How To Fight Spam

By BB Lee
Posted Monday, November 22, 2004

Spammers send out thousands of emails per day. They know most of the emails will be deleted but for every thousand they know one sucker will bite.

The result, your email account will overflow with hundreds of unwanted emails from strange marketers. Consequently, legitimate business email will get lost in the junk.

What is Spam?
Spam(Junk Mail) is the mass distribution of unsolicited email across the Internet by certain unscrupulous marketers. Why do they choose this marketing tactic over others? Email is a cheap way to reach a large market.

Problems arise when these unethical spammers bombard accounts with their unsolicited sales literature. Most of their junk is blatant sales pitches for worthless garbage. In fact, most of their crappy stuff can be categorized as deceptive, fraudulent, get rich quick schemes, porno garbage, chain letters or MLM scams.

Hit And Run Tactics.
Once a spammer gets your email address on a hot list you'll get hundreds of junk emails per day. This will make it difficult for you to separate legitimate emails from the spam. Believe me, complaining does not work. Most spammers supply a fake return e-mail address. Spammers also use FREE trial ISP accounts. Like the one's offered by AOL. Once they've used up the free trial they are on the run to another ISP.

Unsubscribing Tactics.
Never click the unsubscribe link contained in their emails. Clicking the link will verify that your email address is legitimate and active. Thus, leading to even more unsolicited emails. Okay. This sounds tricky and unethical. Of course! Spammers are liars!

Who Pays For Spam.
You, the consumer. And your ISP. The average consumer spends 7 seconds reading or rejecting spam. Multiply this by hundreds per day, adding up to thousands per month. This takes a big chunk out of your Online time. And the price you pay for your ISP service. AOL complained of receiving over 1.8 million spams from one spammer per day until they filed a court injunction to stop the spam attacks. But not before causing thousands of consumer complaints.

Fight Spam.
Here are ways to fight spam.

-Close all the spammed email accounts. Set up new accounts and be very careful who you give your main email address to.

-Set up filters to direct the spam directly to the trash folder. Read your email program help files for complete instructions.

-Open Junk Mail Accounts. These are accounts specifically set up for unsolicited emails. Use these accounts when advertising at FFA's, Free Classifieds, or when an unfamiliar website ask for your email address.

-Report spammers. Spammers are tricky. Many spammers supply fake return addresses. But it is worth a try.

Report spammers.
(http://www.SpamCop.net)

Spam Abuse.
(http://www.spam.abuse.net)

Spam laws.
(http://www.Cauce.org)

-Use special software to fight spammers. This is a good idea. Here are popular spam fighting software.

SpamPal (freeware)
(http://www.spampal.org.uk/)

Mailwasher (freeware)
(http://www.mailwasher.net)

What Not To Do.
-Don't spam the spammer. Don't sink to their level. -Never threaten violence. This could get you in big trouble. -Don't hack into their site. Need I say more. -Don't try other illegal tactics. Stay cool.

About the Author
BB Lee is Editor/Publisher of SmallBizBit's Free Home Biz Newsletter. Subscribers to SmallBizBit's get free ads for their business on the website. Great startup ideas, free articles, free ebooks, free tips in the newsletter. Subscribe:mailto:Smallbiz-subscribe@topica.com
Visit:(http://www.angelfire.com/zine/smallbiz)