Steps to Reducing SPAM in Your Inbox

Spam first made its mark in the world in 1978 when Gary Thuerk, Marketing Director of Digital Equipment Technology sent an email solicitation to 400 employees at Arpnet. The email created a few sales, but it also created fierce backlash. Today, more than 180 billion spam messages are sent out each day to over 1 billion Internet users. This staggering statistic makes it clear why spam is such a major problem for Internet users. Many companies are working hard to solve the spam problem, but the first step to stopping spam starts with the consumer.

By following the steps below, Internet users can reduce the number of spam email messages they receive in their inbox.

Before an Invasion of Spam

Software:
Choose email providers that offer built-in spam protection services. Look for service providers that promote a high success rate of blocking spam email.

Spam Filters:
Spam is a cat and mouse game. Spammers are constantly looking for ways to bypass filters. Regularly check your spam filter software if you’re using non-web based email to make sure it is up to date. If you’re using web-based email,m make sure your webmail provider is working hard to protect you from spam.

Improve Security:
A firewall may be one of the most important applications on a computer. It acts as a barrier between hackers and the computer, and prevents access to unauthorized information.

Limit Email Dispersal:
When performing online transactions, thoroughly scan the page for any checked and unchecked boxes. Some companies will word these boxes in a way to increase the likelihood of a consumer opting-in to their email campaigns.

Shop From Known Vendors:
Shopping from known vendors can greatly reduce the threat of spam email. Many companies are guilty of selling email addresses to third parties, which are then used for spam. The company’s privacy policy is supposed to list their intended uses of your personal information, such as whether they will sell your email address to third parties. Consumers can check the Better Business Bureau’s and the FTC’s (Federal Trade Commission) websites for lists of reputable companies and for lists of violators.

Once Spam Becomes a Problem

Internet users should avoid opening spam. It should be immediately deleted. Pay close attention to the senders email address as most spammers use deceptive subject lines intended to promote opening. If opened, avoid attachments, which may contain viruses, and do not purchase goods or donate to charities solicited in the message. Many spam email messages will have unsubscribe links at the bottom of the message, as dictated by the CAN-SPAM Act.

If consumers find themselves with an inbox full of spam, they can also report the spam emails to their Internet Service Provider.

There are numerous companies and organizations designed to regulate the Internet and protect users. But, it is important that Internet users are informed of the threats of spam. By following the stated suggestions and by not falling victim to the ploys of spammers, users can help put spammers out of business, and keep their inbox free of junk email.

The Threat of Spam and Basic Preventative Measures

Everyone who uses the internet has more than likely been targets of spam at one time or another. At first they are easy to dismiss for internet experienced persons, however for the inexperienced user of the internet, the messages contained can sometimes be intimidating and in some instances lead to trouble (I will come onto a personal example later).

Spam can take several forms; email and search engine spam are just two, but the one we will concentrate on in this article, and also the one you will, and have most likely encountered, is via email.

Spam is defined as unsolicited bulk mail, much of which is caught in your “bulk” or “trash” folder found in your email service provider control panel. You have probably often seen a mass of these types of emails in you bulk folders when checking for email that you actually have consented to receive, as many emails are caught by spam filters even though they should not. The majority of spam you may receive will be of a sexual or gambling nature, however over the past few months I have noticed an ever-increasing number of scam emails asking for sensitive information, claiming to be someone they are not.

Paypal and eBay scams are a prime example of these types of emails known as “phishing scam emails”. The email will be along the lines of:

“We have noticed an irregularity in your account details and require you to update them immediately. Failure to do so will result in the permanent closure of your account”

You can see how these emails can be pretty alarming to an inexperienced internet user who may only occasionally use the internet to sell or buy items on eBay for example. Some of the emails will look very convincing, and will use the images and symbols of the respective company, however be very cautious and take heed to the following important point:

If you are unsure of the legitimacy of the email, do not follow any link contained within the email to an external website. Instead, type the website address that you know is correct into your browser directly, so that you are safe in the knowledge that you are not using a fraudulent website.

Failure to do this may result in your account being hijacked by the scammer; it’s as easy as this. You follow the link in the email to a website claiming to be, and also looking very much like one where you have an account. The website will ask you to input your username and password to access your account and voila, you will have now sent this information to the scammer, allowing them access to your account containing sensitive information about you.

