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 Spam
and what you can do about it
Spam!!!
If you've had an email account
for any amount of time, then chances are you've had to deal with
unwanted retarded email. Spam is to email what junkmail is to
your mailbox at your house.
Rule No. 1
The first rule of any
unwanted email is DO NOT REPLY TO IT!!! almost every piece
of email that is junk mail will have a message in it that says
something to the effect of "click here to be removed
from this mailing list" or "send us a
reply with REMOVE in the subject line to be removed from this
mailing list". Almost always, I'd say 95% of the time,
all this does is confirm your valid email address to the sender.
This is Gold in the spam world because now they know for a fact
a live human is there and it's not a dead email address.
Never contact the spammer under
any circumstances.
Almost all of these emails shucking
everything from free credit reports to get rich quick schemes
offer a opt out link or web address for you to conveniently have
yourself removed from their mailing list. DON'T DO IT!!! NEVER
NEVER NEVER respond to one of these automated removals. All this
does is confirm to them that you are a real user and your email
address works. This is GOLD to these guys.
Defend and Fortify, then Attack!
Web based email blocking
Here's what I recommend. If you
connect to the internet via Earthlink or AOL don't use their
email. Use a web based email system that is independent from
the company that you pay for internet service. My favorite right
now is MSN or Hotmail. MSN has a pretty good spam blocking function
that is right there on your email screen. All you do is check
off the junk mail or spam and click 'block' and that's it. You
can even block the entire senders company which I prefer.
 Another plus to not using the
internet providers email is if you get tired of them and start
to experience slow or bad service, you won't lose your email.
You can flip and flop all over the place picking and choosing
whatever service you like without telling everyone in your address
book that you are now on another Internet service... |
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What I tell my clients to do
if you really hate spam is to have two email accounts. If you've
already started using your ISPs email (Earthlink, AOL or whatever)
and really don't feel like turning it off, then create a new
MSN, Hotmail or Yahoo account and start using that for registering
for websites, buying online etc. Use this web based email account
as your public email address. Use it strictly for buying online,
newsletters, posting in forums, or whatever you like but do not
use it for work, friends or family. If and when the Spam starts
rolling in, use the spam tools provided by that service to clean
up the box.
Now for your family friends and
work, use your personal email account. Never use this email to
register online for anything. Never.
Now, if you've got the guts...
read on...
Kick em when their up, Kick when their
down...
If you're like me, you like to
screw with these guys. I love giving it back to them. My method
of attack is this. I setup an email account on Hotmail.com then
I respond to these guys inquiring about the product or service.
I send a honest legitimate request for information... No sooner
than my keyboard keys get cold from typing the message, I'll
get a response from the ignat company that sent it. As soon as
I have a persons name, phone number (hopefully a 800 number)
and an email address I unleash a fury of suspecting attacks on
these guys. I've done this for hire on a clients request once
because the spammer was targeting his daughters email account
on AOL. I almost forgot about the 800 number. If you're lucky
enough to get a company with an 800 number that's gold. You did
know that they pay about 28 cents for every call over 3 seconds
didn't you? Just program your computer to redial a number using
the phone dialer program on Windows to redial the number over
and over. All you have to do is redial for a weekend, Saturday
or Sunday will do, and that cost em around $200 - $300 bucks.
Some 800 number companies cut off their number if the level gets
too high.
Keep in mind that I'm not recommending
that anyone break the law here, just get as much information
about them as you can as pass it along to the companies I've
suggested and report them.
Michael
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