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 Julia Gulevich

Spam attacks where the text is replaced with images aimed at lightly protected email systems are growing in popularity. With the variety of anti-spam filters that analyze the message content to weed out unsolicited emails, spammers continue to increasingly adopt image spam. Businesses, organizations and everyday computer users might have noted an increase of image-based spam, text e-mails that arrive in your in-box as image files. Image spam can contain a picture of words, a screenshot, a photographic image, or a combination of these. By sending emails that contain no text, only pictures, spammers found that they can fool even the most advanced anti-spam software like SpamAssassin, G-Lock SpamCombat.

Most anti-spam programs detect text-based spam very well, but they totally fail when a spam message has no text to analyze. Thus, the rapid rise of the image spams. These spam messages often include image files that have a screen shot offering the same types of information advertised in more traditional text spam. Image spam can also include unique trackers which work when a recipient opens the message and let the sender know it’s a valid email address, ripe for future mailings. Image spam is probably the best technique that spammers have today to get past the anti-spam filters. Together with the image spam that uses one attached image to deliver its message, the spammers are known to send spam that contains multiple images that act like pieces in a puzzle. The recipient’s email client then reassembles the pieces in the right order and displays them as one image again. In addition to the usual annoyance, image-based spam eats up more bandwidth than regular spam because each image spam message is more than seven times larger than regular spam email – what’s costing users, especially business, money.

The majority of image spam is used in stock scam messages, in which the senders encourage the victims to buy a certain stock to raise its value, then quickly turn around and sell the stock themselves to make a profit.

Nevertheless, anti-spam software and service providers are able to cut down image spam, as well as HTML-based and text spam. The organizations and individual computer users having sophisticated anti-spam filters—those that focus on both the content and origin of the messages—have little to worry about, other than to make sure they’re on the latest version of their vendor’s products and receiving regular updates. They can then analyze and create rules in their software to block it. Many anti-spam software use combinations of techniques, including keywords, blacklists (of offending spam mailers), and something called “honey pots,” in which they have traps set up on the Internet to collect spam messages. There are a number of approaches to protect against image spam. In current versions of Outlook, for example, images are not automatically downloaded into messages unless the user has specified that messages from the source can be trusted. G-Lock SpamCombat allows preview all the messages in a safe mode – no pictures or tracking codes are downloaded nor executed.

from Don Alexander

Who Cooked This!? (How did it all start?)

The modern meaning of the word “spam” has nothing to do with spiced ham. In the early 1990’s, a skit by British comedy group Monty Python led to the word’s common usage. “The SPAM Skit” follows a couple struggling to order dinner from a menu consisting entirely of Hormel’s canned ham.

Repetition is key to the skit’s hilarity. The actors cram the word “SPAM” into the 2.5 minute skit more than 104 times! This flood prompted Usenet readers to call unwanted newsgroup postings “spam.” The name stuck.

Spammers soon focused on e-mail, and the terminology moved with them. Today, the word has come out of technical obscurity. Now, “spam” is the common term for “Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail”, or “UCE.”

Why Does Bad Spam Happen to Good People?

Chances are, you’ve been spammed before. Somehow, your e-mail address has found it’s way into the hands of a spammer, and your inbox is suffering the consequences. How does this happen? There are several possibilities.

Backstabbing Businesses

Businesses often keep lists of their customers’ e-mail addresses. This is a completely legitimate practice and, usually, nothing bad comes of it. Sometimes though, the temptation to make a quick buck is too great, and these lists are sold or rented to outside advertisers. The result? A lot of unsolicited e-mail, and a serious breach of trust.

Random Address Generation

Computer programs called random address generators simply “guess” e-mail addresses. Over 100 million hotmail addresses exist – howhard could it be to guess some of them? Unfortunately for many unsuspecting netizens – not too hard. Many spammers also guess at

“standard” addresses, like “support@yourdomain.com”,

“info@yourdomain.com”, and “billing@yourdomain.com.”

Web Spiders

Today’s most insidious list-gathering tools are web spiders. All of the major search engines spider the web, saving information about each page. Spammers use tools that also spider the web, but save any e-mail address they come across. Your personal web page lists your e-mail address? Prepare for an onslaught!

Chat Room Harvesting

ISP’s offer vastly popular chat rooms where users are known only by their screen names. Of course, spammers know that your screen name is the first part of your e-mail address. Why waste time guessing e-mail addresses when a few hours of lurking in a chat room can net a list of actively-used addresses?

The Poor Man’s Bad Marketing Idea

It didn’t work for the phone companies, and it won’t work for e-mail marketers. But, some spammers still keep their own friends-and-family-style e-mail lists. Compiled from the addresses of other known spammers, and people or businesses that the owner has come across in the past, these lists are still illegitimate. Why? Only you can give someone permission to send you e-mail. A friend-of-a-friend’s permission won’t cut it.