Another type of email scam that has been very popular is where you are notified to be the very lucky winner of a lottery, even though you have never entered the lottery in the location claiming your success! This is where the example of a personal experience comes in. Many people reading this will be thinking “I’ll never fall for one of these scams”, however the unfortunate reality is that many people will do so. An elderly relative of mine received one of these lottery scams from Spain, and then insisted on following up with the email scam, even though they had never even entered the lottery draw. The only stumbling block was that the bank account details required, needed to be sent by fax, which she couldn’t do, and despite the frustration that this caused I of course refused to help send it.

There are measures that you can take to help avoid being targeted by spammers; a few have been mentioned here. However, in addition never reply to a scam email as it will notify them that the email address is live and also that you have read the email, leading to further spam.

Of course there are many other threats from spam that are not discussed here, such as viruses and trojans being sent via email attachments. More details on spam can be found here: www.spam-blocker-online.com.

Getting Rid of Pop up Windows!

Where can you go to get a pop up blocker for your computer? Pop Up Windows are annoying and worse than that, they are dangerous for your computer. Pop up ads can cause viruses or put spyware into your computer without your knowledge. So to cut down on or, hopefully, completely rid yourself of pop up ads, get yourself a good pop up blocker. When you go to get your pop up blocker, you should check online, or your local computer store.

The first place, ideally, to look for a pop up blocker is online. There are many legitimate free download sites that offer pop up blockers. Generally, you can download them directly from the site and have them working in no time. If you go that route, though, just keep in mind that you will likely have to wait a week or two to get your pop up blocker. As you peruse the internet for your pop up blocker, though, be careful that you only download what you know. Make sure it is a legitimate site from which you are downloading and that the pop up blocker is a legit.

The second place to get a pop up blocker is off the shelf of your local computer store. Many of the software programs you have or put on your computer, especially internet browsers, already have a pop up blocker. However, you can buy other pop up blockers off of the shelf at your local computer store. Go in, speak with a computer technician, and find out which one will work best for you. It is often said that you get what you pay for, and sometimes pop up blockers are that way, so buying one at the store can prove to be a worthwhile investment over a free one off the internet.

Word of mouth is a powerful consumer report, so talk to people who have downloaded blockers, bought them, or is just using the ones that came with their existing software. You will quickly find out what is worth your time and money and which is not. Asking around is a great idea so that you can make the most of your money.

Pop up blockers are almost a necessity anymore. You likely do not enjoy or want to read the pop ups that litter your browser every time you find your way to the wrong internet site. Instead, you want to be able to browse the internet with speed and with peace of mind that you aren’t getting bombed with the viruses and spyware that can be associated with those pop ups. So check out the internet or go to your local computer store.

Methods to Fight Spam!!!

Fighting Spam..

Industry experts estimate that three out of every five e-mail messages that are sent today are spam.

This is not only a nuisance; it is costing us all time and money which could be better spent on productive ventures.

Bizwala is committed to fighting spam & blocks a great deal without customer intervention. Our systems are updated daily and we are always working to improve our spam filtering.

Though we may never be able to block it all, we can offer some suggestions to combat spam effectively.
Q: How can I prevent spam from reaching my e-mail account?

A: People who send spam compile their mailing lists in many ways. Methods to compile such lists include:

Sending spam to e-mail addresses that are most commonly used. A common tactic consists of building lists of targeted addresses that use frequently used words such as “webmaster” or “info” (for example, “webmaster@mydomainname” or “info@mydomainname”).

Obtaining e-mail addresses that are automatically “harvested” from web sites by specialized software.

Compiling lists of e-mail addresses that are either chosen or generate at random (for example, ” joe1@mydomainname”, “joe2@mydomainname” or “joe3@mydomainname”. This method is becoming increasingly frequent.

Because spammers often send spam to undefined e-mail aliases such as aabbcc@domain.com, ccddee@domain.com, mfrds@domain.com, you can combat the receipt of spam effectively by not using a catch-all address . (The catch-all is an alias that is used to recieve mail sent to undefined addresses/aliases .)

Q: What is spoofing and how can I fight it?

