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The Trouble With Spam Is....
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By Niall Roche
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Each day we all face the same challenge. Spam. It doesn't matterif you're a home computer user or the head of IT for amultinational limiting or totally preventing the distribution ofjunk email to your computer(s) is now a daily chore.
The sheer frustration that spam causes combined with the numberof lost man hours adds up to junk email being a very realproblem for all involved. You have to filter through all thejunk to find your own personal or work email. This on its own isannoying enough. When you consider the security risks fromspyware, trojans, diallers and attempted identity theft spambecomes much more than just an annoyance - it becomes aminefield for any computer user.
So what can you do to block spam? The first step each usershould take is to simply limit the number of people who knowyour personal email address. If you have a work email addressthen just use it for work. For home users only distribute youremail address to people you know and trust. This simple move cancut your spam problems by 50%.
But what about all those online forms I need to fill in? Noproblem. Use a free email service like Hotmail or Gmail for thispurpose. Treat it as a throwaway account that you can use as abuffer between your true personal email address and the rest ofthe world. Let it fill up with junk email and then just loginonce a week and delete everything you see.
Your password. It's amazing how many people set the password fortheir email account to abc123 or something similar. Thesepasswords are incredibly easy for spammers to guess and wouldgive them easy access to your mail account. The password foryour email account should follow corporate standards of being 6- 8 characters long and be alphanumeric (a mixture of numbersand letters). Make it longer if you can. Using a weak passwordis just asking for trouble.
If you're already receiving a ton of spam then you'll need toinvest in a spam blocker. There are free spam blockers you candownload and also also their paid equivalents. A great spamblocker can cost you as little as $30 and you'll see animmediate reduction in the amount of spam you're receiving.
Over and above installing software on your computer (especiallyfor Mac users as your choices are limited) you could sign up forone of the web based challenge response spam blockers likeMailblocks or SpamArrest. Both of these services are ideal forsomebody who's on the move a lot. Also because they're web basedthere's no software to install so they're perfect for Mac orPocketPC/Palm users.
Taking a pro-active anti spam stance is the next step. If youget junk email from people then check the mail headers andreport any offensive email to the hosting company or ISPinvolved. Never, ever reply to spam directly. This simplyconfirms to the spammer that your email address is active. Alsonever click on any hyperlinks in any junk email - this againconfirms your existence and can lead to a virus being downloadeddirectly onto your PC. Filter the spam, report the abusers,delete the remaining junk email.
Spam can be stopped. Not by some corporate giant or geniusprogrammer. It can be stopped by each of you individually.Spammers rely on the widespread availability of email addressesand for people to reply to these emails or click on the linkswithin the emails. The sooner people stop reacting emotionallyto spam and simply filter, report and delete the offensive mailitself the sooner the lucrative market of bulk email will dry upfor the spammers.
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