its existence. If your address is already out on the net, the chances are that the horse has already bolted regarding receiving spam to the address. So read on for a tried and tested strategy that will allow you to move to a more enjoyable, spam free email setup, without having to use any filtering. This has worked for us, as well as the clients we have who have asked us to stop their spam.

A brand-new-email-address@yourdomain.com is unlikely to ever receive spam – unless it is put on the Internet somewhere, or it is used to sign up to sites. It doesn’t matter if enquiries@yourdomain.com is receiving 1000 spam messages a day – brand-new-email-address@yourdomain.com will stay clean, providing it is not on the Internet, or used as a signup email address.

So, you’re having problems with enquiries@yourdomain.com (it is seeing more spam than the British in World War 2). The first thing to do is to start to move towards phasing this email address out of your usual business life. Don’t remove this email address entirely – it will stay in service as your public/signup email address (you usually need one address like that!). Create a new email address, for instance business.enquiries@yourdomain.com – and DO NOT PUT THIS ON THE INTERNET, ANYWHERE (yet).

Next, make sure that there are no visible email addresses on your site. Instead you want people to use forms to contact you, if they are not doing so already. Assuming you already have a contact form, you’ll want to check if your address is visible to Spam Bots. Navigate to your contact page, and then view the page source (to do this in Mozilla Firefox, click on ‘View’ and then ‘Page Source’). Once you can view the source, press Ctrl + F to search through the code, and search for your email address. If you can view your email address, then the address is open to be targeted by spam. So you will want to encrypt your email address to prevent this from happening.

The rather clever people at Dynamic Drive have created this handy tool for encrypting your email address using Javascript – make sure you don’t put your email address in the ‘Email Text Shown’ field though! Once you have your code, you’ll need to add this to your form in place of your standard email address – and hey presto! A working contact form that doesn’t expose your inbox to the attentions of spammers!

*In case you’re not familiar with the terms – the Internet is constantly ‘crawled’ by ‘bots’. Google crawls the net with its bots to check the quality of web pages and make sure it can find pages when you search for a term. And, sadly, spammers crawl the net with bots, designed specifically to find email addresses for spamming. A spam bot is just a program or a script that crawls or travels around the net, looking at the source code of sites and searching for those precious spam-me-please@yourdomain.com addresses (unlike the Google spam bots, that crawl the net looking for reasons to put you higher up in their Search Engine Rankings). They start with a few web addresses and then spread out to any pages linked to in those addresses, and so on, and on, and on, and on…

 

from Andrew Symonds

Though previously not acknowledged as a serious threat, spamming has now reached about 60% to 70% of all e-mail traffic all over the world. Different institutions and organizations, including government agencies, recognize the threat spam brings with it. Thus anti-spamming efforts have been on the rise in the past years.

Spam software is one of the most commonly employed tools against spam. There are many available spam software in the market today. They make use of a variety of methods and techniques. In choosing the right spam software for your company, you should at least know the concept behind them. This will help you choose the most suitable spam software to meet your needs.

Spam software usually makes use of spam filters. A spam filter basically identifies specific items keywords or IP addresses for example that are either allowed to go through or are blocked. One technique that some spam software make use of is the RBL or Real Time Black Hole List. In this method, the spam filter takes note of IP addresses, which are known to send spam. All communication from these IP addresses is then blocked.

Another technique used by spam software is keyword based filtering. In this method, the spam software is configured by the user by inputting specific keywords and key phrases, which are to be banned. All communication with these keywords and phrases are then blocked by the spam filter.

Other spam software makes use of permission-based filtering. E-mail addresses are supposed to be authorized, otherwise they are blocked. Spam filters, which are permission-based, also make use of tags embedded in the e-mails to determine whether to give authorization or not. The absence of these tags would then prompt the spam filter to block the e-mail.

Another technique used by spam software is concept-based filtering. This method scans the text and detects its concept. If the concept does not meet the requirements of the spam filter, the e-mail is then blocked.

