Wishing You a Spam-Free New Year
January 11th, 2008Here’s a resolution everyone should make: Become spam-free in 2008!
Now, before we go any further, you should know that this may be impossible. But following a few guidelines, detailed below, may help to relieve your spam problem.
If you have been using your current e-mail address for years, and you are receiving boatloads of spam, using the measures described below may not stem the tide. It is far easier to prevent your address from getting on a spammer’s list, than to remove it once it’s there. Therefore…
Consider starting fresh with a new e-mail address! It’s simple to sign up for a new address with web-based e-mail providers Yahoo!, Gmail, or Hotmail. These providers have built-in anti-spam features. If the primary e-mail address you use is provided by your Internet service provider (ISP), it may be possible to change your address, or add a new one. And once you set up your new address, send out a “change of address” e-mail to everyone in your address book, and then start following the guidelines below.
But if you are loathe to give up your existing address for any reason, you can download and install an anti-spam program. On-Site Solutions does not endorse any specific anti-spam software, but here are a couple that come highly recommended:
Guidelines for Avoiding Spam
- Keep Your Address Private! Do not post your e-mail address on any web site, including your own (use a web-based form instead), other people’s guest books, MySpace, YouTube, FaceBook, Flickr, or any other social site or web forum. Spammers use software that comb web page after web page, looking for e-mail addresses.
Also, refrain from using your primary e-mail to sign up for anything online! That’s a good way to generate junk mail. This includes contests, free recipes, downloading wallpaper… anything!
If you really, really want to sign that guest book or download that wallpaper, you can type out your address in this manner: “your_name at email_service dot com”. A human being can understand this, but spambots do not. OR you could…
- Use a “Disposable E-mail Address”. Go to Yahoo!, Gmail, or some other free, online mail service, and create an address that you can easily remember. Use this when you need to leave your address in a “public place”. Save your primary address for friends, family, and business associates. You can also create an address used specifically for subscribing to newsletters and mailing lists.
- Uncheck Offer Boxes. Often when you sign up for accounts or purchase things online, there’s a little box down at the bottom asking if you would like to receive additional offers. Uncheck that box! Checking this little box gives the web site owner your permission to sell your e-mail address!
- Use the BCC Option. Most e-mail services have a “blind carbon copy” option, usually referred to as “BCC”. If you are sending an e-mail to a large number of people, don’t put all those addresses in the To: field… use the BCC: field instead. This is a courtesy to all the people you are e-mailing. By keeping their addresses hidden, you are helping to defeat the spammers.
When You Do Receive Spam…
- Don’t open it! Many spam e-mails contain code that will ping the spammer’s server to indicate that your address is valid. Then they will sell your address to a hundred more spammers.
- Don’t reply to it! Then they know for sure your e-mail address is valid, and they’ll sell it to a hundred more spammers.
- Don’t try to unsubscribe it! Again, this will signal a valid address to the spammer, and they’ll sell it to a hundred more spammers.
- Don’t participate in chain mail! Your address will get carried forward to thousands of other computers, and the potential for it to be harvested by spammers increases a thousand-fold.
- Do delete it! Preferably without even opening it!
Remember, if an e-mail is not addressed to you,
and it is not from someone you know…
it’s SPAM!
