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How to Stop Spam Email

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Internet How Tos  |  Technology  |  How Tos

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  • Introduction

    • Are you interested in lengthening ur manhood? Finding prescription drugs 4 cheep? How about helping a Nigerian diplomat transfer a large amount of money into an off-shore account? Not interested? Good Choice! If you have an email account, chances are that you've been asked these questions before (in one form or another) in email messages known as "Spam". Whether you get 3 to 4 a day or 30 to 40, sorting through and deleting these unsolicited commercial emails can become a gigantic waste of time and energy - not to mention an affront to good grammar and spelling. But don't think for a second that you need to put up with thousands of junk emails clogging your inbox. With a little bit of information and common sense, you can help slow the flood of spam down to just a trickle.

  • Why Spam Is Bad

    • Besides the obvious annoyance of having to identify and delete tons of unwanted email, there are a number of other reasons why spam and spammers are bad for you - and the Internet:
    1. Phishing: Spam emails are often used in order to engage in Phishing - a practice in which links are used to collect personal information (financial data, social security numbers, account information) from unsuspecting users. That information can then be used for Identity Theft.
    2. Malware: Another harmful thing that spam emails often include is Malware - computer viruses, spyware, and malicious programs that can silently infiltrate a user's computer and cause major problems. Simply by clicking on a link, you can expose yourself (and your computer) to harmful viruses that can affect the functioning of your computer.

    • 3. Loss of Productivity: While checking and deleting spam emails is certainly annoying, it is the time consumption and loss of productivity that really costs you.
      • Say that it takes you 5 seconds to check and delete a spam message. Multiply that by the 50 - 100 you get each day - and then by 7 (days in the week) and then by 52 (weeks in a year)...you get the picture. I'm sure you have much better things to do with your time than manage your incoming junk mail.

  • Why Spam Is So Prevalent

    • If you've ever opened a poorly written, blatantly misleading, or comically inappropriate piece of spam mail, you've probably asked yourself this question: Why is spam so prevalent? Why do I keep getting these useless messages for services that I'll never use and products that I don't need (and even if I did - I wouldn't buy them from a sketchy online advertiser). Here are a few reasons why the business of sending spam mail is booming - and why it won't go away anytime soon:
    1. Spam Works: No matter how hard you may find it to believe, spam emails do work at getting some people to click on their featured links and bring both traffic and sales conversions to their intended clients.
      • Studies have shown that people click on spam mail enough to make it a worthwhile practice for advertisers[1]. While you may be savvy enough to avoid spam, some people clearly aren't.
    2. Spam is Cheap: One of the main reasons that spam is so appealing as a marketing tool is that it is so inexpensive. Since sending email is free, the cost of sending a spam message to one person is the same as sending it to 1 million people.
      • Even if only 1 out of every 1,000 people actually click on the link, the cost of sending the emails (virtually none) makes it a profitable endeavor.
    3. Spam is Hard to Fight: While software companies and Internet service providers (ISPs) are working constantly to help battle spammers and prevent unsolicited emails from getting in your inbox, nefarious marketing professionals are working equally hard to get around those barriers.
      • While new technology can help to prevent certain methods of sending spam, other technologies may provide spammers with ways to get around those defenses.

  • Tip 1: Use Your Email Wisely

    • Now that we know a little bit about what spam is and how it works, we are ready to start getting into some of the ways in which you can combat it. The easiest way to help mitigate (or at least prevent an increase in) the amount of spam emails you receive is to simply be intelligent about the way in which you use your email account. While this advice may seem like common sense to experienced computer users, the majority of email users may not be as savvy about identifying and avoiding spam. Here are some simple things that you can do:

  • Don't Open Spam

      • Don't open them, don't click on any of their links, and certainly don't Buy anything from a spam-advertised site. This may seem like a no-brainer - but people get tricked every day into opening spam messages, clicking on their links, (and in some cases) buying what they're selling.
        • Besides all of the malicious things this might expose you too (see above), the worst part about supporting a spammer is that you are basically giving them what they want - and helping to promote the spread of spam in the future.

