Junk e-mail (spam) prevention tips
Why is there so much junk e-mail?
As you give your e-mail address out, over time your address gets
stored on an increasing amount of other computers and address books. If
one of those computers gets an email virus or spambot, you’re going to get
spam. Also if you post your e-mail address on a website, forum or
newsgroup, computers that frequently crawl the web in search for e-mail
addresses will add your address to it’s database of active e-mail
addresses and you’ll get spam.
Can all junk e-mail be stopped without changing to a new e-mail
address?
No, but most of it can be blocked from reaching your “Inbox” e-mail
folder. Most major e-mail providers do a good job of detecting messages
that are spam and filtering those messages to a “Spam” folder. There are
other paid services and programs that allow you to create whitelists and
blacklists that will allow or block e-mail addresses which you define.
There are other services which have more thorough filtering techniques.
But unfortunately no service is 100% perfect.
Let Computer Techs come out with a personalized junk e-mail solution
for you
Good junk e-mail filtering and/or e-mail address management can
potentially save you hours of time each week spent sifting through your
e-mail deciding which is good and which is junk. Computer Techs can
evaluate your personal junk e-mail situation and provide a solution based
on your needs.
To schedule an appointment with a Computer Techs
professional, call (775) 624-6888.
What you can do to prevent the spreading of
spam...
► Do not respond to junk
e-mail - just delete it
Responding to junk e-mail lets the spamming computer
know that they have sent their message to a real, working e-mail address -
and that you actually read their message. At that point Spammers may sell
your e-mail address to other Spammers as part of a list of active e-mail
addresses - thus making you a target for more junk e-mail. Blocking the
sender is ineffective since most spam comes from a random, one-time e-mail
addresses. If enough people don’t read, respond or purchase from spammers,
after a while spamming will not be a profitable business anymore.
► Use BCC when sending e-mail to a
group of people
Some Spam is spread when a computer gets infected by a
virus or spyware that also installs a
spambot on the infected computer. The spambot collects all the e-mail
addresses on the computer, then sends Spam to all the e-mail addresses it
finds, or sends a list of the valid e-mail addresses to businesses that
sell valid e-mail addresses to third parties for the purpose of
advertising.
To avoid the spread of Spam it is good e-mail safety and
etiquette to use "BCC" (Blind Carbon Copy) when sending e-mail out to more
than one person. That way the person receiving your e-mail can't see the
e-mail addresses of everyone else you've sent your e-mail to. More
importantly, spambots can't see the other e-mail addresses either.
For example, if you use BCC and one of your friends got a
spambot, the spambot could only see your e-mail address in a message on their
computer, and only send spam to you. But if you didn't use BCC,
and put all of your contacts in the "To:" or "Cc:" column, then the
spambot could
send it out to you AND ALL OF YOUR OTHER FRIENDS!
 
The Outlook Express screenshots above show how to select
e-mail addresses on the left and putting them in the "Bcc:" field on the
right. To view the "Bcc:" field in Outlook Express in a new message
window, select "Show Headers" from the View menu.
Other e-mail programs, as well as AOL, Yahoo, GMail and
other webmail services have a way to disguise all of the e-mail addresses
you send a message to via “BCC”. Please check how to use BCC with your
e-mail, and start practicing safe e-mailing today.
► Use
descriptive subject lines... and tell your friends
When you send an e-mail it is very helpful to the person receiving the
e-mail if you give a very specific subject so that they know the e-mail is
legitimately from you. A subject of “Attached pictures of baby Ryan Smith
born 7/1/03″ is an example of a good, very specific subject line. Try to
include names or specific information that the receiver would know that
it’s safe to open your e-mail. A subject of “hi” is too vague - some
spammers use vague subject lines to get you to open their message.
More sources for information about fighting Spam...
The Federal Trade Commission has more information in
their article
You’ve Got Spam: How to "Can" Unwanted Email.
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