Stop The Flood to Your Inbox

Already drowning in spam? Try using your e-mail client’s filters – many provide a way to block specific e-mail addresses. Each time you’re spammed, block the sender’s address. Spammers skip from address to address, and you may be on many lists, but this method will at least slow the flow.

Also, use more than one e-mail address, and keep one “clean.” Many netizens find that this technique turns the spam flood into a trickle. Use one address for only spam-safe activities like e-mailing your friends, or signing on with trustworthy businesses. Never use your clean address on the web! Get a free address to use on the web and in chat rooms.

If nothing else helps, consider changing screen names, or opening an entirely new e-mail account. When you do, you’ll start with a clean, spam-free slate. This time, protect your e-mail address!

Stay Off Spammed Lists in the Future

Want to surf the web without getting sucked into the spam-flood? Prevention is your best policy. Don’t use an easy-to-guess e-mail address. Keep your address clean by not using it for spam-centric activities. Don’t post it on any web pages, and don’t use it in chat rooms or newsgroups.

Before giving your clean e-mail address to a business, check the company out. Are sections of its user agreement dedicated to anti-spam rules? Does a privacy policy explain exactly what will be done with your address? The most considerate companies also post an anti-spam policy written in plain English, so you can be absolutely sure of what you’re getting into.

Think You’re Not a Spammer? Be Sure.

Many a first-time marketer has inadvertently spammed his audience. The first several hundred complaints and some nasty phone messages usually stop him in his tracks. But by then, the spammer may be faced with cleanup bills from his ISP, and a bad reputation that it’s not easy to overcome.

The best way to avoid this situation is to have a clear understanding of what spam is: If anyone who receives your mass e-mails did not specifically ask to hear from you, then you are spamming them.

Stick with your gut. Don’t buy a million addresses for $10, no matter how much the seller swears by them! If something sounds fishy, just say no. You’ll save yourself a lot in the end.

The Final Blow

The online world is turning the tide on spam. In the end, people will stop sending spam because it stops working. Do your part: never buy from a spammer. When your business seeks out technology companies with which to work, only choose those with a staunch anti-spam stance.

Spam has a long history in both the food and e-mail sectors. This year, Hormel Foods opened a real-world museum dedicated to SPAM. While the museum does feature the Monty Python SPAM Skit, there’s no word yet on an unsolicited commercial e-mail exhibit. But, if all upstanding netizens work together, Hormel’s ham in a can will far outlive the Internet plague that is UCE.

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 Richard Seng

The Important Features of Spam FiltersIt is estimated that in 2007 of the 40.6 billion emails sent out daily that 52% of them will be spam. 10.9 billion of them will invade our corporations and 10.2 billion will be sent to home computers. These statistics come from surveys by Radicati Group Inc. a marketing and consulting firm in Palo Alto California.Top 2 Spam Filtering Software Programs 1. 2. It is projected that in just 3 years spam will make up around 70% of the 82.3 billion emails sent daily. What are we to do? Never fear, spam filtering software is here.Spammers will forever be conjuring up new methods to invade our email inboxes. Not only does spam consist of unwanted advertisements, but it can also transmit adware, viruses, or spyware on to our computers which can cause many costly problems.The good news is that a good quality anti spam software program can resolve your email problems. These types of programs can not only block all of the unwanted spam emails, but it will organize them into folders showing only wanted emails in your inbox.What Should a Superior Quality Spam Filter Program Do?• Sporn Blockers – Most high quality spam filters will block a great percentage of spammed pornography. Some go so far as to block “adult” orientated images.• Sort into White Lists and Black Lists – A white list includes accepted email addresses that you set up. Any emails not on this list will go to your black list where they are blocked, filed, or deleted.• Organization of Emails – Most of us do not want to block all emails. Many programs allow us to choose which emails we want to view. This is accomplished by choosing a program that gives you the ability to set up folders. The folders can be labeled according to your needs such as games, business, financial etc. Your incoming emails will be put into the appropriate folder.What Features to Look for in Spam Filter SoftwareEach program offers a wide variety of features. However, they are not all functional with every email service. So make sure you choose a program that will work with your email service..Easy to Use – Simplicity of a spam filter software is one of the most important features to look for. Drop down menus are very useful. Logically arranged icons that are helpful are a must.Simple Installation and Set up– Remember that if additional registration, downloads or other processes are needed this puts the program into the complicated category. A good spam filter program should be simple and quick to install without errors.Customization – Plan to purchase a flexible spam filtering program that will offer several different customization choices. These programs should offer the ability of the user to determine at what level they will have their emails filtered and organized.All levels of filtering should be offered all the way from high to low. A high filter option means that all emails that are not on the approved list will be blocked or deleted.A lower level filter will sort your emails and save them into your labeled folders so you can decide which ones to keep and which ones to delete.Features – The programs entire package of abilities and tools is called the features. The number one feature is that the spam filter software program you choose must work with your email service. This program should allow you to establish white lists and black lists. A superior program will allow you to set up rules about which emails you want to receive, block or delete. A good spam filtering program will allow you to establish folders in order to categorize your emails for you to determine which ones to keep and which ones to delete.Remember, it is your email and you should be able to control the content. Our lives are busy enough today, without having to spent unnecessary time plowing through unwanted spam. So purchase a spam filtering software program today and let it do the sorting and deleting for you. You’ll add hours to your week.

