Reporting SPAM To Spam

Aaron Turpen

The number of unsolicited emails I receive seems to increase by the day. This is apparently a part of the job when youre doing business online. After all, I have over a dozen email accounts for various things and each of them will get on someones UCE or SPAM list eventually. The question is what to do with this SPAM once its been received.

Most people already know the conventional wisdom:
Dont respond to SPAM, if the return email address does actually work, the sender is more than likely to ad you to his or her good emails list and send you even more stuff.
If there is an opt-out link in the email, click it and try to unsubscribe. Beware that this can sometimes be a more elaborate version of the above ruse, but at least you tried.
Use filters on commonalities in the SPAM you receive to automatically trash or move potential SPAM to another folder and out of sight until youre ready to wade into them. Common words and phrases like MAKE MONEY or !!! and especially viagra should be flagged as potential SPAM. I recommend setting up filters based on SPAM you already receive. Dont bother with email addresses (they change all the time), just focus on subject lines and/or message bodies.

Now Im going to show you another way to report this SPAM and possibly get the SPAMmer shut down by his or her ISP for sending it. If enough complaints are made, most ISPs will shut down the offender for fear of losing their own connections to the Internet. Loss of a connection or the addition of their network to blockades or blacklists means the ISP will lose money as customers realize they cant send email to certain places and are not allowed access to some websites.

The SPAMmer will probably just move on to another ISP and set up shop again, but for the time being, youve shut down their operation and caused an interruption. Youve also hit them where it hurts: it costs money to move your operation on the fly and the SPAMmer has also lost hits to the website they were advertising. All of this ads up to dollars lost and dollars are what make the SPAMmer do what he or she is doing.

So who do you report your SPAM to and how do you go about it? The most respected anti-SPAM operation on the Internet today is SpamCop. Started by a college student who got tired of seeing his inbox fill with unsolicited email every day, it has grown to be a respected and powerful cornerstone on the Internet. Thousands of ISPs subscribe to the blacklists that SpamCop publishes and updates regularly - which contain IP addresses and website addresses for known SPAMmers and the ISPs who allow them to operate. These lists are used to filter incoming email and sometimes to block users from visiting certain areas of the Internet.

For regular users, signing up at SpamCop is free. For those with a high volume of email or who wish to subscribe to the blacklists SpamCop offers, there is a cost involved. Youll be surprised how small it is, though!

The first thing youll need to do is sign onto the SpamCop site and open an account. Obviously, for a site like this, keeping your information safe is a priority. Signup is quick and painless. Once youve signed up, youll receive an email with a website link and email address personalized for you. Using these two tools, you can report SPAM that you receive. There are also options for filtering your incoming email using SpamCops built-in filters for about $5 a year.

Now on to reporting your SPAM to the SpamCop system: when you receive an email that qualifies as Unsolicited Commercial Email (check SpamCops rules, theyre fairly strict about what qualifies), you will need to report it. I generally collect all of them throughout the day and then report them all at once by forwarding them through my email to my personal SpamCop reporting address. You can do them one-at-a-time as well, though. Just forward the email (hit your Forward button) or send it as an attachment (Outlook: Message Forward As Attachment most other email clients are similar). Either way, youll need to send it to your personal SpamCop reporting address. I suggest putting that into your contacts list as SpamCop or something similar for easy use.

Once youve forwarded the email, youll receive an auto-response from the SpamCop system asking you to follow a special link, which will take you to a page that contains a bunch of information about the email you reported. Included in that information are checkboxes for the ISPs the email traveled through and the originator of the email (if known). Usually, the checked boxes by default are all you need to use and you can leave the other boxes unchecked. Press the Send Spam Report(s) Now button and youre finished. The report is added to the database and, if enough people complain about the same email or the same source of that email, that source will be added to the blacklist.

From an ISPs perspective, each complaint (without your contact information or email) is sent to the administrator or administrator account on the particular server in question. This person gets an email from SpamCop indicating a complaint has been made and gives them a chance to follow a link to the website and try to defend themselves. Before a site is added to the blacklist, a SpamCop reviewer will look these reports over and decide whether the complaints are faulty (based on the emails sent to the system) or the ISP should be banned. Once on the blacklist, it is very difficult to be removed. Most are on the list for at least six months.

