OUT 2 BUY – SCAM ALERT

Controlling spam is a constant fight between you and your computer. You need to come up with a plan so that you can counter-act this spam. You’ll be at an advantage if you take even small steps to make spam as ineffective as possible.

FIGHT SPAM WITH FIRE

Automation gives spammers a great advantage since they can gather email addresses in big numbers. If email addresses had to be collected manually it wouldn’t be worth a spammer’s effort.

You too can play this game.

Programs can fight spam for the simple reason that these same programs create spam. There are several programs available to fight spam. Before you use this type of software you might want to know just how spammers do what they do and what you can do to fight them.

Spambots are one tool that spammers use. A spambot is a program which browses through websites searching for legitimate email addresses. These email addresses are then harvested and stored in big databases. These lists are then used by the spammer in marketing schemes or they are sold to someone else. There can be so many email addresses that they take up several CDs.

As of yet there are no ideal tools for fooling spambots. There are, however, a few techniques that are quite effective.

MISDIRECT

Your email address won’t be harvested if you don’t expose it. This concept is hard to avoid since there are so many forums, blogs, and other public websites that rely on you providing your email address before you can post.

Use an email address for these public websites that you don’t use for your personal email. Once you set up and confirm an email address you won’t have to worry about what is sent there if you don’t use it. Use a different email address for your personal mail and make sure that you only give it out to those people you trust.

Yahoo, Hotmail, and other big email providers are often used for this reason. Some websites have figured this out and won’t let you use email addresses that end in yahoo.com, for instance. Luckily there are many other free providers of email service on the Internet so you can use a different one each time.

CAMOUFLAGE

Although a Spambot can be quite smart it still isn’t human. This means that a Spambot won’t be able to make inferences or distinctions without being specifically programmed for this. Many times a spambot will pass you by if you disguise your email address. Spambots are often programmed to search for character strings such as email_address@someemaildomain.com. A program can only do what it has been told to do. Even a small change in your email address, such as email_address_at_NOSPAMsomeemaildomain.com, will be enough to throw a spambot off.

If the disguised email address that you’ve created is picked up by a spambot the address will still need to “scrubbed” before it can be used. A program for scrubbing is hard to write since there are so many variations that are possible such as no*spam and NO-SPAM. Although the variations are easy for humans to decode a program will have a much harder time and only do what you tell it to do.

There are some drawbacks to this method. You’ll need to take out the extra letters in your email address and put in the @ sign. This is something that you may not do because you don’t understand the process or because you hit “reply to” before remembering what you need to do. There are also many systems for email confirmation that are automated by software and they can fail to send the address that you want.

There is one variation on the above technique that both a common user and designers of websites can use. You can configure the account for your email so that the person you’re sending mail to will view your address as whatever you want them to see regardless of what the real address is. This is, after all, how spammers hide themselves.

FILTERS

It can be undesirable for you to change your email address after you’ve created it and sent it out to those people you trust. This means that you sometimes need to make efforts that are high cost to disguise your email address which is something you want the spammer to feel instead of you.

This is where junk mail and spam filters come in.

A filter will look at every email before it is delivered. At this time the filter will use complicated algorithms to decide which mail is junk and which isn’t. A filter can be configured so that mail from a sender address that is in your address book will pass through the filter right to your Inbox. Other mail will be sent to what is called a “Junk” folder.

These algorithms aren’t perfect and sometimes are scrutinized by email services so that they are actually collecting more junk mail than legitimate ones. When you review what is in the junk folder, and indicate what is indeed junk and what isn’t, you help the algorithm to guess more accurately next time.

ADDING TO THE PRICE

Even the most determined spammer will tire of creating variations in programming in order to pass by all the things that try to stop them. Many times the reward won’t be worth the effort. You want to make the price of their efforts higher than their reward. This keeps your own cost down and brings you the most reward.

Although spammers haven’t yet given up the progress to stop them has been good.

Paul Wilcox writes about email scams [http://www.internetsecuritysquad.com/phishing.php] and other related topics for the Internet Security Squad website. Sign up for my free newsletter and receive my special report “How To Lock Your Computer Down – Internet Security in 2006″ at [http://www.internetsecuritysquad.com/freereport]

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Spam is term as any unwanted email that is coming to your mailbox. These spam mails can be dangerous because some may even contain viruses which can ruin your computer system. Some may even try to steal your password and personal information such as credit card number.

Spam has been one of the common problems of internet users. When you go online and check your mail, the chances of having an email which came from unfamiliar email address is very high. So what you will usually do is to delete the email. However, what if it is not just one spam email but there are a lot of them. Deleting these mails can be very tedious and this is where anti spam services come in.

Anti spam services are tools that will help you reduce or even eliminate any unwanted email from your mailbox. Most internet service provider will offer anti spam services which allow you to filter the email you receive. One of its features is allowing you to have an approved list of email or domain addresses that you would like to receive email from. Thus, those you don’t know will not be able to send an email to you. Then, you can even block certain email or domain addresses. This is helpful if you have already recognized the addresses of spammers.

Another option that you can have on an anti spam service is filtering email according to its subject and content. This means that you can block email that contains specific word or phrases. Another feature is the ability to filter email based on the language used by the sender. This is beneficial for those that only expect email from a specific language.

Some anti spam services will give you preset filters (e.g. low, medium and high). The system will automatically detect which email is considered spam. This is great for beginners because of its simplicity. You do not need to select a lot of option. However, the risk with this one is that some legitimate email may be branded as spam. So you may be expecting an email from a friend but your anti spam software may have deleted it because of the settings you have for your filters. For businessman, this process is not recommended.

Most anti spam services usually have the basic features that you need to stop unwanted mails. However, if you would like to have smarter software, you may need to purchase or buy an anti spam software. You may make a research on the internet as to which software will best suit your internet needs. Make a comparison of anti softwares so you can easily decide which one is appropriate for you.

Anti spam services will add more protection to your online life. It helps in reducing the risk of having a full mailbox at all times and protects you from computer viruses. Great features and benefits can be fully enjoyed if you continue to update yourself about this spam. It will then allow you to take precautionary measures to minimize the problems that are brought about by spam.

Dave Poon is an accomplished writer who specializes in the latest in Internet Safety. For more information regarding Anti Spam Services [http://www.bye-bye-spam.com/anti_spam_services.php] please drop by at [http://www.bye-bye-spam.com/]

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