These are some of the most commonly used techniques in combating spam through spam software. Determine which method would suit your needs best. Then you can look into different spam software that you can use

from Casey Markee

Efficiency and accuracy in communication may be more important today than at any time in human history. The number of spam messages passed between individuals and businesses continues to increase significantly each day, to the point that some are literally overwhelmed by their sheer volume. Now, more than ever, it is vital that true non-spam email messages be absolutely accurate and arrive at the correct location, on time.

According to most studies, Americans are doing their part in adding to the vast number of electronic messages, but they are also creating a huge number of unwanted, unnecessary messages. One set of statistics shows that as many as 4 of every 10 spam items come from U.S. addresses. Europeans are far worse, however. Half of all emails originating there are spam, according to some statistics.

But what is spam, really? Of course, most people know about the canned food made from pork products (a Hawaiian delicacy). The definition widely used in electronic messaging and email defines spam as a “disruptive, commercial message that is unsolicited and usually sent indiscriminately.” The sheer number of unsolicited messages is enough of a problem in that the sheer handling of this additional traffic slows the entire process of communication. In addition, those messages contain symbols, code etc. that actually cause system disruption or total failure. The resulting damage can be costly.

Some of the top stories in the world of email and electronic messaging recently have focused on the motivation behind spamming. In the end, it is mostly greed/money that motivates these “spammers” who spend their time distributing spam full-time through automated bots and zombie computer networks. Many of those who watch this industry carefully acknowledge that current Federal laws in the United States and at the individual State level fall short of controlling this type of “white collar” crime.

So, what can be done to remedy this situation? Actually, a number of steps can be taken to ensure that individual and business email is safe and efficient. Just making sure the inbox is free of unwanted messages is an obvious place to start. But how is that done?

Much of the spam sent to worldwide email addresses is meant to introduce products, in the hopes that the receiver will be enticed to buy. Financial schemes (the dreaded Nigerian Email scam) and illicit pharmaceutical adverts make up a significant portion of spam; as does pornography and offers for adult material.

Basic e-mail filtering (determined by the content of the e-mail) is a simple step each and every user should be taking at the start of each day and at the start of each email session. In essence, this filtering can be initiated by certain words or phrases that automatically send messages to the trash. Beyond this initial effective step, there are black hole lists (DNS-based) of known spammers, as well as email addresses that are not intended to be used except to capture spam (spamtraps) which offer more intermediate ways to combat the problem at the computer user level.

Some of the best methods employed by individuals and businesses have not been enough to stop the most determined of spammers, however. The most aggressive will use false names and addresses to establish multiple accounts across multiple ISP’s. The use of “buffers” or third-party senders, helps to isolate the actual spammer from recrimination. Spammers have found and will continue to find open paths to unsuspecting inboxes, with the added risk of virus-infected messages a growing concern.

Spam and viruses are a particular risk to companies with extensive communications networks. While many of the simple steps noted above will help keep a system clean (with constant attention by administrators), more aggressive tactics are needed to ensure the continued success of larger, commercial internal communications networks.

New technology, such as highly intuitive anti-spam filtering software, may be the answer to many of the problems caused by a worldwide increase in spam. Current email users can download these anti-spam software updates in real-time and in doing so will help keep their network current. This type of technology is at the top of the list for users looking for email maintenance and for help in maintaining the efficiency and integrity of an entire communications system. Among the key focus areas for general email users are virus-free stability, lower maintenance and upgrade costs, email search capabilities for customized spam surveillance, archive services and anti-spam tools that put the daily maintenance in the hands of the local administrator.

Spam continues to grow, as senders find motivation to increase their efforts. At one time only a few hundred people received these unwanted messages. But over the years, the problem has exploded and now affects billions of email users and businesses each day. By one estimate, only about 15% of email is truly wanted and needed by the end receiver. Companies have come to realize this inefficiency cannot be supported over the long-term and are turning more and more to professional software protection options for help.

