Ban The Spam!
8 ways to beat the spammers!

The name spam was given to the receiving of unsolicited email. A spammer is someone who sends out many email messages - and a spammee? That's you! 

Most retail businesses need to contact their potential customers to tell them about products that they offer. Traditionally this is done through television and radio advertising, brochures and catalogues. The latter two often found in the letterbox or being given out by people in the street.

Each week I receive a letterbox full of junk mail. I flick through the mail to find the real stuff (often addressed to me and not the 'householder') and throw the rest away. 

Many businesses have a person who is nominated as the 'postmaster' and will go through the mountains of mail extracting mail that is actually real.

This system of dealing with junk mail and sorting physical mail has been a common chore for years and is no different to emptying your email box of spam - you pick through finding the real mail and junk the rest.

If you want to blame someone for your spam, blame yourself...

Most people reluctantly agree with our governments policy on physical mail/post, (In many countries it is illegal not to have a letterbox on your property or a registered postal address for your business) when you apply these legal norms to electronic mail it can add up to a lot of spam!

So here's 8 tips to beat the spammers:

1) Nominate a postmaster

If you run a business, alias all your email to a secretary's computer and have them 
process your email before forwarding it to you.

2) Use a Spam Filter

Download a free spam filter such as Mailwasher.

These sorts of programs will help you cull the email from your mailbox.

Try to find a spam filter that supports learning features such as a Bayesian Filter

If you're looking for a corporate spam filter solution, click here.

3) Use a Virus Scanner

It's pretty common sense to run a virus scanner on the computer that you receive email on.

Even if you have purchased virus scanning services from your ISP it is still a good idea to run your own scanner.

Some sophisticated spammers are deploying spam laden with viruses and spam-bot client software.

If your spam software doesn't pick up the spam there's a chance your virus scanner will. Check out AVG's free personal virus scanner.

4) Run a Firewall

If you have a hardware firewall such as is common with most ADSL installations you still need to run a software firewall on each PC behind it.

A firewall can often alert you to spam-bot software connection attempts and stop most network exploits. Check out Sygate's Free personal Firewall

5) Use a hosts Blocker

You'd be surprised just how well host-blocking can work. Addresses of well known advertising and spy-ware sites are blocked instantly.

Obviously large lists should be avoided but basic hosts blocking can save you from all manner of worms, trojans and spy-ware sites all trying their hardest to install nasties on your computer.

6) Keep your Computer Updated

Keep your computer software updated.

You should use Windows Update and a to keep your Windows operating updated with the latest security patches

Once your computer has had a virus or a Trojan there is a whole manner of different ways for people to re-compromise your system and re-gain access to your outlook folders and the email addresses it contains. 

In critical situations, the only way to truly eradicate an attack or outbreak is a complete hardware replacement with none of the original data, but sometimes this just isn't possible.

If you have suffered a hacker, virus or worm outbreak RJL Development can help you recover as quickly as possible

Always update your email client (particularly if it's outlook) to the latest version because recent email worms can use exploits in your email client to side-step some older virus scanners!

7) Register with ADMA

You can register your address, email and telephone number on the Australian Direct Marketing Association do-not-call list

8) Hide your email addresses

Many spammers use programs to search the internet for email addresses. 

The easiest place to get email  addresses from is from domain registries...

Each domain name has to have a registered contact email address that can be viewed easily from the web and can be 
interrogated numerous times directly using WHOIS to build up a massive list of email 
addresses that can be spammed to.

If you run a website then you may have had the spammers stop by. While it is important to be well indexed on search engines so your customers can find you - this can work against you in the amount of spam you 
receive. The spammer's email spider will follow website links and find your email addresses 

Spammers often follow results for specific search engine queries which can yield email addresses from a particular industry...

Even if your email address is not actually written on the site in full (but is linked) spammers will be able to find your address in the website code and add it to their list.

The smartest way to hide your addresses is to use a technique that involves a programming language called JavaScript.

When a user running a browser visits your website they will be able to see your email address and click it, but when a spammer runs their email spider over your web site, your email addresses will be hidden from the spammer and the spammer will be unable to automatically add you to his list of email addresses.

RJL Development can provide this feature for new or existing web sites.
Click here to contact RJL Development

The bottom line is that if you don't do something now to protect your email address - you could find yourself having to switch email addresses in the future. 

Once spammers have your email address the only way to stop their spam is to change your email address. If you're running a business this change could cost you your existing email customer base!

Last updated: 14 Apr 2008

News Directory