A: “Spoofing” occurs when a spammer uses some version of your domain name in the “From” address field. Spammers use spoofing to try to hide their identities and to pass blame for spam to innocent Internet users. The large amount of spam messages — many of which are sent to invalid address — result in a significant amount of “bounced” e-mail (that is, mail that returned as being undeliverable). Unfortunately, bounced mail is sent back to the address found in the “From” line of the spammed message.
Typically, the “From” line is also an undefined e-mail address not found in your mail settings. To combat receiving bounced mail messages, you can use the “devnull” alias that we mentioned in the previous question and answer.

Q: Even if my account is not generating any spam, can the mail server I use get blocked because of spam?

Unfortunately, yes. The main cause for blacklisting your mail server depends on where the spammed e-mail is ultimately received and how the ISP who maintains that location reacts to spam and to spam complaints. Many account holders with Bizwala forward e-mail messages that are sent to there hosting account. For example, a message sent to info@mydomainname could be forwarded to myaccount@aol.com or myaccount@yahoo.com. At other times, clients may be forwarding e-mail messages to accounts that are invalid or otherwise not in use. The processing of the forwarded e-mail message is handled by the mail server that your account uses (specifically, the MTA or Mail Transport Agent). Because a Bizwala mail server is the MTA, it is possible that the mail server could be blacklisted even though you (or any other Bizwala client) is not responsible for sending the spam in the first place.

In short, you must be careful about where you forward e-mail, how you report spam, and to whom you report it.

Note: Bizwala reserves the right to terminate a client’s services for violations of our Acceptable Use policy. Unacceptable use includes forwarding e-mail messages to addresses that are invalid (not within the client’s control) and/or sending mail with malicious intent.

Q: How can I filter spam in my Inbox once I receive it?

First, do NOT click any links in the spam or try to reply or unsubscribe to the spammed e-mail message. Often, these links will subscribe you to even more spam lists despite the fact that those links appear to promise that you will be unsubscribed. And, as spammers are always looking for legitimate e-mail addresses to spam, replying to a spam message in any way only tells the spammer that your e-mail address is valid.

Second, some e-mail programs have built-in functionality that deals with spam that reaches your Inbox. Outlook 2000 (and newer) is one such a e-mail program.

Outlook creates a folder called Junk Mail, where you can move junk e-mail and then review it before deleting. Or, you can have junk e-mail delivered to your Inbox, but color-coded so you can easily identify it. The list of terms that Outlook uses to filter suspected junk e-mail messages is found in a file named Filters.txt.

You can also filter messages based on the e-mail addresses of junk and adult content senders, allowing you to move or delete all future messages from a particular sender. You can review the Junk Senders list and add and remove e-mail addresses from it.

If you do not use Outlook 2000 or higher, please refer to your mail program’s help files for any information related to spam filtering.

Q: Are there any low cost programs out there that I can install to help filter the spam?

A: Yes. There are many programs available that use a variety of methods to help e-mail end users filter spam. Effective spam prevention should include client-side software (that is, software that is installed on your local computer). Below are some links that you may want to visit:

Cloudmark Safety Bar: www.cloudmark.com

Realize that there are many products on the market that you can install on help filter spam. However, as we are not affiliated with the vendors or authors of those products, we cannot specify which of those products would work best for your specific situation. We ask that you “do your research” in order to locate which product is best for you.

Q: The spam that is reaching me is being sent to defined e-mail accounts. What can I do about it?

A: If any of your defined e-mail addresses are receiving too many spam messages, it may be well worth it to you to change your e-mail address. For example, if “info@mydomainname” is the recipient of too much spam, it may be a good idea to delete “info@mydomainname” in favor of “information@mydomainname. We realize that this may be a tough decision, but such an action could be a huge benefit as it would immediately reduce — if not entirely eliminate — the amount of spam that you would be receiving at your e-mail address.

Q: How can I prevent my e-mail address from being added to spammer’s mailing lists?

A: As mentioned above, spammers use a variety of methods to compile lists. We have created a help document that will give you some useful tips about how to prevent your e-mail addresses from being added to lists.

Protect Your Privacy

If you plan to enter your information to any Web site, please review the Terms of Service and Privacy Policies of the Web site. If the policies do not clearly indicate what will be done with your information, you should reconsider posting any details to that Web site.