There are some other great resources on the SpamCop site you might also be interested in - especially if youre an email list administrator, newsletter publisher, or other bulk-mail-related business. If you are serious about slowing down or culling the amount of SPAM proliferating around the Internet, if you are tired of receiving SPAM and want to do something about it, or even if you just wish you had somewhere to send it other than just your computers trash bin, I would suggest joining SpamCop. Heres another hint to do something about the junk mail you receive in your postal mailbox as well: open all of them and take the ones that include a return envelope (postage paid) and stuff all of their crap back into that and send it back to them theyre paying the postage! Try it; itll make you feel better.

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Aaron Turpen is the proprieter of Aaronz WebWorkz, a provider of online services to small business including Web Development, Hosting, and Consultation. Aaronz WebWorkz publishes a free newsletter featuring articles for the small business owner/manager. www.AaronzWebWorkz.com

Internet 101: How To Make SPAM Disappear Like Magic!

It absolutely amazes me how many people over-react to receiving e-mail SPAM.

What is this obsession...this preoccupation with SPAM?

Where are our priorities?

There are who knows how many pedophiles out there abusing children; whom barely serve more than a couple of years in prison before they're free to walk the streets again.

Where's the public outrage over that? Yet, when it comes to SPAM, many of us are ready to support the severest anti-SPAM legislation. Yes, we want to lock up all the spammers and throw away the key.

What's wrong with this picture?

I personally receive over 500 e-mails every single day. Approximately half of that is SPAM. Want to know how I deal with the problem? I use magic. That's right, magic. I hit that magic little "delete" button and just like magic, my SPAM disappears!

And since I have high-speed cable access, it literally only takes me a few minutes to make hundreds of uninvited SPAM guests disappear like magic. No problem!

I don't let SPAM annoy me or upset me. And I certainly don't let it ruin my day.

When you let SPAM annoy or upset you, all you're doing is letting the spammers win. However, when you use that magic little delete button, you win. You've got the power to delete. Why not use it?

What's so hard about doing that? It's certainly a lot easier on your emotional well-being than getting upset over the situation.

Unfortunately, SPAM is a part of everyday life like telemarketers, reality television shows and junk mail. Learn to treat it as such.

Don't get mad...use magic!

Til next time...

Dave Turner is a writer and entrepreneur with over twenty years of marketing experience. Questions? Comments? Dave can be reached at mailto:internet-marketing-xpert.com Website: http://www.internet-marketing-xpert.com/ Internet marketing expert will teach you how to get a Guaranteed Monthly Income!

WANT TO HIT A SPAMCOP HARD?

In the film, "Cool Hand Luke," the vicious, sadistic prison warden was fond of saying, "What we have here is a failure to communicate." In the end, prisoner Paul Newman came to "understand" the true meaning of this comment.

A while back, a friend of mine copied a message to me that had been sent to a list of SpamCops and others. I was the object of the exercise to come. The subject line was, "We have another list owner here that [sic] needs to be educated."

Not much difference in the two statements, actually, for "educated" in this context means "business destroyed."

The Source Of This "Complaint"

I had distributed a brief article advising against requiring confirmation of subscription requests. In it, I described the results of two attempts at using them. In the first trial, 40% of new subscribers did not confirm. In the second, a longer trial, 37% failed to confirm.

I can't be certain this article triggered action, for I was never informed. But it was appended to the message received as mentioned above. It appears I was added to the "get-him" list because I recommend against requesting confirmation.

Radicalism Is Rising In Popularity

Sure, we've had some bad times in this country. When Senator Joe McCarthy got you up to the stand, you were guilty before you sat down. Since the early 80s, there has been an awesome increase in small, organized, targeted extremist groups which cram their views right down your throat.

Never mind they ignore your rights in doing so. Never mind you may be seriously hurt, even destroyed, by their unilateral actions. Never mind they make the judgement of your guilt in a manner you can not contest. You are guilty. Period.

In "True Believer," Eric Hoffer years back clearly pointed out the dangers of such groups to democracy as we know it. His concerns have proved to be justified, as have his predictions about such groups significantly reducing individual freedom over time.

SpamCops In Perspective

To put SpamCops into this category is absurd. They are trivial. They hide behind false names, as others have done for centuries behind masks and robes. They violate the very rules they claim to espouse. Compared to other forces at work in this country, SpamCops and like minded people offer only a gnat sized threat in a hawk-filled sky.