Don’t let spam win, make sure your email messaging system is protected by a robust anti-spam software solution and take back your inbox today!

from Scam Ripper


These days spam has become the most annoying word in our day to day lives; however this article will provide you an insight about the types of the spam blockers which are available and their features. Basically the spam blockers are of three different types:

1.    Integrated: This is one of the most popular spams filtering software. As this software is installed it will have a close watch on your email and you would have some additional buttons in the software of your email. After the installation of this you will have an option whether to mark your mail as spam or not a spam, or even bounce the mail back to the sender. However there are wide range of options available in this software with different buttons in different positions but the functions remain the same. Another benefit of this blocker is that these blockers suspectively will place the email into a separate folder so that you can review them at a later stage at your discretion. The new versions are so effective these days that they just track down the difference between the spam mails and put them in the junk mails. Some of the popular spam blocker software’s are Qurb eTrust Anti Spam, iHate Spam and Spam Bully. This is the most apt choice for the users who just want a one click solution to segregate the email and the junk mail. This software is one of the best and the simplest solution to the routine spam mails. The only disadvantage with this software is that they are mail specific like some work only with outlook express. So before purchasing ensure that this feature is not present.

2.    Standalone: A standalone spam blocker is a separate piece of software that is been installed in your system for checking the email spam.  The first thing which you will have to ensure is the launch of the spam blocker software first and then process your emails on your server after this launch the regular email software so that you can download them. The biggest benefit which is facilitated by this software is that you can view the mail on your mail server first before it comes on to your PC. This feature helps you in downloading the mails which you need and deleting the ones which you are not intending to read. The stand alone spam blocker requires some extra effort as you need to configure the spam blocker every time before you open your mail. This spam caters to the need of some specific class of people. Further this spam blocker is not software specific. The most popular stand alone spam blocker is Mail washer Pro.

3.    Online Spam blocker: The online spam blocker has been developed for two purposes i.e.; for the business and personal use. The typical example of the business mail is the iHate wherein the software automatically deletes the junk mails even without the review of the person. This is particularly used in the large scale companies.  An example of the online software is Spam arrest.

from Kelly Liyakasa


Spam isn’t limited to the harmless email chain we’ve all been guilty of sending to friends and family members. Many of us feel that receiving email spam is a lost cause and we’re sentenced to cleaning our inboxes out each morning. Though completely ridding spam from your life may be an unattainable task, there are steps you can take to reduce the number you receive:

• Create a separate email address (free ones like Gmail and Hotmail work great) when registering for an online group or Web-newsletter.

• When posting content on the Web, don’t include your primary email address. Spammers can easily add you to their lists.

• Trick the spam spiders-If you post an email address online, disguise it’s setup, spelling out ‘dot com’ in place of ‘.com

• If you sign up for a list, be sure it’s for that sole site and your information won’t get passed around.

• Read text-only emails or request your mail provider notify you before downloading images or HTML.

• If you receive forwarded chain emails from friends or family, ask them to stop. Even if you trust who is sending you the email, your name will still be visible to whoever continues sending the chain.

• Purchase a spam filter. It’s a small price to pay when you think of all the junk mail you’ll avoid.

6StarReviews.com notes several spam filters that can do the trick and reduce unwanted spam mail. Anti-spam software programs like Spam Shield have unique features such as LashBack, a setting that removes spam and prevents that user from ever forwarding you junk mail again. Spam Monitor also paves the way in spam protection by letting users make black and whitelists to ensure important email reaches their inbox. Preventing spam doesn’t have to cost you your sanity!

from Keith George


Do you remember the quote from the Monty Python sketch in 1970. Then it was about canned meat. Spam is nowadays mostly known to be: sending nearly identical messages to a few or thousands (or millions) of recipients by e-mail (Wikipedia).

Spam is best defined as unsolicited and unwanted commercial electronic messages or e-mails that are sent to large numbers of people. The term is also used to similar abuses in other media, like messengers and newsgroups.