Publishing Your E-mail Address on Your Web Site

Instead of having a simple “mailto” link on your Web site, such as “Please e-mail me at joe@example.com,” consider using an approved form mail script that allows Web site visitors to fill out a form to send you e-mail. Bizwala offers such a script free of charge. This will help prevent e-mail address harvesting robots and other spammers from capturing your address. email support@bizwala.net if you need assistance in setting up a spam deterrent form mail

Member Profiles

Try to stay away from creating and posting a member profile, on any Web site, for others to see publicly. Spammers are always reviewing such information for new e-mail addresses.

Product Registration

Many of us register products online. Many times the product registration form has options pre-selected that enable the company to solicit you by e-mail, even though you may not want it. Be sure to review the options you are selecting and any options that may have been selected for you by default.

Posting to a Newsgroup

Never post anything to a newsgroup with your real e-mail address. Consider cloaking the address or using a “disposable” e-mail address. Consider creating and using an e-mail address from one of the free e-mail address providers.

Do Not Reply to Spam or an Unsubscribe Request

Never reply to a piece of spam or request to be unsubscribed. Your reply confirms that your address is working and provides the spammer the opportunity to add your address to their list or sell it to another entity. This actually helps facilitate more spam.

Report Spam

An effective way to help prevent spam is to report it to the ISP or mail administrator where the spam originated. Such reports help ISPs to identify the user or users who sent the spam. Report the spam, including full headers from the spam, to the ISP abuse department or postmaster e-mail address.

Federal law strictly limits the information that online service providers may disclose about their users. However, e-mail messages do contain some information about the sender.

E-mail headers contain an Internet Protocol (IP) address that corresponds to the sender’s Internet service provider (ISP). A line in the e-mail message contains an 8 to 12 digit number, separated by periods. For example: “Received: from [123.456.78.91] by . . .” The “123.456.78.91″ represents the ISP’s unique IP address for the sender. Most spam headers have multiple “Received: from” lines. If the e-mail message has not been forged then, in general, the first such line from the bottom is the true origin of the spammed message.

After you identify the IP address, you can search to determine which ISP provides this person with Internet access. A Web site that attempts to determine the actual computer with that IP address is located at www.arin.net/whois/index.html

-Article written by
Wendy Jo McLeod
Spam solution providers

Two Main Groups Of Spam!

There are two main types of spam, and they have different effects on Internet users. Cancellable Usenet spam is a single message sent to 20 or more Usenet newsgroups. (Through long experience, Usenet users have found that any message posted to so many newsgroups is often not relevant to most or all of them.) Usenet spam is aimed at lurkers, people who read newsgroups but rarely or never post and give their address away. Usenet spam robs users of the utility of the newsgroups by overwhelming them with a barrage of advertising or other irrelevant posts. Furthermore, Usenet spam subverts the ability of system administrators and owners to manage the topics they accept on their systems.

I think it’s possible to stop spam, and that content-based filters are the way to do it. The Achilles heel of the spammers is their message. They can circumvent any other barrier you set up. They have so far, at least. But they have to deliver their message, whatever it is. If we can write software that recognizes their messages, there is no way they can get around that. Email spam targets individual users with direct mail messages. Email spam lists are often created by scanning Usenet postings, stealing Internet mailing lists, or searching the Web for addresses. Email spams typically cost users money out-of-pocket to receive. Many people – anyone with measured phone service – read or receive their mail while the meter is running, so to speak. Spam costs them additional money. On top of that, it costs money for ISPs and online services to transmit spam, and these costs are transmitted directly to subscribers.

The statistical approach is not usually the first one people try when they write spam filters. Most hackers’ first instinct is to try to write software that recognizes individual properties of spam. You look at spams and you think, the gall of these guys to try sending me mail that begins Dear Friend or has a subject line that’s all uppercase and ends in eight exclamation points. I can filter out that stuff with about one line of code.

But the real advantage of the Bayesian approach, of course, is that you know what you’re measuring. Feature-recognizing filters like SpamAssassin assign a spam score to email. The Bayesian approach assigns an actual probability. The problem with a score is that no one knows what it means. The user doesn’t know what it means, but worse still, neither does the developer of the filter. How many points should an email get for having the word sex in it? A probability can of course be mistaken, but there is little ambiguity about what it means, or how evidence should be combined to calculate it. Based on my corpus, sex indicates a .97 probability of the containing email being a spam, whereas sexy indicates .99 probability. And Bayes’ Rule, equally unambiguous, says that an email containing both words would, in the (unlikely) absence of any other evidence, have a 99.97% chance of being a spam.

