SPAM

Spam : What is it?
Spam is unsolicited email offering mostly worthless products. In general spam is every email you did not ask to for. Spam is usually sent to a large list of people, and mostly ends up in the electronic trash can. It is the equivalent of that annoying, throw-away stuff the postman delivers to your door, and the disturbing telemarketer on the other end of that unwanted phone call.

Spam : Why do they do it?

Initially it was used to deliver advertising because it is very cost effective. The spammers profited as soon as 1 out of every 15,000 approached people purchased their product. Many now hide behind Affiliate Programmes. Rather than being labelled "spammers", they now offer incentives for resellers to promote their product. It is now these [ unethical ] "Affiliates" that are responsible for most of the spam we receive. Sending spam is also very easy; the Internet is filled with programmes created for this purpose.

Spam is now also used to deliver Malware. Malware - literally - is any software with malicious intent. Over the years, people have written malicious software for a number of different purposes. Their main objective now is to steal your computer, your money, your identity, or - if possible - all three.

Spam : How do they do it?
All a spammer needs to do is find enough email addresses to send his messages to and be able to hide his real identity. Spammers collect email addresses with programmes specially designed for that purpose. These programmes scan websites, newsgroups and address listings. Spammers try to hide their identity using methods such as email relaying and the forging of headers. It is almost impossible to trace a spammer.

Spam : What do I do about it ?

You have mail...It's spam... Great! What should I do now? You have several options. You can DELETE it, or you can DELETE it. Spam is a primary delivery vehicle for Malware. Over 45% of all computers infected with Malware is a direct result of opening, reading or clicking on a link in a spam email. After the browser, your email client is the most-used attack avenue for organized computer crooks hackers, and spyware distributors. McAfee SiteAdvisor Spam Quiz McAfee have discovered that users of it's spam test are unable to tell the difference between sites that will spam them and sites that do not. Are you spam savvy ? Can you tell which sites will respect your personal information ? Can you tell which ones might sell your e-mail address to spammy third parties ? Can you spot the spammy Web sites ? Take our Spam Quiz and find out

Spam : Can I avoid it?
In a word - NO!
But you are able to reduce your chances by following a few simple guidelines.

NEVER Reply to a spammer
To reply is the natural and understandable reaction, but [almost exclusively] is the wrong thing to do.

Never respond by using their "click here to unsubscribe" or "follow this link for removal from our list"
The one and only thing this does is verify that the spam was delivered to a valid email address and confirm that you saw it. The sender has no intention what so ever in honoring your request. In fact, by responding you are guaranteed the delivery of even more spam from the same sender plus those who were sold your confirmed-valid address. Destroy the spam without responding to anything.

The spammer will insert a random name or number with a random domain. Your replies will either go nowhere and be returned to you undelivered or it will reach an innocent victim. Remember your complaint would not be the only one. Complaints would mix with thousands of undeliverable emails returned to the (forged) "sender", eventually bringing the victim's system down. This can do a lot of damage, so please do not reply to a spam, however justified it may seem to be. The chance that the return path is correct is very low.

Never give your personal email address to a commercial vendor
This applies to anything from making a purchase online to responding to an online survey. Apply for a free Webmail account and use that address instead. You are always able to dispose of it and acquire a new one quite easily if necessary.

An excellent FREE Webmail service is provided by My Way. This is the best FREE Webmail provider I have found and it includes many features, the best being it has no advertising.

Opt out of everything from mailing lists to requests to use your personal information for whatever purpose is intended, and beware of sites that offer some sort of reward or prize in exchange for your contact or other information.

Never use your personal email address when posting to message boards or newsgroups
Always use a Webmail address. Spiders are constantly crawling these places for valid addresses to use for spam. If you must use your personal address, always insert some text that the viewer will know to remove when responding to you. No one will question your intent - this is standard practice. As my email address is vanish@hushmail.com, I would insert the phrase NOSPAM, so it appears as vanishNOSPAM@hushmail.com.

Set the filters in your email client to automatically trash or delete email containing certain keywords. By using a combination of various filters you can noticeably reduce the amount of spam reaching your inbox. Use this - Setting Up Mail Filters in Outlook Express - as a guide to learning about email filters.

Email Security - How Do I Protect Myself ?

Secure Reading and Previewing Emails in Outlook Express Outlook Express may automatically execute scripts in emails you just read in the preview pane. If the message uses stationery, the result may be a nice animation. If the message was sent through a worm, it could compromise your computer's security or your privacy. Fortunately, securing reading and previewing emails in Outlook Express is not difficult. How to Block Potentially Dangerous Remote Images in Outlook Express If you open an email in Outlook Express and it downloads the images referenced in the message automatically, not only do you get to see the nicely laid out email but the sender can see whether, when and possibly even where you opened the message. If that prospect does not have you brim over with enthusiasm, you can tell Outlook Express to refrain from downloading remote content automatically. This will not only protect your privacy but also prevents Outlook Express from trying to establish an internet connection whenever you open an email containing remote images while offline. Of course, you can still display the images in select emails or newsletters from senders you trust. Download Remote Images in an Email in Outlook Express If you made Outlook Express protect your privacy and your computer's security by not downloading remote content automatically, this does not mean you have to view all your emails and newsletters without the oft-necessary images. Downloading the images in an email from a trusted source is fast and easy. How to View a Message in HTML Formatting in Outlook Express If you have secured your Outlook Express by making it display all mail in plain text, you may still find some messages to look and work better with their HTML formatting. Fortunately, you don't have to disable the plain text mode protection to enjoy messages that way. Outlook Express lets you decide per message which format you want to see it in. How to Read All Mail in Plain Text in Outlook Express While this is not as rich a display as the messages formatted using HTML, plain text email radically erases many of the security problems that plague email users. Worms, viruses and privacy-invasion by images that automatically download get no chance to do their harm if you just open and look at a plain text email. If want to thoroughly eradicate all problems that formatted emails bring, you can configure Outlook Express to display all messages in plain text only by default. How to Hide the Preview Pane in Outlook Express The message preview pane in Outlook Express is really nice and useful, but it comes with the risk of catching a worm or virus by just previewing a message. That's why it is best to disable the preview pane for security reasons. How to Read All Mail in Plain Text in Outlook Express Prevent other people who may have access to your computer from also gaining access to the emails stored in Outlook Express by protecting your identity with a password. Never enable JavaScript for email or attachments You can tighten up the security of your Outlook Express email programme by disabling JavaScript in email messages. While it does keep those with a malicious intent from doing damage, it may also affect legitimate HTML newsletters you receive from displaying or working as the publisher intended.

Email Notifier
This is probably one of the the best tips I can give you. Use an email notifier to read your emails. With this utility I am able to check my all email accounts and delete any spam in less than a minute. I am currently using a programme called ePrompter.

SpamBayes
SpamBayes is an FREE email spam filter for Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express.

Disabling Windows Messenger Service
The Messenger Service, not to be confused with Microsoft's MSN Messenger chat client, is enabled by default on Windows 2000, NT and XP systems, so such systems are easy to target by the spammers.

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