PC Help Jansant - Managing SPAM

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A Guide to Stopping and Managing Spam Mail

Welcome to the guide for managing Spam e-mail, spam e-mail is one of the most annoying things to anyone who uses e-mail regularly. No one likes downloading their mail and spending the next 10 minutes deleting spam. In addition, if your paying for the amount of bandwidth you use then it adds to your monthly Internet bill.

The first and most important thing with spam is never reply to it. Most spam will invite you to reply, unsubscribe from a mailing list, this is really just a way for them to confirm you address is real. Do not reply, this is the best way to reduce the amount of spam you receive.

Spam e-mail is unsolicited commercial e-mail, mostly trying to sell you something.

There are also various scams that use e-mail, we've all heard of the Nigerian guy who wants to deposit a fortune into your bank account. Lately those scams have become much more wide spread and harder to spot. Masquerading as banks asking you to follow a link, log in and check your details are correct. Called e-mail spoofing, these e-mail's appear to come from a trusted domain such as your bank, Pay Pal or other institution. Even the links in these e-mail's can appear to be genuine. Never reply to these e-mail's and never use a link from an e-mail to access an account that contains personal, financial, or sensitive information. Its a good idea to contact your bank, Pay Pal etc if you receive a fraudulent e-mail, let them know.

How did they get my e-mail address?

Spammers obtain your e-mail by various methods;

Dictionary attacks use software to create millions of possible addresses for a given domain such as guessed@mail.com. They don't actually know your address, the software just had a stab in the dark and got lucky. This is where not replying comes into play, only if you reply do they know you exist, if you don't reply you will fall off the list.

Purchasing lists often from people running dictionary attacks on domains. Some unscrupulous web-sites will sell their e-mail lists also. Be selective about who you provide your e-mail to.

E-mail harvesters scan web-sites for e-mail addresses, including bulletin boards, chat rooms, and forums. I've tried different methods of hiding my e-mail address on my web-sites but none have worked. If your e-mail address is on the web, expect more spam as a result.

So what can I do?

The best way to combat spam is to use a spam filter. These programs filter out what it thinks is spam and places it in a separate folder. Spam filters are available for all the most popular e-mail clients like Outlook and Outlook Express, Thunderbird has its own built in spam filters. Be warned though, as good as these filters are at detecting spam, occasionally they all filter out messages you may want. Before you delete your spam folders have a quick look through just to be on the safe side. The up side is the longer you use them, the better they get and the less likely they are to filter out wanted mail. If your like me and get sometimes hundreds of spam messages a day, you may want to start using a web-based e-mail like Gmail. I use Gmail now, it has excellent spam filters, almost 7GB of inbox space, and I have it set up to look like it comes from my domain. If your tired of waiting ages to download mostly spam, and paying for the privilege in extra download fees, a web-based account is an excellent choice.

Report Spammers

If your sick and tired of spam and want to fight back, the best way is to report it to the correct authorities. Most countries now have anti-spam laws and you can report spam.

In the US report spam by forwarding a copy to spam@uce.gov

To report spam e-mail's originating from the UK, make a complaint by filling out this Word form here.

To report spam in Australia you have various options;
fill out a form for e-mail spam here
fill out form for SMS and MMS here
fill out form for instant messaging here.
To make reporting spam easier the Australian government has created software that can be installed into Outlook and Outlook express that deletes and reports spam, find it here.
If you use different software then you can register online for a key, you can then report spam to a dedicated e-mail address.

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