from sachinagg01

In today world on internet we see many ads almost on all big and small sites targeting anti spam software and anti spam appliances. They force us to purchase and download anti spam appliance and anti spam software to get rid from spamming and spam mails.

But many of us are not aware from spamming, spam mails and what are the bad effects of all these? How to use and choose anti spam software and anti spam appliances to get rid all of these. This is necessary to know first, what is your need, before using anti spam software and anti spam appliance. So here you would get proper information about spamming, spam mail, anti spam appliance and anti spam software.

Spam mails are those mails which you get in your mail box by many marketers, banks, shopping malls etc. These mails consists many exciting offers to attract you. These are the unwanted emails which you get in mail box. Main reason for these kinds of mails is that it is the easiest and cheapest way of internet marketing. Many internet marketers collect the data of email ID’s then they send mails with various offers to these mail ID’s. Every day you get many mails in your mail box. But due to these spam mails you are not able to find and read your personal and important mails by send your relatives, friends and partners. These spam mails make you irritate and you avoid checking your mailbox. Spam mails are also known as junk mails, bulk mails, business mails and unsolicited junk e-mail.

Main drawback of these kinds of mails is that they disturb your computer’s personal information. Some of spam mails contain spyware. These spyware take your IP address and always try to change your personal information and harm your computer security. This is a very serious matter raised by the spam mails.

The unwanted commercial e-mail, known as Spam, is turning out to be an acute threat for the organizations and even individual users. In present time, spam, or the unsolicited junk e-mail, has become one of the biggest hazard intimidating the Web world, and removing this menace from the computers has become a ‘task’ in itself. As per expert researches, worldwide, the cost of spam varies from millions to billions of dollars. All the security companies and researchers are working hard to find out ways to get rid of this ever-increasing giant and integrate spam filters into popular mail systems like Microsoft Exchange Server 2000, 2003 and 2007.

www.itanetworks.com offers many anti spam software and anti spam appliance for more popular mail systems like Microsoft Exchange Server 2000, 2003 and 2007. At www.itanetworks.com you could download all the anti spam software and anti spam appliance for free trial.

visit www.itanetworks.com

from Nicolaas Theron

You may imagine a world wide web where there is no more spam. That would be wonderful. However, the reality is that the spamming operations of a relatively small number of internet users result in the massive amounts of spam that are being sent on a daily basis. Sad, but true. It takes only one fly in your soup to make you complain to the waiter.

If you want to be free of spam, you should at least use some kind of spam filter for your computer. A spam blocker is a software application that scans and orders your incoming e-mail messages and attempts to filter out unwanted messages. A spam blocker is normally not 100% effective, but it takes a lot of the manual work in reading through and deleting unsolicited e-mails off your hands.

There are numerous free anti spam software that you may consider using. This can help you to clean up your inbox by removing junk mail easily. You may do a search engine search for the keyphrase ‘free anti spam’ and review each of the results until you find a free spam blocker software you like.

An example of a free spam blocker is POPfile. This is a good e-mail POP and NNTP proxy that filters out junk mail while ordering your normal mail.

It is important that you learn the basics concerning how to stop spam. Be sure to install and use a spam filter for all your e-mail addresses. This will help you get closer to no more spam in your inbox.

You probably already know that spam is unwanted, but is it illegal? A big problem with spam law is that the world wide web has grown so quickly. Spam law has been lagging behind and is still a bit confused about what is considered to be spam and what is not. Just remember that junk mail is illegal when unsolicited as well as sent in bulk.

Email spam wastes a lot of time and inbox space. This is true for individuals as well as big companies. Companies and individuals want to deal with junk mail safely and easily. This has created a big need for effective anti-spam software.

Stopping spam is proving to be difficult. If the anti spam law of one country makes it too difficult to work there, the spam gangs simply relocate to a different country with a weaker spam law.

You may need a spam filter if you desire to be free of spam mail. Spam blocker software blocks messages it decides is junk mail and keeps them from appearing in your inbox. It may accidentally block messages you wanted to read, but on the whole it is quite useful.

You can help the fight to eliminate spam by using a spam filter or complaining to your internet service provider about it. Also, never respond to any spam email you receive. Spammers are after all criminals engaging in unlawful behavior. This may help us towards a world wide web with no more spam.