Quite a few big companies also utilize Spam techniques. Many people abhor such intrusion on their time and privacy but many people like to get mail. The popularity of email lists is growing. Many new list servers have come.

How can you deal with Spam?

Simply hit reply button and write stop in Subject. Most people will honor your advice except mischief-makers Unless you find that Spam is due to ignorance of internet rules, do not waste time in writing to advise that you find spamming to be invasive and annoying, and urge them to stop practice immediately However, many spammers hide their real email address and many such replies bounce.

In such cases, you can write to postmaster of spammer's Internet

service provider, complaining that they are disturbing your privacy. This is not always effective, as unscrupulous spammers have found ways to make their messages appear to originate from another provider entirely. But if your message does get through, Internet service provider may cancel spammer's account.

Laws are rapidly changing. The business organizations and individuals can get into trouble if they display total disregard to rules regarding email broadcast. In Europe and US laws and rules are enforced strictly and many people lose their ISP for spamming.

The all-time classic to report spam to is not-for-profit Mail Abuse Prevention System LLC. < http://mail-abuse.org/ >

The Network Abuse Clearinghouse is a complaint service that will forward your spam complaints to culprits flooding your mail box. < http://www.abuse.net/ >

The MMF Hall of Humiliation takes approach of ridicule to combat spammers. Lots of parodies and spoofs of obnoxious unsolicited commercial emails, and more. Still, it has a very serious background, informing in detail about fraud indictments and offering rudimentary legal analysis of spam scams. < http://ga.to/mmf/ >

This site offers monthly case studies of reporting spam and lists successes. You'll see that while it's quite an uphill battle, it can be done. < http://www.obliquity.com/computer/spambait/ >

Reporting Tools --------------- Some abuse reporting tools are listed here: < http://www.abuse.net ools.html >

As for anything on net, there's a fitting mailing list available for people interested in software tools that detect and process unsolicited bulk e-mail: < http://www.abuse.net/spamtools.html >

Proactive Strategies --------------------

UXN Spam Combat offers a nice one-page form aggregating all tools you need to solve spam problem, ranging from NSlookup and Trace Routing to Pings, decoding of obfuscated web URLs, etc. Very useful. < http://combat.uxn.com/ >

Uni-encoding email addresses displayed on your web site is still a very efficient method of thwaring email address harvesters or extractor bots: < http://fantomaster.com/famshield0.html >

This page offers you tools to "poison" spambots with by feeding them tons of invalid email addresses. While this admittedly places some strain on bandwidth and system resources, it's also pretty easy to crash a spammer's system this way - ah, sweet revenge! < http://fantomaster.com/faantispamtip2.html >

Many spammers are now offering their pathetic wares not via internet but offline, preferably using toll free numbers. This article outlines a strategy on where and how to hit them hard - in their pockets! < http://fantomaster.com/faantispamtip3.html >

Probably most effective method of prevention is blocking spammers and their harvester bots from your web site altogether. This tip expounds strategy to pursue. < http://fantomaster.com/faantispamtip4.html >

The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email (CAUCE) is an international organization promoting anti-spam legislation. < http://www.cauce.org/ > They also publish "True Tales of Spam" here, where you may see your own story featured some day if you wish tp submit it: < http://www.cauce.org ales/index.shtml >

Fighting spam with procmail under Unix is discussed in detail here: < http://www.itworld.com/App/354/lw-03-geek_1/ >

The Mega Zine SpamScript software generates tons of bogus email addresses on fly to feed (and crash!) spambot systems with. < http://www.softham.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/spam_bots.htm >

For people who can't run CGI on their systems, here's a remotely hosted version of spam script: < http://www.softham.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/spam_bots.htm >

Tips on how to lure in spambots to special, "poisoned" sections of your site while keeping away innocent visitors can be found here: < http://www.turnstep.com/Spambot/lure.html >

Articles -------- Steven Champeon, Save Your Site from Spambots. Techniques to Prevent Address Scraping < http://webtechniques.com/archives/2001/08/champeon/ >

Spambot Fighting site: < http://www.turnstep.com/Spambot/ >

Humor ----- As a comic aside, spam haikus (some more, some less witty) are featured by chockfull here: < http://www.mmfhoh.org/mmf/haiku.html >

Finally, yours truly's "Spam Sonnet" is offered as an educative example of what spam can inflict on sensitive artistic mind ... < http://fantomaster.com/faantispamtip5.html >