To maintain solid relationships with your clients and peers, writing an accurate and descriptive subject line for each email you send is critical to making your readers lives easier and their work more efficient. Such a marketing approach provides your product information to a large audience without the aggravation causing mass email approach that many companies try and fail with. Make sure it is not unsolicited and unwanted emails that arrive in your customers email inbox.

Spammers know that everybody hates them and that people try to delete their messages immediately, so they have learned how to make their letters and headlines catchy. Some people have to take shortcuts to make a profit. One would expect an internet company to delete the profiles of the people that use their service in an abusive way. Some operators try to stop spam and Yahoo for example has a button you can use to report it. MSN has a type of free email account which filters out all the junk Spam.

Nevertheless we all need spam filters as they are an extremely successful way of managing or stopping unwanted emails, but occasionally they can work too well. However, the use of software filters in e-mail programs can be used to remove most spam sent through e-mail. A search on the internet will provide a great number of software producers in this field.

The recent buyout of Giant Software may see spam filtering as a default feature in the next version of Microsoft Windows perhaps. Anti spam software typically uses content filtering or Bayesian logic, an advanced content filtering method, to score each email, looking for certain tell-tale signs of spammer habits such as frequently used terms like Viagra or click here.

In the USA the Department of Justice’s Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Protection Division has recently put forth a bogus report to Congress on their role in the CAN SPAM Act and stated in writing that spam has been reduced. Businesses worldwide report that 20% of all e-mail received is spam. So there is still a long way to go to a spam free world.

from Kirk Pomerleau

Companies spend billions of dollars each year combating spam. Billions more is spent with the loss of productivity, having to purchase additional equipment, software, and man hours filtering through unwanted spam, and fixing problems directly related from spam. Direct effects of spam are the consumption of network and computer resources, data and intellectual property theft, identity theft, infection from virus and malware infection, and more.

When most people think of spam, they are thinking of the unsolicited emails sitting in their inbox that is time consuming to clean up. However, there are many more different types of spam; instant messaging spam, chat spam, newsgroup and forum spam, even cell phone spam, blogs and guestbook spam, video sharing spam, video gaming spam, mail bombing, and non-commercial spam. Email and Internet spam is frustrating and sometimes embarrassing when pornography pops up in front of grandma.

Why would someone want to send out so many annoying messages or pop-ups and what is the benefit for a spammer? A spammer expects total profit and if even only small percentages of people respond or make a purchase from the spam message, the spammer stands to make a bunch of money. Other non-commercial spammers are criminals seeking banking information, committing fraud, and have even lured people to their own kidnappings and murders. Competitors might use spam as a denial of service to your website to flood the viewer of your website with a ton of pop-ups and make it impossible to view the site. This is another malicious way spammers attack.

So what can you do to protect your email and be able to surf the Internet without the unwanted pop-ups and phishing sites stealing your information? There are two solutions; Mozilla Firefox for your web browser and Anti-Spam Software for your email. These two solutions will provide the protection you need without having to worry anymore.

Having a positive Internet and email experience is what everyone wants. Mozilla wants this for everyone too. Mozilla is a non-profit organization who is dedicated to making your online experience incredible. They offer their web browser Firefox free of charge. Firefox is available to all Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms, in over 35 different languages. This web browser has integrated protection from spam, pop-ups, and phishing protection that tells you when you have accessed a website that is looking for information.

Mozilla Firefox is the leading web browser because they care about what the user wants. This browser allows you to personalize it the way you want it. Firefox includes a spell checker and search engine suggestions. It also includes a session restore so when you lose your Internet connection and have to sign online again, Firefox will take you back to the exact webpage from where your session terminated. That way, you don’t have to spend hours finding where you were before. Firefox even has accessibility features that integrate with Microsoft’s accessibility features in Windows for people with physical impairments to easily surf the web without having too many keystrokes to get to the site they want.