With one real exception. On a single unjustified and unsupported claim, a webmaster can find his ISP and website shut down without prior notice. And without recourse. For a small business just making it, this can amount to the "straw" that brings total collapse.

Small business people are the target. And SpamCops have been effective at doing vicious damage to many. The nature of the vicarious thrill they get in doing so escapes me.

This is real power. And it appears to be used for its own sake. In all else, SpamCops are utter failures.

Impotent Phonies

They are powerless to prevent real spam. The junk overflows our mailboxes, and we stand helpless before it. So do SpamCops. They can't shut down an ISP or a host owned by spammers. Or those they sell their lists and services to.

So they've taken a giant step and essentially redefined spam as anything received you did not request. A target-rich environment. Requests made, then forgotten, bring messages called spam.

I was pounded by SpamCops regards an article sent with my name on it. I pointed out the only way to get that article was to send an email to an autoresponder address. I was ignored, of course. Their continuing innuendos and implied threats were disturbing.

Two Giant Leaps

They took a giant step by taking advantage of specialized software now available. It scans any document and automatically sends their "spam" to every URL and email address found. Fascinating. I'm now a spammer because my work appears in an ezine they have defined as spam. Nuts. This usually amounts to someone forgetting they subscribed.

Their latest step is even more absurd. You are now "spamming"
with a 100% opt-in list if no confirmation is required. What in the world does confirmation have to do with unsolicited bulk email?

My thanks-for-subscribing message includes URLs to the goodies. And a URL that can be clicked to automatically unsubscribe.

When you open your front door to a knock, do you close it and require another?

Facts About Subscriber Counts.

You're bound to lose a few list members along the way. Some choose to unsubscribe. More make a change in their email address and do not think to subscribe again. Thus you will inevitably lose membership each month. Possibly 2% of your list.

So long as the number of new subscribers exceeds the number lost each month, your list will continue to grow. But try a confirmation request, and you may find the number of new members does not replace those lost.

Now explain to me how I'm going to grow a business in such fashion. And further, explain how SpamCops can decide that a list that doesn't require confirmation is sending spam. Then go on and make it clear just what SpamCops intends to accomplish with this demand. I don't think they know. They simply delight in hurting people.

So What's Next On The Agenda

Right. You guessed it. Content. If SpamCops can make confirmation indirectly the "law," what's to prevent them from judging the content of a given newsletter as unsuitable, and thus spam? Maybe a piece such as this one directed at the evil done by such a rag-tag bunch of low-lifes.

A scary thought to me. This would open a whole new world of opportunity to destroy helpless individuals.

Fighting Back

Don't even think about it. If you are attacked by SpamCops, respond minimally and politely as required, and get on with your business.

These people absolutely thrive on conflict. They glow with inner "strength" in the heat of battle. They can amass an array of other right-thinkers against you.

Forget it, for it's a battle you can not win. It is impossible to reason with irrationality.

Hitting Where It Hurts

However, you can now hit back. And in the right place. Their pocket book.

In a recent issue of her ezine, "The iCop Whistle Blower," jl scott offered a neat piece about the absurdities of SpamCops. She wrapped with a positive and powerful suggestion. I want to do the same here.

Serious minded people are joining in a class action suit against these people. You can contribute information or choose to participate. Here are some key links.

Victim Form - Explain How You've Been Hurt

Notes about how this all got started

Keep up on what is happening

In Closing ...

Here's a comment from jl scott. "I salute the people who are determined to organize this class action suit. Clearly, if we don't do it ourselves, these wild-eyed lunatics will continue to hurt decent and ethical businesses."

I applaud her stand. Come join in; the water's fine.

Bob McElwain, author of "Your Path To Success." How to build ANY business you want, just the way you want it, with only pocket money.

"SPAM And The Art Of Marketing Maintenance..."Roger J. Burke

Here is my latest article. It may be freely used in ezines, on websites or in e-books, as long as the Resource Box is left intact.

I would appreciate notification of where it was used, and if possible, a copy of the ezine or newsletter that it was used in. Please send notification mailto:webmaster@online-wealth.com

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I detest SPAM, but there's an awful lot of it going around the Net, as you know. Co-incidentally, there's an awful lot of another-four-letter-word-that-starts-with-S going around with it (just so there's no mis-understandings, I'm talking about porn)!

