July 19, 2007
Spam filter is the solution that most people resort when they try to steam the flood of junk mails and spam.
However, there is a problem!
First: Some spam will still get through.
Second: Some legitimate mails will be stopped as spam.
And that legitimate messages get caught in the spam filters is a big problem. It is a big problem for both the sender and for the receiver. If you use POP accounts on your ISP or use free email accounts like Hotmail you will sometimes be forced to use their spam filters. You are often not even told that legitimate messages may be deleted.
Why will they get stopped?
There are several reasons!
Spam filters may give red flag to an email simply because it contains words which the filters also find in spam messages.
Often newsletters you sign up to get blocked because too many messages are sent out at the same time or some subscriber have complained accusing the sender of spamming. The rules of the spam filters changes over time as this is an ever going arms race between the spammers and the anti spam filter manufacturer.
So how can you stop the flood of spam hitting your email account?
Simple, you have to go stealth!
Look at email spamming as a war.
Using spam filters is like putting on armor. It gives you protection, but it will also cost you and give you less flexibility.
The spam sending gangs, there are estimated to be fewer than hundred worldwide, machine gun bombard only email accounts which they can find.
This means that if they can’t find your email address they can’t spam you.
So how do they find you?
Contrary to popular beliefs they don’t find your email address because you sign up to a newsletter or to legal product information.
Instead they collect or harvest email from web sites using spam boots. The spam boots works in a similar way as web content collecting search engine spiders except they only collect email addresses. They also collect email address from address books found inside email software like Outlook or Eudora. They do this by using viruses and spywares.
Your solution to avoid getting on their lists is to go stealth and become invisible to the spammers!
What do I mean by that?
Simple you hide your email address or addresses from the email harvesting spam boots. But at the same time if you have your own web site you want your viewers to be able to read or click on your contact email.
One common solution is to rewrite the email address on the web site.
Let’s say you email is: info@mysite.com
You can rewrite the address as info@REMOVEmysite.com, info @ mysite.com, infoATmysite.com or something similar. The email address is then readable by human viewers, not by the spammers. The downside of this method is that the email address is not clickable from your web site.
Another method which is preferred by commercial web sites is to use a contact form that also hides the address from the spammers.
One solution which I use and have found to work well is to hide the address from the spam boots with java script. The address then becomes clickable for the viewers. You can learn how to use java script and hide your email addresses from the spammers at http://www.data-backup-and-storage.com/stop-spam.html
You should also use firewall and anti virus software as a protection so that spammers don’t get access to the email addresses from within your computer. As an extra precaution you should also use spyware removal software. This will remove possible spyware from your computer. All this measures should protect you from spammers and their spying eyes.
However, be careful! With this method in order to work you should adopt a strict email discipline and limit the number of people with access to your email addresses and not spread them around.
But, what if your emails already have been spread into the spammers mailing lists?
It is important to understand that the spammers want new and fresh email addresses.
Therefore they continuously harvest the Internet for addresses.
The answer is, use Google!
With Google you will find the web pages on which your email addresses are located. Just perform consecutive searches using Google typing in one of your email address in the search box.
You can then contact the owners of those sites and ask them to remove the email address.
Result:
The spam will not stop immediately, but after a couple of months the flow will start to recede.
Copyright 2004 Per Strandberg
About The Author
Per Strandberg works with computer security and he also manage an information site dealing with data backup technology. Learn working data backup strategies at ==> http://www.data-backup-and-storage.com/computer-backup.html
Discover different ways to get rid of spam at ==> http://www.data-backup-and-storage.com/stop-spam.html
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July 17, 2007
Hands down, email is the most widely used and loved computer
application brought to life by the Internet.
According to the publication ‘Messaging Today’ (2000 Electronic
Mailbox Report - Feb. 21, 2001), “Email is the most successful
communications technology since the television, and in a few
years will even surpass that. There are currently more than 891
million email accounts in use Worldwide and 440 million in the
U.S. alone - with an average of more than 4 email accounts per
person.”
