If you’re a member of today’s millennials, you’ve probably heard the word and gotten your fair share of spam in your inbox. For those of us who use email (which is most of us these days), the experience of spam and junk mail is all too familiar and annoying.
Let’s talk about what SPAM is and where it comes from; Hopefully, the reader can get an idea of how to avoid spam and stop spammers.
Spam: meat-like substance or threat to society?
If you’ve ever received emails promoting the sale of prescription drugs or pornography, urging you to refinance your mortgage, or exposing the wonders of the latest get-rich-quick job from home, chances are you’ve received spam.
Sparing yourself the tedium of a formal definition, SPAM emails often don’t have “opt-out” links (any newsletter you receive is supposed to have these in case you decide you don’t want the emails anymore – this is part of the CAN-SPAM Act rules). The ones that do are fake, and you will most likely continue to receive spam emails or receive even more, as clicking the link verifies that the email address in question (your own) is real and being used.
These types of emails are not permission based and usually appear out of nowhere.
Legitimate emails from businesses often contain useful information and/or coupons/special offers, and are sent regularly, but not so often that they become annoying. One can easily opt out without worrying about repeat offense.
Now for the good stuff: how to avoid spam (or how the heck do spammers get your email address?)
Actually, there are a few ways to do it. One popular method is through the spider (these are also used by search engines for legitimate purposes). These are just programs that “scrawl” the Web or the Internet looking for email addresses posted on websites, such as [email protected].
Think twice before posting your email address on blogs, personal sites, online directories, and other websites where it can be easily detected by spammers.
If you must post your email, try something like this: emailATmyaddressDOTTCOMM; this makes it harder for automated programs to detect email addresses, resulting in less spam for you.
Get creative: The irony about computers is that while they can help solve very complex problems, they can also be completely astounding at things that most 10-year-olds can easily solve.
Have you ever signed up for an online subscription or purchased something online? How about those cool freebies like eBooks and webinars (shameless self-promotion: you should definitely take whatever free stuff we’re offering, we’re not spammers!)?
Most web companies use this information to build a legitimate subscription list so they can send you newsletters, special offers, and marketing. Some may sell the email addresses to other companies (read their privacy policy if they have one, but the ethical ones usually won’t – they just want to grow their business).
When you buy something online, most of the time you will have to enter an email address to pay. Some sites allow you to pay without signing up, while others that force you to sign up keep your email address to themselves and don’t share it.
Other guys are not so nice. Some will sell email address lists to spammers to earn extra money. Create a “disposable” email account at Hotmail, Yahoo, or Gmail and use it for online purchases and subscriptions. And as boring as it is, consider reviewing their privacy policy. It can help keep your inbox free of spam.
Special programs can be used to automatically create millions of possible email addresses. Many use the names of popular Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and well-known companies (ie [email protected]) to create them. Yet another way spam gets to you.
Why people who send spam often don’t get caught or shut down
We have already discussed malware. Some malware is designed to silently take over an ordinary computer, server, or website and turn it into a spam bot that can send thousands upon thousands of emails in a relatively short time. This makes catching the spammer more difficult, because your computer or server takes the blame, not the spammer’s.
If your computer seems to be running slowly all of a sudden or for no apparent reason, you could be sending spam and not even know it!
Keep your security software up to date. Install patches and updates for the operating system and productivity software. If you suspect you have an infection, our website can help.
Spammers often spoof their IP addresses and/or remove sender information from their email headers. They can also make the email appear legitimate to avoid detection by spam filters. Some use funny characters or misspelled words to help your spam reach your inbox.
All the information about spam could fill volumes, but the basic prevention techniques offered here will be of great help if used regularly.
And yes, sometimes you can judge a book by its cover: many websites dealing with pornography, get-rich-quick schemes, and gambling have questionable ethics to begin with; Why would they have any qualifications about spamming people to make extra money?