If you don't know what SPAM is, most Netizens would maybe say "any unsolicited commercial email". Others, more strident, would say "any email I didn't want", which sort of begs the question, doesn't it?

Now, it (almost) goes with saying that unsolicited, bulk, commercial email is - to put it delicately - a pain in the posterior. We've all been getting a lot of it already through our regular, bricks-and-mortar mailbox for years, so why should we have to put up with it over the Net?

Well, the short answer is, of course, we don't! What do you do now with the SPAM in your real mail-box? So...do likewise with the electronic variety and leave it at that: problem gone.

Not "solved" of course, just gone - until next time. And, that gets pretty tedious and annoying, right? Right...

Enter the anti-SPAM legislators.

And, quite properly too. However, granted that there should be, and must be, some form of penalties applied to repeated offenders (offline and online), still I think we have to be careful - to use a fractured phrase - not to crack the egg that the golden goose laid!

Picture this: You operate a successful bakery and are doing alright. You don't have a website yet, your profits are good and you're holding your own against the competition in town. There you are, busily getting the next batch of muffins into the oven and this guy walks into your store. Happily, you put down baking tray, take off your baker's hat, and turn to what you think is the next customer.

Only, he isn't.

Instead, after politely introducing himself and establishing his credentials as the new kid on the block from the Better Baking Soda Company, he then calmly tells you that he can improve your profits by 25% if you use his fantastic new baking soda.

Are you going to start throwing week-old muffins at him, for having the audacity to interrupt your work? Or, knowing what your costs are, vis-a-vis the whole baking process, are you going to stop and think for a bit - and then start throwing the muffins, but only maybe? ;-) On the other hand, maybe your business isn't doing too well, or you want to do better. Instead of throwing those muffins, maybe you should think about how you can make them last longer?

That's a very simple scenario, but one that is repeated thousands of time, every day, in all forms of business. Indeed, it's how many businesses must operate, being those types that sell only to other businesses. And, one of the most important tools of business is marketing, its proper operation and its effective maintenance.

With apologies to Robert Pirsig, I have slavishly copied the style of his very famous book - "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" - into the title of this article. That, of course, is where any further comparison stops.

I do, however, have a good reason for concocting my title.

I recall that Mr Pirsig's book explored themes for an improvement in self (in particular) and society (by inference), and one of those themes was QUALITY. Applied to every aspect of our existence, the quality of what we do can have a profound effect, from highly positive to lowly negative. Whatever we say and do, write and send, can have those effects, obviously.

So, maybe it's not so much the quantity of SPAM that we all get that is the problem (although, there are limits, right!). Maybe, we should be concerned more with the quality - in the broadest sense - of the message? In particular, I'm thinking of messages that are relevant, appropriate, targeted and - dare I say it - even helpful!

However, the SPAM we all love to hate - shot-gun style, bulk commercial email, splattering all through the system - would obviously rate very low in the quality stakes, for most people (although, just quietly, I understand there is a secret network of SPAMmers who simply delight in sending each other into lowly orbit every day?), but business-to-business email must surely have its proper place. And, that would include all businesses, of course, not just Blue Chip and Silicon Valley...

Which, very soon (if not already), will begin to trouble the strident anti-spammers even more: as more and more people set up their own online e-businesses all over the world, there may come a time when there are more businesses online than there are mere consumers.

Hmmm...now, there's a thought! ;-(o)

You are no doubt aware that many agencies - government and private - continue to grapple with the SPAM genie, but ultimately it is, I think, impossible to "get it back in the bottle".

In that regard, I have read a number of articles - and have even received an unsolicited email about "permission marketing"! I have responded to some but, try as I might, none have returned with an unequivocal, "dyed-in-the-wool", "shake-it-till-it-breaks" definition for permission marketing. I suspect it will be a while before I do.

But, I would be eternally grateful to anybody who can supply it!

Somebody once said, "Nothing happens until somebody sells something." Well...fatuous as that may sound, we are all trying to "sell" something to somebody. Right?

By all means protect the consumer to a reasonable and effective degree, with appropriate legislation and penalties. But, it would be shooting ourselves in the foot (or worse) to burden e-business with self-destructive restrictions and penalties.

