What You Can
Do in War on Spam
By Larry Magid
First revsion
July 10, 2003
Revised April, 2004
Of all the annoyances on the
Internet, spam is by far the most infuriating.
Almost everyone gets some
unwanted e-mail. It's estimated that about 40 percent of all
e-mail is now spam and it's getting worse, not better. I get an
average of nearly 200 pieces of junk mail a day. I'm not talking
about the type of bulk advertising that comes via snail mail.
Most of the spam I get is far worse, promoting porn sites,
Viagra, organ enlargement and a variety of get-rich-quick
schemes and product offers that are simply too good to be true.
Spammers don't discriminate
which means that their junk finds its way into everyone's
mailboxes, including children. I respect the free speech rights
of those who post legal pornography (not illegal child porn),
but I don't think they should have the right to pander porn to
children whose only offense is to open their e-mail.
The cost of spam is enormous
-- by some estimates as much as $10 billion a year in lost
productivity as well as the cost of all the equipment, software
and resources needed to process it or get rid of it.
Personally, I think spam is
going to be with us for a long time, but I do think there are
things that can be done about it on both a personal and
legislative level.
Law
Ineffective
Congress has already enacted
the Canned Spam Act which makes it a crime to send out certain
types of spam including messages with fake return addresses and
pornography that isn't so labeled. Still, the spammers continue
to spew forth. Some in government and industry claim that
the law is having an impact, but you wouldn't know it from my
inbox.
So, despite the law,
consumers still have to take some action to protect
themselves. Let's face it, not all spammers operate within the
Unites States and even some of those will find ways to flaunt
the law.
There are tools available
right now that go a long way toward helping you reduce spam.
I've been using Matador from MailFrontier (www.mailfrontier.com)
and SpamNet from Cloudmark (www.cloudmark.com) to filter my
mail. MailFrontier, which works in both Outlook and Outlook
Express, is about 90 percent effective in blocking unwanted
mail. Mail that it suspects as spam is put into a special folder
that you can look at just in case of a false positive. The
program has filtered thousands of pieces of spam since I
installed it a month ago, and has only stopped a few messages
that I considered to be legitimate. When that happens, you
highlight the message and click the ''unjunk'' button and the
message is moved into your in box and the sender is added to a
''white list'' so that the mail will no longer be blocked.
Cloudmark's SpamNet, which
currently works with Outlook and Outlook Express, uses a similar filtering
technology but you have to type in the actual e-mail addresses
of people or companies you want to add to your ''white list.'' SpamNet software is free but costs $3.99 a month to use, while
Matador software costs $29.95. Although it doesn't disclose this
on the web site, I was told that the company plans to charge
users a small annual fee after the first year.
One problem with both these
programs is that the mail still arrives. It's isolated so you
don't have to look at it, but you have to waste time downloading
it, which can be a lot of time if you're using a standard
modem.
"Never
buy anything advertised via spam, even if it is a good
offer. You're just encouraging them. Second, be careful
how you reveal your e-mail address. Don't post it on the
web or in public areas such as message boards or chat
rooms and only reveal it to web sites you trust. If you
must post or reveal your address, use a ''disposable''
one such as a Hotmail or Yahoo Mail account. Also, don't
respond to any untrusted spammers, even if they offer
you a way to remove yourself from their list."
Another way to block spam is
to use a system called ''Challenge/Response.'' Leading
challenge/response vendors include MailBlocks.com ($9.95 a year)
and Earthlink (spam filtering free to users). Anyone who tries
to send a message to someone using a challenge/response system
will get a message asking them to respond to a simple challenge
such as typing in a number. The reason for this is that the vast
majority of spam is based on e-mail addresses that are
automatically harvested. Spammers don't send out messages
individually, but use software that isn't capable of responding
to these challenges. Challenge/response systems block virtually
100 percent of spam, but they do put a small burden on the
people who write to you. Most will automatically add-in people
in your address book, and companies developing these types of
systems are working on newer technologies to reduce the
inconvenience level.
In addition to filters, there
are some things we can all do to help reduce spam. First, never
buy anything advertised via spam, even if it is a good offer.
You're just encouraging them. Second, be careful how you reveal
your e-mail address. Don't post it on the web or in public areas
such as message boards or chat rooms and only reveal it to web
sites you trust. If you must post or reveal your address, use a
''disposable'' one such as a Hotmail or Yahoo Mail account.
Also, don't respond to any untrusted spammers, even if they
offer you a way to remove yourself from their list. Those are
often tricks, because once you respond, they know that yours is
a valid address. That encourages them to send you more spam and
to sell your valid address to other spammers. Legitimate mailers
-- such as airlines and major retailers, will honor your request
to be taken off the list, but make sure that you're really
dealing with a legitimate company, not a spammer posing as one.
Another option is to stop
using e-mail altogether. Of course, I don't advocate that but if
something isn't done about spam, I'm afraid that more and more
people might just take that approach.
