Top Ten Junk Email Do's and Don'ts

Written by Esu Matra


Top Ten Junk Email Do's and Don'ts © 2003 - Esu Matra

First, a definition (several definitions, actually)...

Spam Email: Refers generally to email communication that you do not want, from senders that you do not have any existing business relationship with, sent in large quantities of mostly identical messages. Also refers to junk email, UCE (Unsolicited Commerical Email), and sometimes to bulk email.

It seems that email usage has turned from being a window onrepparttar world to being in a cell in a fortress or castle. You are afraid that you don't have enough defenses. You don't like being inrepparttar 132729 fort, because you remember that only a short while ago this same location was a beautiful open field.

We wroterepparttar 132730 preceding paragraph before attendingrepparttar 132731 momentous U.S. FTC Spam Forum that ended in May 2003. The forum was attended by people on all ofrepparttar 132732 many sides ofrepparttar 132733 "anti-junk-email" war. But, at least one ofrepparttar 132734 panel members echoedrepparttar 132735 feeling thatrepparttar 132736 junk email problem will be solved when your email in-box operates like it did when you (for you internet old-timers) first started. In those days, you just got email from people and organization you knew, andrepparttar 132737 "open field" of email communication really was beautiful - no junk.

The attendees atrepparttar 132738 FTC conference and other similar forums about junk email do not always agree onrepparttar 132739 definition of, repparttar 132740 best solution to, orrepparttar 132741 scope ofrepparttar 132742 junk email problem. But for most emailers, there is general agreement that it is a growing problem that they want stopped - fast!

There are many possible variations torepparttar 132743 top ten junk email DO's and DONT's list below. The items are presented with some humor to keep a light edge to a serious problem:

1. DON'T userepparttar 132744 unsubscribe option or reply to junk mails - this option atrepparttar 132745 bottom of a junk email message is a trick that spammers use to make sure thatrepparttar 132746 address is real. However, atrepparttar 132747 FTC forum it was reported that unsubscribing does not seem to increase spam, so it may not result in too much damage if you have unsubscribed or replied inrepparttar 132748 past. Also, if you remember subscribing torepparttar 132749 sender, and believe them to be reputable, then userepparttar 132750 unsubscribe option provided.

2. DO spend time complaining about spam, responsibly and appropriately. Do realize thatrepparttar 132751 sender of any email can be faked, along with other information. Your internet service provider (ISP) can help you in tracking downrepparttar 132752 real sender.

3. DON'T view or even pre-view a suspicious message while online. Why? The pictures used in some messages are only retrieved fromrepparttar 132753 spammer's computers when you viewrepparttar 132754 message, and at that time you could be tellingrepparttar 132755 spammers that you receivedrepparttar 132756 message. It has been observed that identical junk messages may have different codes - possibly to get past email filters, or possibly to track who opensrepparttar 132757 messages. Note that some online webmail providers allow you to not retrieve images when viewing messages, and this option is recommended to prevent spamsters from measuring repparttar 132758 effectiveness of their work.

Here Comes the SPAM...

Written by Irina


----------------------------------------------------------- TITLE: Here Comesrepparttar SPAM... AUTHOR: Irina LENGTH: 703 words FORMAT: 59 characters per line CONTACT: irbonness@ureach.com --------------------------CUT HERE-------------------------

Here Comesrepparttar 132727 SPAM...

By Irina

=========================================================== The author grants permission to publish this article, in its entirety, electronically or in print, as long asrepparttar 132728 bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication (or, at least, an e-mail notification) sent to irbonness@ureach.com will be appreciated. ===========================================================

I exercise regularly and follow a healthy diet. My weight is right onrepparttar 132729 money. So every invitation "to loose 30 pounds in 20 days" insults more than just my intelligence and literary taste. Yet until now I managed to treat Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) or simply SPAM as a nuisance that wastes my time and resources, but does not represent a serious problem. Not any more!

The message that changed my attitude looked rather innocent: "Hello [fname], I am so-and-so. You are receiving this message because I saw your online business site..." The next day I got another similar message from different so-and-so. Soon,repparttar 132730 number escalated to a dozen a day. Very disturbing was also repparttar 132731 fact thatrepparttar 132732 messages were arriving to my "strictly business" email addresses reserved exclusively for my customers and business partners. A little research quickly revealedrepparttar 132733 name of my new enemy - Spam Bot.

Spam Bot is much like a search engine spider. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week it crawls from page to page looking for email addresses. Even single Spam Bot is able to quickly produce huge list of addresses (only addresses - that's why they called me [fname]!) which are used to send SPAM. Unfortunately, there are many of them... Another problem is that being extremely easy to generate and thus very cheap, these lists are sold and re-sold over and over again to naïve (obtuse?) "netrepreneurs".

Looks like a serious self-perpetuating problem for anyone with business email address posted onrepparttar 132734 Internet. Is there a solution? Well, yes - you can completely eliminate this type of SPAM by making your email address unrecognizable for Spam Bots. Here are several possible approaches:

1. Userepparttar 132735 FORM MAIL whenever possible. This not only conceals your email address, but also makes it easier for real visitors to contact you. Here is a working example: http://www.megaone.com/hbb/savemoney/ Anyone can email me a question by typing it inrepparttar 132736 window right on my page and hittingrepparttar 132737 "Submit Query" button. Yet repparttar 132738 address itself is hidden from my human visitors as well as Spam Bots.

Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
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