The best quality of Mozilla’s Firefox is the protection. Unlike Internet Explorer, Firefox has a button to clear private data so the browser doesn’t keep personal information. It also automatically updates itself. This is much better than having to go to Microsoft’s website to install the latest security updates and patches.

Anti-Spam Software can be found at www.antispampage.com. This useful tool provides the email protection you need with a user-friendly interface, which makes it simple to setup. Anti-spam software is learning software. This means, you teach it what is spam and what is not. Eventually, you will not be receiving anymore spam in your inbox. This software will block incoming spam before it even reaches your inbox and automatically delete malicious viruses. Anti-spam is compatible with Windows platforms 98, ME, 2000, and XP. 24-hour technical support is provided and 100% satisfaction or you are entitled to a full refund. Millions of users worldwide are using Anti-spam software and they couldn’t be happier.

Don’t allow unwanted spam, pop-ups, and phishing sites ruin your computing experience. Using a smart web browser like Mozilla Firefox and Anti-spam Software are the best ingredient for total protection on your computer.

Putting the axe to spam, viruses, malware, and other unwanted annoyances are only a couple steps away if you have the right tools. But until then you join millions of others fighting a losing war.

from Nicolaas Theron

You may have have found yourself in the following position. You open your email program, get up to make some coffee and upon your return you find your inbox crammed full of unwanted junk mail. It is going to waste your time (and money!) just to try and sort through this much email on a daily basis and may amount to no more than a hill of beans. You want some anti-spam filtering to help you with sorting your emails.

Email spam has turned out to be a big stealer of time and an irritation for individuals and company employees alike. There are real losses of time and money involved for businesses. Companies want to deal with this unwanted hazard effectively and easily.

Some estimations put the amount of spam email being sent on a daily basis at around 100 billion. That is incredible! Just imagine the total amount of time and bandwith that may be wasted on something which most internet users dislike, even hate.

You need to have an anti-spam filtering program or service that can screen your incoming emails and sort them into wanted emails and suspicious emails. Spam filtering software will do the job for you. It will automatically sort through your emails and send suspicious junk mail to a separate folder.

Installing and regularly updating anti-spam software may help with filtering your emails. It tries to let your regular emails through while stopping unknown e-mails from clogging up your inbox. High quality spam filters are estimated to be up to 98% effective, although they are not always correct in their sorting process. It may happen that an e-mail you would have wanted to read gets thrown into the dustbin.

Adjusting the sensitivity of your spam filter may help to regulate this problem. The higher you set the anti-spam filter sensitivity, the harsher it will sort your incoming emails and the greater the likelihood of it marking an e-mail as spam. It could happen that an important email may be marked as spam and that you never get to read it. In the end it is a balancing act between too much filtering and too little filtering.

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition is a popular choice for spam protection and protection against virus infections. You can download and use a free edition or buy the full version. You are able to configure your scanning schedules as well as update the software database from the internet. It also boasts email, instant messenger and internet browser protection options.

You should remember that installing and using two different anti-spam software on your computer does not offer you double the protection. Use only one at a time and be sure to uninstall the anti-spam software you are not going to use before installing a new one.

If you have enough bandwith available, it is probably a good thing to let the software check for automatic updates. This will ensure that the anti-spam software stays up to date with the latest data concerning spam mail, virus and spyware.

Anti-spam filtering may save you time and in some cases even money. There are a lot of free anti-spam software available that you may choose to use. They are free, so you do not have to spend a cent to receive spam protection.

from Arvind

It is believed that on an average, an email user receives more than 2000 Spam emails every year! By certain accounts, an email user receives more than 77 percent of the mail as spam – which is around 10 out of every 13 emails you receive! More than two-thirds of the email passing through the air waves are pure junk – unwanted and unsolicited. It, therefore, becomes imperative that you chose the right anti-spam software that meets with your requirements.

Spam happens to be one of the biggest disadvantages of using communication channels through the Internet. There is every need to find ways to separate the wanted emails from the unwanted and unsolicited ones. Choosing the correct anti-spam software or Spam filter is the right way to cut down on the spam you receive.