Antispam. Aren’t We All! Don’t You Just Hate It?

Antispam. Aren’t we all! Don’t you just hate it? You’ve got enough to do without having to sift through a bunch of worthless, or worse yet, offensive junk e-mails in your Inbox.

So what can be done about it? What antispam procedures and software really work?

Spam filtering software is the first stop in your antispam campaign, but in some ways it’s the easiest to subvert.

What this antispam tool does is tell your e-mail system to look for designated clue words – sex, nude, porn, for example – and to eliminate the messages that contain these clue words. Of course, there are easy ways to get around these antispam tactics. Did you ever see a message that comes through with the word sex spelled s*e*x? Well, that asterisk method has circumvented your spam filter – or the spam filter of your Internet and e-mail provider.

The other problem with this filter is that you could miss legitimate messages. A friend, for instance, who might mail you that she was “sick of porn sites popping up” might have her message deleted because it contained the word porn.

Two upgraded versions of these antispam filtering products are Bayesian and heuristic filters, which try to identify offensive messages through recognition of phrases as objectionable. SpamAssassin by Apache is probably the best known example of heuristic filtering. What these filters are doing that the more basic ones aren’t is looking at the message itself rather than the subject header. Both Bayesian and heuristic filters have an Achilles heel in that they depend for their filtering on frequency. Were a spammer to send a short message it would get past.

To further complicate things by punishing the “good guys,” major Internet service providers started simply considering batch emailing as potential spam. What this did, however, was to disrupt opt-in products such as e-zines and newsletters. So that didn’t work well. The spammers themselves found a way around it anyway. As they sent out their batch messages they inserted a program that produced a variant in each heading. Perhaps a word that didn’t even make sense, but still individualized each message enough to have the batching not appear as batching.

Some non-profit Internet watchdog agencies started keeping lists of the IP addresses of spammers. When these addresses cropped up in mail they were blocked. The way around this for spammers was simple – they changed IP addresses. The result was even worse, in that those addresses then got handed out to completely innocent folks who now had problems sending e-mail. Then the spammers got really aggressive and started creating and distributing viruses allowing them to hijack IP addresses that weren’t on the “spam” lists.

Where the answer seems to lie for many businesses and their sites is to bypass standard email communication altogether and resort to online feedback forms for electronic communication. Which of course doesn’t resolve the antispam issue for private individuals who have no Web site of their own.

An Introduction To Spam Filters

Using spam filters is another very effective way of combating spam or junk mail. These programs use some keywords like ‘guaranteed’, ‘free’, etc and block any email with those words in them. But this has the disadvantage of sometimes blocking even important mails from your contacts and preventing those senders from sending mails to your address again. The way out is to use add-on spam filters which allow you to control the content that should be allowed into your inbox. This will save you a lot of time and energy as you no longer will have go through each and every email before identifying it as spam and eliminating it.

Spam filters can be installed on any computer system and aim at filtering junk and getting only relevant information to the user.

Setting up a simple spam filter can be very easy. Identify the section ‘filters’ in your email program and create a new filter. Lay down the rules or filter conditions for the new folder. These can be the parameters under which an email would be marked as spam and deleted from your inbox. If you prefer to look at the filtered mail before deleting it, you can choose the option to move it to another folder once it is filtered. Once you save the changes you have made in the new filter, it will be active.

You have a new variety of spam filters in the market now which are called ‘smarter filters’. While these fight and prevent spam very effectively, setting it up is a very complex process and is recommended only for technical experts.

New generation spam filters are different from traditional ones in that they go in for statistical data rather features of spam. These filters decide on spam by analyzing the entire email and comparing it with other already identified spam mails. The error margin for these filters is almost zero as more than 99% of scams are identified and eliminated through this method.

Getting Rid Of Those Annoying Pop-Ups

There’s nothing worse than getting on the internet and using your browser only to get 10 pop up windows in a row. It seems like someone on the other end is controlling your windows and what you see. If you do have that problem, then somewhere along the way, a spyware program that throws pop-up ads on your screen was downloaded or your system was infiltrated by a hacker.