While more than 200 million of us use and enjoy email, there
are a few thousand people abusing the system and damaging the
communication potential of email for the rest of us.
SPAMMERS ARE THE ENEMY OF US ALL!
The most common forms of email abuse are as follows:
- Using email harvesters (software which gathers email
addresses from the Internet for the purpose of sending
spam messages).
- Selling the addresses gathered from an actual opt-in email
list to someone who the recipient did not give contact
permission to personally.
- Buying the Millions CD’s and then requiring people to
opt-out of email, rather than to opt-in to the email.
- Providing remove addresses that do not work.
Generally, the persons using these spam techniques are morons
who are simply too lazy to learn how to develop an honest
online business or too impatient to build a business that will
last a lifetime. Let us not forget that “moron” is the key word
here since a spammers business will not generate enough income
to justify the cost of doing business the outlaw way.
LAZY LIVES ON BOTH SIDES OF THE STREET!
Spammers spam because they are too lazy to build an online
business the old-fashioned way — with honesty and integrity.
As a result of the spammers obnoxious laziness, the public
has been confronted with the growing nuisance of hundreds of
spam messages in their email boxes on a daily basis! I have
filtered more than 100 pieces per day to my trash bin, and I
still receive another 200 plus messages per day that I have
not set up filters for yet.
While I will admit that spammers are truly annoying, I must
confess that the general public has created new problems for
all of us! In the war against spam, email account holders
constantly suggest that their ISP’s must deal with the spam
issue for them.
ISP’S RESPOND
By putting the responsibility of controlling spam on the
shoulders of ISP’s, rather than hitting the delete key
ourselves, we have opened a whole new can of worms.
In truth, ISP’s cannot do too much to stem the tide of spam.
Yet, with so many angry customers, ISP’s felt a strong need
to find some kind of solution to the problem.
ISP’s had one of two options:
- RBL (Realtime Blackhole List) http://mail-abuse.org/rbl/
- Installing Email Filters
Neither is a perfect solution to the spam problem… In fact,
both are actually very poor solutions to the spam problem!
HOW SPAM FILTERS WORK
To understand the quandary created by the use of filters in the
war against spam, we must first understand how spam filters
work.
It is important to understand that filters are actually
software applications.
Software is not intuitive!
While a few software applications may seem intuitive, the
illusion exists only because the mind of the programmer was
able to foresee your desires for the use of the software.
Filtering software exists only as a set of rules to determine
the likelihood of a message being spam. Here is an outline of
some of the basic rules that spam filtering software follows:
1. If the origination email server is different from the email
server of the sender’s default email address, then it is
likely spam.
2. If the email is delivered to more than 25 people, it is
likely spam.
3. If the email originates from a specific server, then it is
likely spam. (This is the only rule that the RBL follows.)
4. If the email originates from a specific country TLD
(top-level domain), then it is likely spam.
5. If certain words appear in the Subject or Email Body, then
it is likely spam. (This is where the real problems begin!)
THE PANDORA’S BOX OF THE SPAM WARS
ISP’s who choose the filter option will either install a filter
on incoming email only, outgoing email only or a combination of
both.
With the fifth basic rule in the spam filtering software that
most ISP’s use, each ISP has a list of “spam words” that the
software scans for.
A few of the simpler, more obvious “spam words” follow:
- HGH
- DVD
- Casino
- Gambling
- Porn
- Million
- Billion
- Viagra
The first time I had experienced the ugly filter problem was
with my first ezine. My ezine was a computer support publication
and upon the introduction of a major virus, I tried to send
instructions to my list on how to identify the virus and to
repair its damage. Unfortunately, my list server had blocked
all messages that mentioned the name of the virus. (Never mind
that the actual payload email never mentioned the given name
for the virus!)
My second experience was in trying to send an article to a
friend because I felt the content of the article was important
for my friend to have. After seven attempts, I finally realized
what the blocked “spam word” was. If you can believe it, the
blocked word was Amazon.com !!!