Handling Spam

The amount of spam you can detect and delete depends on the type of screening your emails go through. Many anti-spam software have a multi-level of email screening, which is worth the money you spend. You can even select a trail version or free anti Spam software to sample what it does and then you can opt for a full version with enhanced features and full functionality.

One of the best places to trap and eliminate spam is at the servers that receive, forward, and send the emails. You, of course, have no control over the type of anti-spam handling done by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). To handle spam, there are particular services available to filter them. For a nominal amount each month, a particular service inspects and cleans your inbox. Another service involves forwarding your complete inbox to their servers, where the clean up occurs as emails arrive.

As personal spam blockers, a number of anti-spam software are available from reputed anti-spam suppliers, such as Symantec, McAfee, eScan, PC Mantra etc to name a few. Such software capture and inspect all emails coming in before allowing the clean ones into your inbox.

The type of anti-spam software you select will depend on the volume of emails you handle. It will also depend on the budget you allot to the anti-spam program. The best anti-spam software for you should have the following features, among many others:

• It should allow you to see who the sender of the email is, the subject, and the attachment. You can then decide whether to delete the email or accept it.

• A chance to preview the message before downloading it. This will enable you to delete if you do not like the message.

• The feature that allows you to bounce back the spam email is a great way to let the sender think that your email address is no longer valid. This would probably make them remove you from their mailing list!

There are a number of anti-spam software available with a number of online suppliers that you need to explore, to select the best that is suitable for your needs.

from Sara Anderwahl

It was not too long ago that email mailboxes were so full of junk mail and spam that they threatened to render electronic communication useless. When you opened up your email you were bombarded with poorly written advertisements for $ex, V!agra, and tons of other intentionally misspelled products, designed to evade any spam blocking devices. Those interested in consumer protection knew the ultimate goal, to eliminate and block spam, but as soon as they created a product designed to do just that, the spammers evaded their efforts by getting more creative. That is, until modern anti spam software was developed. Antispam software comes in a variety of forms, with the obvious ultimate intent of stopping unwanted emails from reaching you.

Blacklist

One of the primary anti spam methods is known as blacklisting. This software identifies the IP address of the spam sender, and then communicates with the Internet Service Provider of the sender and instructs the ISP to block mail from that IP address to your email account. In theory this is a fool proof solution. The reality, however, is that there is a lot of money to be made in spamming, so forcing a spammer to switch his IP address frequently is not too high a price to pay to evade blocking. That said, this practice does, over time, start to close down doors to spammers and all but eliminates amateur spammers who do not have the capability to frequently switch IPs.

Spam Votes

Many individuals who frequently use their email accounts will be familiar with this device. Spam voting software works through the participation of users. When you receive email you have the option of classifying it as spam, usually by pushing a button which says, unsurprisingly, ‘spam’. Once enough people classify a piece of mail or an IP as spam it falls in trust until ultimately it becomes completely blocked from addresses.

Profiling

Profiling involves learning the common characteristics of spammers and spam mail. It is software that looks for things like bugs, invalid message ID’s and other traits and uses these characteristics to evaluate incoming pieces of mail. Each piece of mail is then given a score depending upon how it fares against these criteria. The user is then given the option of how high or how low to set the bar with regard to which emails are let in. This method has been shown to be immensely effective against amateur spammers and many professional spammers. However, it relies upon a ready team of professionals to identify new traits used by spammers and to incorporate those traits into the profiling algorithms.

Bayesian Filtering

The most promising spam blocking software follows no rules. Rather, it constantly learns new techniques to fight spam by scanning the mail you’ve read and comparing it to the mail that you have rejected. This highly sophisticated software uses the data that it gleans from thousands of users to identify which items are spam and which are not. It then has the capability to adjust its standards to your particular preferences. Over time, it becomes adept at sending you only the emails that you want, and blocking the emails that you do not.