Remember the good old days when spam referred to that meat in a can? Today, it’s taken on a whole new meaning; it’s junk email.
By definition, spam is unwanted or unsolicited email that shows up in your Inbox. It’s become the single most common complaint about the Internet. By some estimates the amount of spam, or junk email, has increased to an astounding 80-85% of all email on the Internet. If you’re like most of us, you get more spam than you know what to do with. So how can you stop spam?
Before I go any further, there are some things you need to understand about the spam problem.
The first thing is the sad news that there’s no way to stop spam with today’s technology. What you can do though, is to manage spam by filtering it so that it doesn’t flood your Inbox. Instead, it goes to a separate folder in your email program from where you can sort through it, save legitimate email, and trash the rest.
There are two variations of this solution. The first is on your Internet provider’s mail servers; the second is on your computer. Either way, you’ll still have to check what’s in your spam folder, sort through it, save the good and trash the bad. I think it’s better to have email delivered to your computer, automatically filter it into the spam folder, and then go through it at your leisure. This is easier than having your Internet provider do the filtering on their servers, as that requires logging onto the Internet just to sort through it.
The method for this filtering is called, “white list, black list.” Any address that’s on your “white” list goes into your Inbox; the rest is on your “black” list and goes to your spam folder. This is a very simple, yet very effective solution. While there are more complex technologies such as Boolean logic, none have a 100% effective rate and some legitimate email will end up in your spam folder. That means you’ll still have to go through it to sort out any legitimate emails. This is a clear case of “less is more” in that the simplest form of filtering seems to be the best. Microsoft’s Outlook 2003 employs this technique; it works quite well and it’s exactly what I use.
So although you can’t stop spam, there are rules you can apply to reduce the amount of junk email in your Inbox.
The first rule is to NEVER respond to spammers and ask to be removed from their lists. Most spammers send out probes, to see if they’ve got a valid email address. If you respond, they’ll never take you off their lists…and that pain in your neck will move lower and towards the rear.
My second rule is to think carefully before you give out your email address. Web sites routinely ask for your address when you sign up for something. Legitimate web sites will have check boxes that let you choose whether they can give out your address to third parties. Unless you’re interested in what they have to offer, always uncheck those boxes so your address won’t be added to other lists.
My third rule for reducing spam is to set up a “spam” account. There are plenty of free email services where you can set up an account and give out that address, while reserving your personal address for friends. Just to name a few, you can choose from HotMail, YahooMail, and now Google has GMail. All these are free and have varying sizes of Inboxes, but all of them are pretty hefty.
Protect the privacy of others’ email addresses by using the BCC line for forwards! Send those forwards from yourself *to* yourself; everyone else’s address goes in the BCC line. This will help slow the spread of viruses, because today’s viruses farm infected computers for every email address they can find…and then send themselves out to infect your computer.
Use email programs that let you create rules to filter out spam email; they’re not
fool-proof, but they are a big help. Unfortunately, even if you do all this, you’ll still get some spam...but you will get less.
Remember: be cautious giving out your email address, set up a spam email account, and never click on those “remove me” links; you’ll get relief from your spam pains.
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Here's to your system's good health.
Stay well,
Doc