Within the last 30 days, I had two outgoing emails blocked by
my own ISP.
The first was being delivered to a client of mine to inform
them that I had received their payment. The subject of the
email was “Payment Received” (a common subject of spam
messages) !!!
The second email hinged on an article I tried to deliver for
another client. The dreaded “spam word” was “gold” !!! We
had to change the name of the article to get the article past
my own ISP’s filters.
THE PROBLEM IN A NUTSHELL
Richard Lowe, the owner of http://www.Internet-Tips.net says,
“The Internet is communication. It’s as simple as that.”
The problem with ISP filtering is that the ISP cannot know
what we want to read and what we do not want to read. A single
ISP has clients who use the Internet for business, health,
family, research or any of a dozen different purposes.
The person who wants to use the Internet for family
communications usually has no interest in business topics.
And the online business person may have no interest in
family tree software or health products.
Yet, the ISP has no choice but to block all kinds of “spam
words” for the full range of communication subjects.
As a result, the family person may not see the information
concerning family tree software or other items regarding home
life, and the business person may not be able to receive
information vital to the operation of their business.
THE SCOPE OF THIS PROBLEM
We email junkies tend to subscribe to ezines covering a wide
range of personal preferences. Unfortunately, a large number
of ezines are being blocked by ISP’s because ezines tend to
meet at least two of the criteria built into most spam
filters (#1, #2 and sometimes #5).
Once again, the fifth basic rule is the dangerous one.
Spammers are using more and more common words in their
mailings that the ISP’s are beginning to block.
I can almost guarantee that if your own ISP was to turn off
their spam filters for a month, you would get to see for the
first time a large number of ezines that you subscribed to
way back when, but have never seen before.
Sure, you would see a large increase in the spam coming into
your email box, but you would also see all of the mail that
you want to receive that you have not been receiving.
WHERE SHOULD WE GO FROM HERE?
If we rely upon our ISP’s to do the filtering for us, then we
are committing ourselves to receive only the information that
our ISP’s filters are able to let us receive. It is as simple
as that.
It is like the news pundits on television say about the war on
terrorism, “We have a choice between freedom and security. The
more of one we have, the less of the other we will have.”
We have two choices:
1. We turn back the tide of ISP controlled communication and
accept the responsibility of setting up our own filters to
eliminate the garbage in our inbox.
2. Or, we continue to rely upon our ISP’s to filter the spam
by adding new words to their “spam word” lists, eliminating
all personal control from our personal communications.
TURNING BACK THE TIDE WILL REQUIRE SOME CONCERTED EFFORTS
Our ISP’s have been asked for so long to be our “Big Brother”
to stem the tide of spam. ISP’s have come to the point of
believing that we are children who need to be protected from
the “morons” who are destroying this incredible communications
tool.
To turn back this tide, we must be ready and willing to
accept the personal responsibility of controlling our own communications.
First, we must learn to use the tools included in our email
software that permit us to set up our own filters. Once we have
the basic understanding of how to set up our own email filters,
we must progress to step two.
In step two, we must contact our ISP and let them know that we
want to be responsible for ourselves. Our ISP must understand
that we DO NOT want them to run spam filters on their email
servers. We must declare that we do not them to baby-sit our
communications for us. We must emphasize that we want to decide
for ourselves what we want to read and what we do not want to
read! We must emphasize that we would rather use our delete
keys, than to rely upon their filters to not block any of our
important communications.
You and I alone will not be able to convince our ISP’s to
ditch the policy of acting as our “Online Big Brother”. But,
when enough of us have banded together and made our demands
for open communications clear, ISP’s will have to take notice
and turn off their filters for fear of losing their customer
base.
If we permit ISP controlled filters to continue to grow
unabated, the filters will eventually eliminate the real
value of email as a communications tool.
We must take a stand to reverse the focus of the War Against
Spam! We must take a stand now to reverse the tide, or we risk
the very real death of email communication and the Internet!