Roger Burke has been involved with computers since 1967, and has managed to break quite a few, over the years. He, and his wife Sherry, are now actively engaged in online self-publishing and promoting specific affiliate programs at http://online-wealth.com . If you have any comments or questions about this article, please send emails to mailto:webmaster@online-wealth.com .
Online-Wealth. All rights reserved

Good Spam or Bad Spam - What's the Difference?

"Are you good spam or bad spam?" This is the question I find echoing in my head sometimes when I am going through my email, as if it is part of some electronic Wizard of Oz. Have you ever given any thought to the fact that there really is a difference in spam? Not that I am defending anyone, but let me make my point and then you can decide for yourself.

Spam is such a hot issue and no one knows the "right" view of spam that fits everyone. You either: - will take all measures to prevent people from sending it to you - don't mind it at all and happily delete, delete, delete every day - OR hate it sometimes and ignore it other times.

I think I fall in the last category, which is what started me thinking about good and bad spam. My point of view has now developed into this:

BAD Spam-
-It is bad spam when you reply to it to be removed and it is returned to you because the address is made up. -It is bad spam when the removal link does not open a real url. -It is bad spam when you paste the message source into Spam Cop and the info you get back before clicking the "Send spam report" shows tons of dead ends and made up domains, etc.

This means that this "Cowardly Lion" harvested your address, and went to great lengths to cover their tracks in order not to get caught sending spam.

GOOD Spam-
-It is good spam when there is an actual person on the other end, apologizing for inconveniencing you.

What made it good spam? Because here is spam that you most likely will not get again, because it is more legit then the bad spam. These people are not out to break any rules, upset anyone, or ruin your day. 9 times out of 10 they really don't know any better and will learn, very quickly I might add.

Also, keep in mind that the Scarecrow in us does not ALWAYS remember every email we sign up for. It is possible to have signed up for something and a week later be flipping out because you are getting email from some unknown. If we only had a brain sometimes (Speaking for myself, of course).

It is also highly possible that someone is having fun subscribing you to things. Never count that one out, it happens all of the time.

GOOD vs BAD
Personally, I would much rather get NO spam, however if I had to choose, I would have to go with good spam. Bad spam demonstrates that the sender KNOWS what is NOT acceptable and went to all of this trouble and expense to hide behind this long trail of fake addresses. These are malicious acts, and down right dirty. Do they really think that what they are trying to sell in this manner is actually worth it? These are the people we should be upset with. These are the people that we need to be telling, "I'll get you my pretty, and your little server too!"

So, whether you agree or disagree, just try to keep in mind that -1. The whole world is not out to get you. -2. Not every piece of spam is sent with the same intent. And... -3. As the world around us continues to change, we will be seeing more and more companies resorting to sending their junk mail through email rather then the post office. (I think this is becoming a more desirable thing to us all, as it would be much safer, take less effort to get rid of, & is better for the environment.)

Now is the time to try to adjust our view and approach the issue with a level head. If we don't we will drive ourselves mad, and for what purpose? The changes in our world cause the internet to change. Soon you probably will find yourself saying, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore".

Sara Hardy
Publisher of The OnLine Exchange Ezine. We have been in circulation for over 3 years, with over 28,000 faithful subscribers. Go here to subscribe: http://marketingtrendz.com and start your FREE Membership to our Profit Zone, giving you unlimited access to FREE marketing tools, ebooks, resources and more!

"Where is My Spam"Wonder Wyant

Boy, I must be really new to the Internet! Everyone keeps talking about all the canned meat they're getting and I'm hardly getting fed over here.

I do get some, but I'm sure not getting fat on it. I receive a couple of hundred or so emails a day so I'm not surprised that I get a few offers for credit cards I don't need and junk I'm not going to buy.

Although I probably average only a dozen or so letters a day in the big metal box at the end of the drive,some days more that half of that mail is junkmail.

While I find basically none of this junkmail useful to me, the electronic spam is much easier to deal with. I'm brand new to email and I still know at least three ways to hit delete! And, if need be, I can let my ISP gobble it up.

Since I live in the country and I no longer have to pay the garbage man to haul away the paper junkmail, I don't even resent that as I once did. In fact, I hear that I have a neighbor who actually solicits the stuff as he heats his house with it. An idea, I suppose?

I can almost hear you saying "Wait a minute! You said you get hundreds of emails a day." Yes, indeed I do. I would say that 96% of them are from ezines that I've subcribed to, offers I asked for more information about or email courses I wanted.

