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Your entire
email
"Inbox" is
full of new
messages,
none of
which are
from your
friends.
When you
click on
them you
find that
the subject
lines are
often
misleading,
and you find
advertisements
or
misleading
information
to get you
to click
links to
websites.
Worse,
sometimes
you find
requests for
credit card
information
or eBay
passwords
which look
genuine, but
are in fact
efforts to
steal your
personal
financial
information.
What can you
do? |
What Is
"Spam Email"
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Spam email
is
unsolicited
email,
usually with
a commercial
focus. Other
names for
Spam include
"Unsolicited
Commercial
Email" (UCE)
or perhaps
more
accurately,
"Unsolicited
Bulk Email"
(UBE).
Spammers
will send
thousands,
and in some
cases
millions, of
emails to
try to lure
people into
buying their
products,
clicking on
"affiliate
links" or,
worst of
all, to try
to steal
confidential
personal and
financial
information
from
unwitting
recipients. |
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Please note
that a key
aspect of
"spam" is
that it is
unsolicited.
Sometimes
people
forget that
they have
signed up
for
information
from
particular
merchants,
or joined
particular
mailing
lists, and
confuse the
emails they
receive with
"spam". If
you asked
for it, it
isn't spam.
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Why Do I
Get Spam? |
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Most
people
who have
an email
address
for any
significant
amount
of time
receive
"spam
email",
and the
longer
you
maintain
a
particular
email
address
the more
spam you
are
likely
to
receive.
Spammers
create
lists of
email
addresses
by
collecting
them
from
websites,
buying
them
from
other
businesses,
and even
by
guessing
possible
names on
popular
email
hosts
such as
Yahoo!
mail and
Hotmail.
It is
possible
to buy
large
email
lists
for
relatively
small
amounts
of
money.
Once you
start
receiving
spam
from a
particular
email
address,
it
becomes
effectively
impossible
to
remove
your
name
from the
lists.
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Can I Get Off Spam
Mailing Lists? |
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There are two
types of
commercial email
that you will
receive:
commercial email
from legitimate
businesses, and
commercial email
from true
spammers.
Occasionally a
legitimate
business will be
tricked into
purchasing an
email list from
an unscrupulous
person, and may
send you an
advertisement
that you do not
want. However,
every
responsible
business that
sends bulk email
also makes it
easy to
unsubscribe,
usually through
a link contained
within the
email.
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Spammers often
include a fake
"unsubscribe"
link in their
email, but they
typically use
that link to
verify that your
email account
works as opposed
to actually
removing you
from the
account. Unless
you are
absolutely sure
that the email
is from a
legitimate
business, or is
for emails or a
newsletter to
which you
subscribed, you
should not use
the unsubscribe
feature.
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Unfortunately,
there tend to be
a lot more
illegitimate
spammers than
legitimate,
responsible bulk
e-mailers. This
means that even
if you
unsubscribe from
all of the
commercial email
you at one time
invited, you are
likely to
continue to
receive
increasing
quantities of
spam.
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With spam, as
the saying goes,
the best offense
is a good
defence. Be
vigilant about
your email
address, avoid
giving it to
people or
businesses you
don't know, and
don't let
anybody post it
on a website.
Some people
create "throw
away" email
accounts on free
email services
such as Yahoo!
mail or Hotmail,
so that they
have an address
they can give
out freely
without worrying
about getting
spam in their
"real" email
account. Once
the "throw away"
account starts
to receive spam,
they switch to a
new "throw-away"
account. Some
people even use
different email
addresses for
every
transaction they
make online,
save for
communication
with family and
friends, so they
can figure out
exactly who is
responsible when
they start to
receive spam. |
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Tips To Get Rid Of Spam? |
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Listed below are a
number of
suggestions
that can
help prevent
your email
address from
becoming a
target to
spammers. |
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Do not post
your e-mail
address in a
straight
form on the
Internet. If
you need to
post your
e-mail
address,
post it in a
disguised
form. |
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Check to see
if your
e-mail
address is
visible to
spammers by
typing it
into a Web
search
engine such
as
www.google.com.
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Lots of ISPs
provide free
e-mail
addresses.
Set up two
e-mail
addresses,
one for
personal
e-mail to
friends and
colleagues,
and use the
other for
subscribing
to
newsletters
or posting
on forums
and other
public
locations.
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Many ISPs
also offer
free spam
filtering.