For more information about the “War Against Spam”, visit the
following links:
http://PathTrax.com/x.pl/BP121,spam_war_crossfire
http://PathTrax.com/x.pl/BP121,Will_Email_Kill_Email
Copyright Bill Platt - All Rights Reserved
Bill Platt is the owner of http://www.LinksAndTraffic.com
- When you are tired of the struggle of the link building process,
it might be time to consider our “Links And Traffic” services.
- When you are ready to employ more Natural Linking Strategies in
increasing your link popularity, “Links And Traffic” can help.
- When you are ready for your links to actually generate
click-through traffic, we are here.
This is not a link rental
system or a reciprocal linking scam. We Guarantee our results.
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June 21, 2007
Feeds are simple, really. What’s even more exciting is that they are extremely easy to use, and even better, they are completely safe from Viruses, being Spammed or receiving Junk Mail. How? Basically because there is no transfer of information to your computer.
Unlike e-mail, which is a transfer of information (data), feeds are read from files stored on someone’s server out in cyberspace. There is no transfer of data to your hard drive at all.
Even better than e-mail, you control what information you read.
Here’s an example of how you would find, add and use a feed.
Let’s say you are browsing the web and you come across a site you are interested in, let’s say a fashion site. Most sites are still using mailing lists, but will be using feeds in the very near future. If you sign up for their mailing list for example, because you may want to know when they have a sale, you will receive information via e-mail. But there could be a few problems with this. First viruses, spyware, adware, etc. are transferred via e-mail, many times without the knowledge of the person who sent it. Second, you may want to unsubscribe from the mailing list but the company may have made it difficult to do that. Third, you may want to actually read their e-mail but it gets recognized as Spam or Junk Mail by your mail program and you may never see it, or you may delete it because you are not sure if you should open it. Although many companies have used mailing lists successfully, they are now finding it frustrating because of Spam and Junk Mail filters, and unwanted Viruses, Spyware, Adware attachments, etc. Additionally the fewer places you leave you e-mail address, the better.
If the same fashion site has a feed however, you can use it to read their information any time you want, and you can delete the feed if you find that it’s not want you want.
The first thing you will do is to use a reader. We have a free reader that is easy to set up, and easy to use. Once you have the reader set up you simply add feed URL’s to your reader.
When you open your reader the top menu will have some options for you. With our free reader a small window opens when you start up the program. From that small window you can add a feed. The top menu as well will allow you to add a feed under the “File”, “New” option.
If sites are offering feeds they should give you the URL of the feed. For example our “OneFeed” feed is:
http://1feed.com/onlyfeed.xml
You would simply copy the above URL, and paste it into “New Feed” window and name it. It is automatically added and updated. You can add categories such as sports, news, weather, fashion, and home decor, whatever you want. You can start to add feeds to the different categories. The reader will update the feeds each time you start the program so that you have the latest updated information. You can even choose to just update certain feeds instead of all of them at once.
When you are viewing the feed you are viewing a file, a RSS or XML file, on a someone’s server. No information is transferred to your computer. The file contains information (items). Each item will contain a title, a short description and a link. A feed may contain one item or many items. For example one item may be titled “Lingerie Sale”, the description ,may read “40% off our winter stock of brand name lingerie”, and the link may point you to their home page or a sales page.
Another item may be an article on spring fashion, and yet another item may be a link to a top designer, etc.
You decide whether you view one item, some items or no items!
The best part is that the feeds are updated by the person or company on their server. When you view the feed tomorrow, it may contain different items or news of more sales, etc. You stay updated and you can receive information as it is posted.
The reader we use tells you if there are feeds on a web site when you visit it. You can then choose to add any or all of the feeds if you wish to your reader.
You control the feeds in the reader. You can delete any feeds at any time. Unlike Spam or Junk Mail they never return because you have to add them to your reader yourself.