In my 3 months on the Internet, I've subscribed to over 400 ezines. Am I nuts, as an ezine editor friend of mine implied? No, I'm out here to get information. The only way to do that is to go to where the source is. Many ezines are wonderful sources of a wide variety of information.

Unfortunately, I've found that not all ezines are entertaining or informative. Do I read them all? Yes, I do, to a point. I use an automatic 'shelving' system in Outlook Express for my ezines.

I have a folder named 'Ezines' and inside that I have many subfolders.

When I read my first issue of an ezine, if I am instantly totally impressed, I set up a subfolder for that ezine and a message rule that puts every issue in that folder. I generally eagerly read them as soon as I see I have unopened mail in that folder. If I find later that I am not enjoying that ezine as much, I move the whole folder to another catagory or I unsubscribe and delete the folder.

I also have a subfolder called 'Checking Out'. If I am not totally enamored with the ezine, it goes into a subfolder in that file. I have these labeled: 'Daily's", 'Weekly's' and 'Monthly's. I add the from address to the appropriate message rule and those ezines go to their folders.

I read the 'Checking Out' ezines as time allows. Very often, by the second or third issue, the ezine has graduated it its own folder. I sort by name and read the 'Daily's' more often that the others but I do at least scan them all.

If I have received 5 or 6 issues of an ezine and it still remains in my just looking folder, I am not very interested in that ezine. I unsubscribe. Ezine editors might want to note that, when they send me 4 or more 'solos' in a day, I am probably only seeing one real issue of their ezine when I'm trying to decide if I want to remain subscribed.

I have to admit that I've recently added a new subfolder called 'Free Ad Subs'. Yep, you guessed it, stuff I don't read unless have extra time or I need an ad code. I will stay subscribed though until I figure out a better way to market.

I don't know, maybe I'm just too new out here to know what canned meat is.

If you'd like some helpful hints on how to manage 400+ ezines in your mailbox, send for my free helpful article "Manage Your E-mail" mailto:wonderclass1@GetResponse.com.

Wonder Wyant is a retired carny and the editor of "Geeks, Freaks and Bamboozles" a new ezine about both the carnival she retired from and the one she retired to. To get in prelaunch, mailto:wonderwyant@hotmail.com. You can check out her newest 'teddybear' at http://100PercentProfit.cjb.net.

Anti-Spam Two Step for Webmasters

If your email address is on a website that's been online for a while you're being blasted with unsolicited email (SPAM). You can delete it or you can eliminate much of it in two simple steps.

Step 1: Scramble Your Email Address

It isn't human visitors to your site that are causing the problem. It's website spidering SPAMBOTS. These spambots go out on the web and harvest any email address they can find. These harvested email addresses are then sold by unscrupulous *spam pushers*.

Your goal is to hide your email address from the spambots, but still display it for your website visitors to see. If the spambot doesn't recogize your scrambled code as an email address it won't harvest it.

Search the web for scripts that will scramble your email address. You will find many free scripts and some that you can purchase. Some are simple and easy to install. Others can be a little more complicated.

The one that I like is called EScrambler. It is a free script developed by InnerPeace.org. You can visit their site and copy the source code (permission given on the site). Or, go to http://www.webdesignwisdom.com/escrambler.shtml.

This simple script generates a javascript that scrambles your email address. Just copy the script and paste it in your HTML instead of the normal mailto:me@mydomain.com. Your email address is displayed properly for visitors to see, and the HTML looks like anything but an email address.

An example of *me@mydomain.com* in escrambled form:

Step 2: Send Spam to Your Auto-Delete Account

Now, just because you've scrambled your email address, that doesn't keep all spammers from sending email to you. Some will just use something like *anything*@yourdomain.com because they understand that most websites have email forwarding. Anything that is emailed to your domain will be forwarded to an email address you specified.

You never have to see this email if you forward it to another email address that automatically deletes it.

You will need a free email account that offers some simple anti-spam features to use as your *dump account*.

You must be able to designate email addresses from which you will not accept any email. You may already have an account that can handle it. If not, look into Mail.com or Lycos.com.

Then make your free email dump account the default forwarding address in your website's email handler. Go to your free email account and set it to reject all mail received from YOUR domain.

