Does spam annoy you as much as it does most people? The flood of junk emails you see every day is what I’m talking about, not the tinned meat product of the same name.
No doubt you’ve heard of this computer terminology.
The content of the messages range from mortgage rates to “enhancing body parts, to porn, and their numbers grow every day. Some experts estimate that junk email counts for over 90% of all emails!
Spam is named after an old Monty Python sketch which took place in a diner where everything on the menu had spam in it. A group of people dressed as vikings boisterously sing a song about spam, making conversation almost impossible. Years later, this reminded someone of how email in your inbox can get lost in all of the junk mail, so they named it spam and the name stuck.
It can be hard to avoid getting your email address on somebody’s list. It’s commonplace for people to receive 50 to 100 pieces of spam in a single day – I know some people who get over 300 a day! And the problem is growing worse.
Hapily here are a few tips for people to reduce the amount of spam they get. Here are a few tips:
*{Don’t risk trying to unsubscribe or ask to be taken off the list. Those emails may have a link or a reply address to unsubscribe, but most either simply don’t function, or you’re just telling the spammers that they’ve got a live one.
*Never order anything advertised in spam, visit the website, or in any way respond to the ad. One of the reasons spammers bother you so much is because it’s so cheap for them to send out the emails. The spammer will send more each time anyone orders.
*Try to avoid entering your email address on websites as much as possible. If you do, consider getting a second email account with Hotmail or a similar service. That way, you can enter that address instead of your main one.
Many websites offering contests, joke lists, free greeting cards, etc. sell your address without your permission.
*Never sign an online guestbook. As an experiment I recently created a new email address and entered it on about five guestbooks I found with a Google search. Within 24 hours I was getting spam, and it grew to dozens a day within a week.
* If you so much as open a junk email while you’re online, you can be instantly telling the spammer who sent it that you did. So if your email client has a “work offline” menu option (You’ll often locate this in the File menu) select it before opening suspect emails. You can also disconnect from the internet completely, but unless you are still making the mistake of using the out-of-date dialup, this may involve unplugging connectors. Really, the best option is to use the “offline” feature of your email program.
Windows Live Mail, you won’t be able to go offline in this way~You can’t go offline when you use a web-based email service~It’s impossible to use web-based email services offline}. Check your mail options for a setting to turn off graphics in emails, or to display mail in plain text only. The wording varies from site to site, but the option to turn on will say something like “block remote images” or something similar.
These steps can help keep the spammers from knowing you’ve opened the message.
*Avoid forwarding emails to large numbers of people.
Not everyone realizes that when you forward a message, the email addresses of everyone who receives the message is visible to every person who reads it. If any of the recipients is a spammer, or if one of a friend’s computer is infected by certain viruses, they can harvest all of those addresses, including yours.
If you do send an email to multiple people, you can avoid revealing email addresses by entering addresses in the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) area instead of To or CC. This will hide the list of addresses from everyone else.
If you’re sending a message from somebody on to others, you should copy and paste just the message into a new email window rather than hitting the forward button — this trims the message down and protects the privacy of others.
*To deal with the spam you already receive, most email clients allow you to create “filters” or “rules” that move incoming email into a specified folder or even right into the trash.
Setting filters up can be complicated, but the newer versions of many email clients, including Mozilla Thunderbird and Mac OS X Mail make it much easier.
The programs recognize patterns in spam, and use your address book as a white list of legit senders. Junk that shows up can be marked as spam with a click. The more spam you mark, the better the program gets at automatically taking care of them. You’l be blessed with an uncluttered inbox.
Many internet providers also provide a spam filter which blocks email before it gets to your computer. The problem with this is that they often block legitimate mail and you may never know about it.
Because of this, I recommend using filtering software on your own computer, such as the two programs I just mentioned.~*Never order anything advertised in junk email, click through to the website, or in any way respond to the ad. It costs almost nothing to send spam out, no matter how many you send, so they can send out millions at once for nearly nothing. The spammer will send more each time anyone orders.
*Don’t bother trying to unsubscribe or ask to be taken off the list. Those emails may have a link or a reply address to unsubscribe, but 90% either just don’t work, or you’re just notifying the spammers that they’ve got a live one.
* Never put your name in a guest book on a website. As an experiment I recently created a new email address and entered it on about five guestbooks I found with a Google search. Within 24 hours I was getting spam, and it grew to dozens a day within a week.
*Try to avoid entering your email address on websites as much as possible. If you do, consider getting a second email account with Hotmail or a similar service. So you can give an alternative address.
Many websites offering contests, joke lists, free greeting cards, etc. invade your privacy by sharing your address with other spammers.
* Spammers can send out special messages that “phone home” and let them know when they’re opened. So if your email application has a “work offline” setting (You’ll often locate this in the File menu) select it before opening dubious emails. You can also disconnect from the internet completely, but unless you’re still trapped in the backwaters of dialup, this could involve unplugging connectors. Generally, the best option is to use the “offline” feature of your email program.
Windows Live Mail, you won’t be able to go offline in this way~You can’t go offline when you use a web-based email service~It’s impossible to use web-based email services offline}. Check your mail options for a setting to turn off graphics in emails, or to display mail in plain text only. Turn on any option about blocking or not loading remote images.
These steps can help keep the spammers from knowing you’ve opened the message.
*To deal with the spam you already receive, most email applications allow you to create “filters” or “rules” that move incoming email into a specified folder or even right into the trash.
Setting filters up can be complicated, but the newer versions of many email clients, including Mozilla Thunderbird and Mac OS X Mail make it much easier.
The programs recognize patterns in spam, and use your address book as a white list of legit senders. Junk can be cleared from your inbox with a click. The more spam you mark, the better the program gets at automatically taking care of them. Your inbox will end up much less full of junk.
Many internet providers also provide a spam filter which blocks email before it gets to your computer. The problem with this is that they often block legitimate mail and you may never know about it.
Because of this, I recommend using filtering software on your own computer, such as the two programs I just mentioned.
*Avoid forwarding emails to large numbers of people.
Not everyone realizes that when you forward a message, the email addresses of everyone who receives the message is visible to every person who reads it. If any of the recipients is a spammer, or if one of a friend’s computer is infected by certain viruses, they can harvest all of those addresses, including yours.
If you do send an email to multiple people, you can avoid revealing email addresses by entering addresses in the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) area instead of To or CC. This will hide the list of addresses from everyone else.
If you’re sending a message from somebody on to others, you should copy and paste just the message into a new email window rather than hitting the forward button — this trims the message down and protects the privacy of others.}
Ultimately, spam is a fact of modern life, and it’s next to impossible to avoid all of it, mostly because of what other people are doing with your email. If your current email address is about to collapse from the amount of spam you get, you might be forced to get a new one.
After that, if you follow the suggestions and basic computer tips above, you’ll have a good chance of keeping it under control.
Tags: Computer Tips, gpd09wwg, how to stop spam