Ten tips to control your email (so it doesn’t control you!)

While we all consider email a valuable tool, the rapid growth of spam and viruses arriving in our inboxes every day is a major headache. According to spamfilterreview.com, 40% of all email is spam and 16% of email users have changed their email address to avoid spam. Yet 28% of people reply to spam and 8% of users have actually bought something they saw in a spam message.

Governments legislate against it and software companies propose solutions but the problem seems to get worse every day.

While there’s no way to eliminate junk messages entirely, there are many things you can do to control them.

Keep your email address confidential so people can’t send you spam

Tip#1: Use “throw-away” email addresses where appropriate.
If you need an email address to register on a web site, or to sign up for a newsletter, consider getting a free email address from Yahoo, Hot Mail or a similar service. Not only do these have good spam and virus filtering, but if you still get deluged with spam, you can always abandon that email address and get another.

Tip#2: Don’t open spam messages
Spammers send out millions of emails and have no idea whether the addresses they are sending to are valid or not. They often include a link to an image within the message as a trick to validate the address. If you open the mail (or even preview it), then your computer will identify itself when it follows the link to get the image. Now they know the email address is valid and you will get even more junk email.

Tip #3: Ignore Unsubscribe links in junk mails.
Many junk mails invite you to click a link to “unsubscribe”. This is another trick to get you to identify yourself. Note that legitimate newsletters such as this one will always include an unsubscribe link and you should use it if you don’t want to receive future issues.

Tip#4: Encrypt your email address in web pages.
Spammers have programs that scan every web page they can find looking for email addresses. They copy every address they find and add them to the spam lists. It’s so easy but you can easily prevent this. There are ways to encode the email address within the web page so that the harvesters don’t even recognize it as an address. It displays correctly on the screen, and if you click it, the email you send is properly addressed, so the only loser is the spammer.

Tip #5: Opt out.
When you are buying something online, signing up for a service or special offer, or just registering on a web site, look closely for places where you agree to receive more information, sign up for a newsletter, etc. Make sure you opt out unless you really want the extra mail in your inbox.

Block the Spam before you see it

If you can’t stop people addressing spam to you, you can at least try to catch it before you see it.

Tip #6: See what your Internet Service Provider can do.
Ask your Internet Service Provider if they provide a spam filtering service. Most do. For every spam filter, there’s a way to get round it, but every roadblock you erect makes it more difficult for the spammer and so less cost-effective to send spam. Spam filtering isn’t perfect and if you set it to be very aggressive, you risk losing valid mail.

Tip #7: Create filters in your email program
If you can’t keep the spam away from your computer, then at least you can filter it once it arrives. All the email programs which run on your computer (e.g. Outlook, Netscape) can scan all incoming mail and either delete what it thinks is spam, or move it to another folder where you can check it later. Web-based mail services such as Hotmail, Yahoo and gmail do the same.

Don’t send spam

Tip #8: Keep your PC and email account both secure.
Most spam is sent from computers that have been infected by a virus and turned into spam generators. Keep your anti-virus program up to date and never open email attachments unless you are expecting them. It doesn’t matter if they come from someone you trust implicitly – that address may have been forged. Spammers recently hijacked one of the Newland Group mail servers and were sending out hundreds of emails every minute until we figured out how to stop them. Our mistake? One email account had a simple password that anyone could guess.

Tip #9: Don’t forward hoax messages.
Don’t EVER forward emails you might receive saying that there’s a particular virus going around and you should forward the email to everyone you know to warn them. If you really think the email is genuine, check it out first at the Symantec hoaxes web page. The address is in the Useful Web Resources section below.

Tip #10: Don’t buy from Spammers
Perhaps you need a cheap mortgage or some prescription medication from Canada. Don’t even THINK of responding to a spam message. If nobody ever responded to them, they would become extinct in days.

A bonus tip:

Tip #11: Why is it called spam?
The name comes from a Monty Python comedy sketch. See w3.informatik.gu.se/~dixi/spam.htm.

Finally, please don’t be tempted to reply to spam with a thousand emails or a huge attached file. Virtually every junk email today comes with a forged “from:” address. Most of these are invalid, but some are real addresses belonging to some unsuspecting victim. He’s the one who will receive your revenge.

Continuing our theme, this edition’s featured web sites help you understand and manage junk mail.

Death to Spam is at http://www.mindworkshop.com/alchemy/nospam.html. It describes itself as “an objective overview of unsolicited e-mail and the techniques available to defend your IN box. Learn about tracing mail, message filters, legal issues and more.” It’s the most complete yet readable page on the subject.

If all this junk mail is driving you insane and you want to do something about it, visit SpamCop at www.spamcop.net. To quote the home page: “SpamCop determines the origin of unwanted email and reports it to the relevant Internet service providers. By reporting spam, you have a positive impact on the problem. Reporting unsolicited email also helps feed spam filtering systems, including, but not limited to, SpamCop's own service.”

Symantec has a very good complete and informative web site covering all aspects of computer security. Their list of all known hoax virus messages is at http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html.

Finally, don’t forget www.spam.com, the official web site of Spam the luncheon meat we all grew up with.