Then have email that is sent to your published email addresses (those you have scrambled on your site) forwarded to your normal forwarding address. Or, set them up as individual POP accounts if your hosting service offers this feature.

Now you will receive email from your website visitors who actually read your email address on your website and all other email will be deleted.

This is a very effective way to get rid of most spam that is generated from your domain. It won't eliminate all of it. The volume of spam that I was receiving decreased by 90-95% after I made these changes.

This tactic will work for sites that have been online with an unprotected email address too. Change the email address on your site to a different scrambled address. Forward all email that is sent to your old posted address to your dump account.

If you've been using your primary email address on your site, you'll need to notify everyone that your email address has changed. This makes it more difficult, but worth the effort if you're being slammed with spam.

Thomas Benton is the owner of WebDesignWisdom.com and the publisher of Active-eBuilder, The Do-It-Yourself Web Design and Internet Marketing Ezine. Visit Tom's resource-rich website: http://www.webdesignwisdom.com

Beware Spam Withdrawals

I miss the good old days when the only time you'd spend an hour dealing with spam was trying to pry it out of the can.
Q: I am so sick of all the spam that is sent to my business email address. I spend an hour every morning just trying to sort out the good email from the bad. I know I could just delete it all, but I'm afraid I'll accidentally delete email that might be important to my business. Short of unplugging my computer, what's the best solution for dealing with spam?

A: I feel your pain. I, too, miss the good old days when the only time you'd spend an hour dealing with spam was trying to pry it out of the can.

Due to the nature of my business, I get a lot of unwanted email. I've been working on the Internet since 1995 and my email address has been publicly exposed for most of that time, so I am a spammer's delight. It is no exaggeration to say that I used to receive more than 400 email messages a day. Out of those 400 messages about 10% were from people I knew, 10% were from people I needed to know, and the rest were from people that I would like to track down and field dress with a very dull knife.

Spammers, they are called the scourge of the Internet the digital kin of the lowly telemarketer and dreaded junk mailer.

After listening to me complain about spam for months, my lead engineer burst into my office a few weeks ago and announced, "I've solved our spam problem! I've installed a spam filter on our server that will prevent spam from getting through."

Great, I thought, now I can find something new to complain about.

I wondered what I would do with the extra two hours a day this wonderful spam filter would give me. My joy quickly waned when within a day my email went from 400 to 40. It was the saddest day of my life. Sitting there staring at my empty email box I suddenly felt very alone. At that moment I realized that not only had I come to expect the morning deluge of email, but I had come to find comfort in it. The spammers had become my friends. They wanted me to get rich quick and brighten my smile. They wanted to enhance my love life with generic Viagra and give me great deals on miniature cameras, low interest loans, waterfront property, and more. And the sheer number of folks concerned about the abundance (or lack thereof) of my anatomy was incredibly heart warming.

And the ladies that sent me email were so nice. They were worried that I was lonely and offered to cure my loneliness if only I gave them a credit card number. How sweet is that?

After a few days the withdrawal symptoms ceased and I was happy to be free of the majority of the spam, though to this day I'm afraid that I might be missing out on something grand.

You and I are not alone, Anna. According to a recent study by eMarketer, the average Internet email user now receives 81 emails a day, and nearly one quarter of them are spam. Spam now makes up more than 40% of all email and costs U.S. companies more than $10 billion annually. Seventy-six billion unsolicited e-mail messages will be delivered in 2003.

So how do spammers get your email address in the first place? It's easier than you might think. While some spam comes as a result of online purchases (yes, there are companies that will sell your email address no matter what their privacy policy says), that's just one of the ways spammers get you in their sites.

Spammers use "spider software" to crawl the web and harvest email address, so if you have a personal or company website that has your email posted on it, sooner or later a spam spider is going to grab your address and add it to the mill. Likewise when you sign up to take online surveys or receive email newsletters, you are potentially exposing yourself to spammers.

How can you reduce the amount of spam you get? Many people think that you can't fight spam, so you should just accept it and move on. In other words, you can not fight the Borg, so smile and be assimilated into the fold. While spam is hard to eliminate, there are things you can do to lessen the amount of spam you receive and it's impact on your daily business life.

First, stop clicking on the "unsubscribe" links at the bottom of spam emails. While some of the links are valid and will get you removed from spammer's lists, other are actually there just to let the spammer know that your address is valid. Click the link to unsubscribe and you might actually see the amount of spam you receive increase.