These spyware programs install themselves into your system when you download file-swapping programs. These programs can also track and record keyboard strokes that you use and depending on where you go on the internet, it throws pop up ads into your browser. Spyware can find holes in your browser and will not let you see the site that you want to view until you answer their pop up ad. How annoying and time consuming!

Some spyware programs will develop a folder in your Windows Program Folder called “Common Files”. Even if you go to delete these files from the folder, they seem to multiply or stay there. That’s because they have embedded themselves in the Windows System registry and in other unknown places through your directory. To get these files out, you have the clean the registry, reload it and get rid of the spyware programs all at once!

McAfee Internet Suite and Symantec Norton Anti-Virus Suite have spyware protection programs that are very efficient. If you don’t have these programs (and you should), Ad-aware is a good program that scans your files to find spyware. Now there are two versions, the one that is free that provides limited protection and the program that you pay for that gives you full protection. Stopzilla is another good program that sweeps the folders and the registry of where these programs hide themselves at.

The average user doesn’t have time to clear out 15 pop up windows. Go and check your internet suite package to see if you have the spyware protection on and if not, make sure that you initialize it to stop those annoying pop-ups!

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Changing Web Hosting Services

Sometimes, to get the service you want, you have to make changes. Things happen, especially with web hosting providers. Your host services may have taken a performance dip or you may have notice a lack of customer support. You make a decision to change host providers and you go with it. You have to be smart about changing over so here are some steps for you to consider.
Backup Your Files – Most people don’t perform backups of their files on their web servers. That’s bad because if something does happen, you lose everything. Make sure that you backup your files before you switch providers. Don’t forget to copy some files, designs, graphics, databases, or emails prior to discontinuing your present hosting service. Otherwise you will find that once you are no longer a customer, all of your data is wiped clean.
Get a compatible host for your business – Many customers switch web hosting providers not even considering researching the host services to see if they are compatible. Find out if the new provider supports your applications or files. This is important when it comes to server side scripts, shopping cart systems, merchant accounts, e-commerce software, SSL security. make sure they can support your operation and applications.
Know Your Transfer Settings – One fundamental step in transferring your site to a new web hosting provider is going to be to change name servers for your domain. Don’t wait until the last minute to do this. Waiting too late could mean your site and domain name could be down for a few days.
Make sure that everything goes smooth if your old host goes out of business or if something happens, such as a change in service that would prompt you to look for another web host. Treat it as a marriage! Make sure your new web host is compatible.

Do People Know Where Your Are on the Web?

The question is, “can you be tracked down on the internet?”
Your IP address is no secret. It’s a basic part of internet communication protocols to send your IP address whenever you connect to another site, request a web page, chat, play an online game, etc. Without your IP address, the computer on the other end wouldn’t know where to send the reply.
But that doesn’t mean that Evildoers can find your house if they know your IP address. Each time you go online (if you have dialup) or each time you start your computer (Cable or DSL) you are assigned an IP address, randomly selected from a pool of IP’s assigned to your Internet service provider (ISP).
So a person MIGHT be able to get a general idea of your geographic location, based on your IP address, by doing a lookup on the WHOIS database, but that will only tell them the physical location of your ISP — not YOUR home address.
And if you use a large regional or nationwide ISP, the IP lookup probably reveals nothing of interest. For example, if you are an AOL subscriber, your IP address lookup will show the location as Dulles, Virginia — regardless of where you live.
There is an exception to every rule. If a stranger calls your ISP and wants to know who was using a certain IP address last Tuesday, the ISP will tell them to go away. But if an officer of the law hands your ISP a court order to reveal that information, they must do so. Your ISP’s logs will enable them to determine which customer was using a certain IP address on a certain date & time, and they must reveal that information if a court has found probable cause for criminal activity.
But for the truly paranoid (or the criminally inclined) there are ways to surf the web anonymously. There are services that will act as a proxy between you and your ISP, and they claim that your information cannot be subpoenaed because they do not store it.
What About Email Addresses?
The same concepts apply to your email address. The part that follows the “@” sign is your ISP’s domain name. And given the domain name, one can determine the ISP’s physical location, but nothing personally identifying about the email user without a court order.
Web-based email accounts are not truly anonymous, either. Even if you don’t provide your real name when signing up, they can capture your IP address and track you through your ISP if necessary.