If this is
available,
enable it.
Report
missed spam
to your ISP,
as it helps
reduce how
much spam
you and
other
members of
the same ISP
receive. If
your ISP
does not
offer spam
filtering,
use
anti-spam
software to
reduce the
amount of
spam
delivered to
your inbox. |
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When
replying to
newsgroup
postings, do
not include
your e-mail
address. |
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When filling
in Web
forms, check
the site's
privacy
policy to
ensure it
will not be
sold or
passed on to
other
companies.
There may be
a checkbox
to opt out
of third
party
mailings.
Consider
opting out
to receive
less opt-in
e-mail. |
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Never
respond to
spam. If you
reply, even
to request
removing
your e-mail
address from
the mailing
list, you
are
confirming
that your
e-mail
address is
valid and
the spam has
been
successfully
delivered to
your inbox,
not filtered
by a spam
filter, that
you opened
the message,
read the
contents,
and
responded to
the spammer.
Lists of
confirmed
e-mail
addresses
are more
valuable to
spammers
than
unconfirmed
lists, and
they are
frequently
bought and
sold by
spammers. |
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Do not open
spam
messages
wherever
possible.
Frequently
spam
messages
include "Web
beacons"
enabling the
spammer to
determine
how many, or
which e-mail
addresses
have
received and
opened the
message. Or
use an
e-mail
client that
does not
automatically
load remote
graphic
images, such
as the most
recent
versions of
Microsoft®
Outlook® and
Mozilla
Thunderbird. |
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Do not click
on the links
in spam
messages,
including
unsubscribe
links. These
frequently
contain a
code that
identifies
the e-mail
address of
the
recipient,
and can
confirm the
spam has
been
delivered
and that you
responded. |
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Never buy
any goods
from
spammers.
The spammers
rely on very
small
percentages
of people
responding
to spam and
buying
goods. If
spamming
becomes
unprofitable
and takes
lots of
effort for
little
return,
spammers
have less
incentive to
continue
spamming.
Would you
risk giving
your credit
card details
to an
unknown,
unreputable
source? |
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If you have
an e-mail
address that
receives a
very large
amount of
spam,
consider
replacing it
with a new
address and
informing
your
contacts of
the new
address.
Once you are
on lots of
spammers'
mailing
lists, it is
likely that
the address
will receive
more and
more spam. |
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Make sure
that your
anti-virus
software is
up to date.
Many viruses
and Trojans
scan the
hard disk
for e-mail
addresses to
send spam
and viruses.
Avoid
spamming
your
colleagues
by keeping
your
anti-virus
software up
to date. |
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Use the
firewall
included in
your
operating
system, or
use a
firewall
from a
reputable
company, to
avoid your
computer
being hacked
or infected
with a worm
and used as
a
spam-sending
zombie. |
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Do not
respond to
e-mail
requests to
validate or
confirm any
of your
account
details.
Your bank,
credit card
company,
eBay, Pay
Pal, etc.,
already have
your account
details, so
would not
need you to
validate
them. If you
are unsure
if a request
for personal
information
from a
company is
legitimate,
contact the
company
directly or
type the Web
site URL
directly
into your
browser. Do
not click on
the links in
the e-mail,
as they may
be fake
links to
phishing Web
sites. |
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Do not click
on unusual
links.
Confirm the
sender did
send the
e-mail if it
looks
suspicious. |
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Never give
out your
login
details to
anyone. |
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IT
departments
should train
their users
not to give
out
sensitive
information.
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How Do I Shield My
Children From Spam? |
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If your
children
have email
accounts, it
is likely
that they
too will
become the
targets of
spam.
Spammers are
often trying
to sell
products
which are
completely
inappropriate
for
children,
and spam
emails often
include very
graphic
pictures
from adult
websites.
There are
some
software
companies
which
produce
filters to
keep
inappropriate
Internet
content from
children,
and if used
they may
offer some
automatic
filtering of
such content
from your
children's
email
(particularly
if it is
web-based
mail).
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The best
approach to
keeping this
garbage out
of your
children's
email
account is
to set up
their email
so that they
can only
receive mail
from known
individuals.
That is, you
can set up
their email
on a service
which allows
you to set
up a list of
preferred
email
addresses,
while
blocking all
email from
any other
address.
That way,
once
approved,
your
children's
friends and
family can
send them
email, but
spammers
cannot.
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