Second, it's a good idea to have at least two e-mail addresses. Use one for personal or business use, and the other for surveys and online purchases.

Third, consider installing a spam blocking software on your computer or company network. There are a variety of spam blocking applications on the market that range in price from free to a hundred bucks. Though none of them will completely eliminate spam, they can greatly reduce the volume you receive. Search the Web for "spam filter" and investigate the ones that you feel are right for you.

Your Internet Service Provider should also offer an anti-spam application, but be careful how you use it. I have a client who recently increased the sensitivity of their ISP spam blocker to the point that nothing was getting delivered to their company email accounts, including their own company newsletter. They had effectively built an email brick wall that stopped the spam and everything else. Not a good idea.

Before investing in a commercial spam blocker you might also try adjusting the email filtering settings in your email software. Microsoft Outlook, for example, lets you set rules for handling incoming mail. The same is true with Outlook Express, Eudora, and Apple's Mail OSX. Each have built-in filtering features that can help eliminate unwanted email by parameters you set.

One thing to remember is that if spam didn't work, it would quickly go away. In other words, if spammers weren't profiting from sending unwanted emails they would go do something else.

Probably become a telemarketer or credit card debt collector.

Whether you use a commercial product or rely on your existing email software to filter out spam, just be careful that you don't batten down the hatches so tight that you no longer receive any email at all.

Here's to your success!

Tim Knox tim@onlineprofits4u.com

Small Business Q&A is written by veteran entrepreneur and syndicated columnist, Tim Knox. Tim serves as the president and CEO of three successful technology companies: B2Secure Inc., a Web-based hiring management software company; Digital Graphiti Inc., a software development company; and Sidebar Systems, a company that creates-cutting edge convergence software for broadcast media outlets. Tim is also the founder of OnlineProfits4U.com, an ebusiness dedicated to the success of online entrepreneurs. Tim is also the Ebusiness Startup and Design Expert for Entrepreneur.com, the website of the national publication Entrepreneur Magazine. http://www.smallbusinessqa.com
http://www.onlineprofits4u.com
http://www.digitalgraphiti.com

All About Spam

Spam is annoying. Period. Why people would want to send all of us stupid messages about buying prescription drugs or getting some outrageously good mortgage rate is beyond me. Well, not really.

You might ignore those emails. But not everyone does. And that's why they're sent. Emails cost so little (or nothing) to send. So sending out a million of them could be a cakewalk. Let's say one out of every 1,000 recipients falls for their ploy. Someone just got 1,000 new customers!

How in the heck did those spammers get your address in the first place? Well, they actually use a variety of techniques. They use programs called spambots to search the web and pick up any email addresses that could be listed on websites. They use what's called the "Dictionary" technique, where they take a well-known email extension (earthlink.net, for instance), and make up all kinds of possible user names to go with it. For example, with me they could try the usernames "kara", "kara1", "kara2" and so on, until they can confirm one of those connected to an earthlink.net extension is a valid email address. Kinda like going page by page through the dictionary.

Ever fill out a registration form on a website and find a little checkbox, probably near the bottom, asking if you want to receive additional information, newsletters, or something of that nature? Often the box is checked, and in order NOT to receive the info, you have to UNCHECK it (or else). Well if you miss those types of boxes on the wrong kinds of sites, your email addresses may be handed to spammers on a silver platter. Well, almost. Often a zillion email addresses are sold for next to nothing to spammers on CDs. (Couldn't you almost call those silver platters?)

Many internet service providers (those guys that keep you connected to the internet so you can send and receive email) use a variety of methods to block spam before it ever gets to you. Nevertheless, we all know that some spam inevitably gets through to our inboxes. That's when we need to take a proactive stance and install some sort of software to filter it out!

Feel free to reprint this article in newsletters and on websites, with resource box included. If you use this article, please send a brief message to let me know where it appeared: kara333@earthlink.net

 http://www.karathecomputertutor.com

For help on installing anti-spam software, check out this article on Kara Glovers website: http://www.karathecomputertutor.com. You can also find more articles, tips and tutorials on topics such as Microsoft Word., Excel, and PowerPoint there. Kara is a Computer Tutor and Troubleshooter.
kara333@earthlink.net