This is an example of the way I may use feeds in the near future. If I need to go shopping I will check my reader for feeds from my local grocery store for sales and specials, and other retailers in my community. If I want to know about registration for minor baseball for my kids or what winter programs my local continuing education organization is offering I can check the feed of those community organizations. If I want to book a trip I can check the best online deals from the feeds of travle companies I use. I will save time and money by using my reader to find the best prices on the products and services I want and need, in my community, and from anywhere around the world.
The best part is that I control what feeds I view. I can delete any feeds that I want at any time. This puts me, and you in control!
Once you start using feeds to gather information, whether from online only sources, or from business and organizations in your community that will be using feeds, you will not want to get your information any other way!
To get a free reader and see exactly how feeds work and how they can benefit you please click here.
Read more articles by this author, about this and other subjects, here.
About The Author
Bob Power has been an Internet entrepreneur for longer than he would like to remember. He is currently on a voyage of learning, thanks to his readers, who have asked him to answer questions about topics they want more information on. You can see some of the surprising, and at times exciting results, and variety of topics and paths this has taken him on, or to contact Bob Power please click here.
These articles may be reproduced exactly as shown above. No revisions or changes are permitted.
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June 18, 2007
Just about everyone has opened up their email to find correspondence from people and websites that we have never heard of selling all manner of commercial products. This sort of mail often concerns gambling, pharmaceutical products, diet methods, and sexual enhancement aids, and get rich quick schemes. It is also not unusual to find bogus sales pitches, sales opportunities, and scams such as the famous Nigerian fraud in which the email recipient is tempted to share in an an expatriate fortune. One of the newer spam-scam gambits is phishing, the most obvious examples of which are phoney PayPal and Ebay emails asking you to verify your account. Does this sound familiar? Well, this is spam, and it is billion dollar bulk email industry funded by naivete of the population at large.
How do you distinguish spam from legitimate email? You can often tell simply by the fact that you may not recognize the name of the sender, or the sender has name that is gibberish or composed of numbers. Often the subject line concerns gambling, pornography, or an offer to make thousands of dollars in 24 hours. In many cases, spammers are able to create email that is almost identicle to a respected source, such as your bank, or PayPal, or Ebay. In other cases, the subject lines may indicate that the message is responding to your email. Other spammers are able to create phoney returned mail. That is, they want you to think that you have sent an email that has bounced back.
A general rule of thumb is to always read the to and from address fields in all email that you receive. If you find strange addresses or anonymous addresses, or scrambled alpha-numeric addresses (for example, x78sf2z@scammail.com) then you have spam. And if you have spam, you’ve got scam. And the point of scam is to part you from your money.
How to stop spam? Identifying it as quickly as possible is the first step to ridding this invasive email from your in-box. However, should you click on spam, or worse yet, divulge your email address, you are on the way to having a serious problem. Once your email address is in circulation among the spammer population, you have virtually opened your email “door” and invited an unwelcome and unending hoard of junk mail in. Spammers use your natural curiousity–indeed they count on it–against you to tempt you into opening their mail.
Remember, the point of spam is to get you open the email. Once opened you have, at the very least, verified that your email address is active. To a spammer, an active email address means money either because you will divulge additional information–such as a credit card number–at a later date, or because you email addres can be sold to someone else. Also, keep in mind that spammers only need a very tiny response rate to be successful because they are sending out millions upon millions of emails a day. With that kind of volume going out, even a return rate of .0001% can be very profitable.
If you are truly swamped by spam, you may need to get a new email address. However, you can begin to clean up your email by not opening spam and using anti-spam software to weed out junk mail. Such software is now very sophisticated, not all that expensive and although not perfect, very effective at cutting out most of spam. Most of the big, free email services such as Yahoo!, Google, MSN, and Hotmail now also provide effective spam filtering. However, keep in mind that spam reduction–like good housekeeping–begins with you.
Find out more about spam control and elimination and how to stop email spam by visiting our blog at http://www.spam-control-center.com
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