Anti-Spam

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Anti-Spam tips; Tips on fighting spam, Antispam help

Anti-spam tips / Too much Spam!

Spam Prevention: (keep scrolling down for tips if your inbox is already full, or if you need free anti-spam programs)

1. Be very wary about giving out your email address. Only subscribe to the most reputable newsletters, avoid posting your address in newsgroups and don't send around email forwards to large numbers of people (spammers have been known to harvest the email addresses from forwards they receive). Don't post your email address on a message board or online forum, as spammers use computer "bots" or programs to harvest email addresses that are posted in most online places.

2. If you want people in a forum or message board to contact you, post your address in an obscure way so that a human could figure it out, but a program could not. For example: contact me at: chase7733(put the at symbol here)chaseandsam.com. You may want to get a little creative here, as email harvesting programs are becoming clever enough to harvest some addresses written in this matter - for instance: someguy somewhere.com might get harvested.

3. Don't reply to any spam that's sent to you - Don't try to unsubscribe, and don't send an email to the sender with "remove" in the line as this will tell the spammer that your email address is "live" and being used.

4. DON'T ever buy anything advertised by a spam email, that only encourages the problem!

5. Some spam senders use computers to randomly generate email addresses. This way, all common names in a given domain are hit with spam regularly - the way to avoid this is to use difficult to guess addresses, or email addresses with letter/number combos: e.g. Jesse5443@yourdomain.com instead of Jesse@yourdomain.com.

posted by Chase and Janet @ 7:18 PM 0 comments

Tips if you're already overwhelmed with Spam.

1. If you are using Outlook to get your mail, it's time to try using a Spam Filter. Outlook has a built in filter, but the free programs we list below will probably work better. A Spam filtering program will block most email that has spam characteristics, and keep it out of your main inbox. You'll have to watch out for false positives, though - sometimes a spam filtering program will filter out a legitimate email, and you'll miss it if you don't check the folder that the filter sends spam to. If you decide to use one of the programs below, be sure to follow the links to learn how to install and "train" the spam filter - it will work a little bit when you install it, but it will get much better over time.

2. If you are using another email provider, (Hotmail, etc) click on their help section, and see if they have any settings that are designed to mitigate spam. Some email vendors provide a level of anti-spam filtering that is set to low or medium by default. If you are being overrun, it's worth bumping the spam filtering up a notch or two, but be sure and check your junk or spam folder from time to time so you don't miss any legit email.

3. If your current email account is totally overrun by spam, with more coming in daily - maybe it's time to ditch it and get a new one. Try using a free internet account that does a good job filtering out spam emails. Both Yahoo and Gmail do fairly well at this. If your account is bombed by dozens of spam emails every day - it's time to change email addresses, and implement the five prevention tips above.

4. Although it won't help your spam problem in the short run, sending a full copy of any spam you get to the right place will help the "spam police" track down the most notorious spammers. You need to send a full copy of the email (including the headers - you'll need to click the "show headers" or "show original" or "show all" button in most programs) to: Spamcop.net. They will send a complaint letter on your behalf to the appropriate network administrator. BE SURE YOU READ SPAMCOP'S RULES before you send them a suspected Spam email.

5. If you are really desperate, use a Challenge/Response anti-spam program. This type program will intercept every single email you receive and send an email to the sender making sure they are authorized. Once they respond properly, the email goes into your inbox - if they don't respond, you won't get the email. Two caveats: One, if you are subscribed to online newsletters that you want to receive, you need to set the program to allow those newsletters in, as most newsletter senders have no patience to deal with challenge/response systems. Two: Be prepared to spend some time upfront approving all of your email - once you approve mail from an address, the system assumes that any other mail you get is okay, but in the early stages you'll have a bit of approving to do, and every email sent to you will be delayed by this. There is a free challenge/response anti-spam program listed below from Spamresearchcenter.com

posted by Chase and Janet @ 7:16 PM 1 comments

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Great, free anti-spam programs / free antispam programs

SpamBayes Filter for Outlook (Click Here to Download) - This is an Anti-Spam program/filter collection that works to filter out spam based on semi artificial intelligence. You'll have to train it to work for you, but once you do, it's pretty good at defeating spam, and it's free! You'll certainly want to visit the Spambayes homepage to read all about it, including how to install it. Copy and paste this link into your browser: spambayes.sourceforge.net/

Spam Assassin (Click Here to Download) Spam Assassin is a free add in for Microsoft's Outlook that filters spam based on the anti-spam tools found at Spamassassin.org. Here's the link to Spam Assassin's Sourceforge page to find out more details: sourceforge.net/projects/saoutlook/

Abuse- (Click Here to Download) Abuse is not so much a program to prevent spam, but a program to exact revenge on a spammer. It analyzes a given message, attempts to discern the ISP the message was sent from, and automatically sends a complaint letter to the Internet Service Provider. You'll want to read more about abuse before you use it at The Abuse Home page on Sourceforge: sourceforge.net/projects/spam-abuse (cut and paste the address into your browser)

SpamResearchCenter Challenge/Response (Click to Download): This is a program that forces anybody who emails you to verify their identity by blocking all incoming mail and requesting the sender respond to an email query about their identity - once they send that in, and you okay it, the program will let email through from that person. Be sure and read the SpamResearchCenter info page on the program so you'll know how to run it. Copy this link into your browser: www.SpamResearchCenter.com

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posted by Chase and Janet @ 1:33 AM 0 comments