  • Don't Respond to Spam

      • While you might be tempted to reply to a spam message with a death threat or other strongly worded reproach, this is not a smart thing to do. Responding to a spam email in any way just proves to the spammer that yours is a working email address and that you actively check your emails. Many spammers are actually just look for email addresses that work.
        • Don't click on any link that says "Unsubscribe" or "Click Here if you Don't Want to Receive Any More Emails". These are just ways for spammers to confirm that you have read the email.

  • Delete and Mark Spam

      • It is always a good idea to delete spam emails as soon as you get them (that way there's less of a chance that you will accidentally click no them in the future). But before you delete them, make sure you mark them as "Spam" in your email client.
        • Most email clients will allow you to mark certain emails as "Spam". This helps the email client identify similar emails in the future and prevent them from finding their way into your inbox.

  • Tip 2: Set Up A Disposable Account

    • Another great way to help lessen the effects of spam is to set up a disposable email account. A disposable email account can be used as a dummy address for when you have to fill out registration pages online or enter your email address in order to access or sign up for a specific website or service.
    1. While many of the websites and services that you access online will claim to be secure and promise not to let your personal information get into the wrong hands, it is nearly impossible for them to ensure complete security.
      • Using a disposable email address for registering online will ensure that your Real email address does not end up in the hands of data mining services or spammers.
    2. You can set up your disposable email address to forward your registration emails to your Real account (this way you won't have to check 2 email addresses).
      • As soon as your disposable email account starts receiving spam emails, simply delete your account and start a new one.
    3. There are a number of email services that offer disposable email accounts for the sole purpose of helping to fight spam:

  • Tip 3: Use Your Email Client's Spam Filter

    • The most common (and widely used) method of battling spam is through the use of spam filters and software that are designed to automatically recognize and filter out spam messages. Since many ISPs and email clients have spam filtering software built into their services, a lot of the spam filtering that goes on within your email account is done without you even noticing it.
    • While your email account may be working silently to help keep spam out of your inbox, there are a few things that you can do to help it better recognize and filter spam:
    1. Mark Messages As Spam: One of the best ways for you to help your email client recognize spam is to mark any spam messages that do get through. Most email clients will have an empty box next to each email that you can use to mark messages that you think are spam.
      • Spam filters can use that information to block similar emails from getting into your inbox - basically learning how to better identify spam.
    2. Identify False Positives: One of the drawbacks of aggressive spam filtering is that it will occasionally mistake a Real email for a spam one. This is called a "False Positive". Every so often, it is a good idea to go through your spam folder to make sure that there aren't any in there.
      • If you do find a false positive, go ahead and move it into your regular inbox. This will let the filter know what to do with similar messages in the future.
    3. Adjust Your Filter Settings: Go into your specific email client's spam filter settings and make that they are configured correctly. Some email accounts will let you specify certain domain names to automatically mark as spam, or look for specific keywords and phrases in emails to do the same.
      • You can usually specify what you want done with spam emails. Do you want them to be deleted immediately? Do you want them to sit in your spam folder for a month before deleting (that way you can check it for false positives)?

  • Tip 4: Be Smart When You're Online

    • One of the easiest ways for spammers to get your email address is if you are careless about where you display your personal information online. Spammers go to great lengths to compile lists of email addresses that they can spam, and the web is full of information that they can use for their nefarious purposes. Here are some things that you should always do in order to prevent your address from getting into the wrong hands.
    1. Disguise Your Email Address: If you have a personal website, blog or other online presence, chances are that you'll have your contact information displayed somewhere.
      • Since spammers will often use computer programs to search for anything containing the @ symbol, it is always a good idea to spell out "at" in your address, rather than writing the whole thing (i.e. andy at mahalo.com).
    2. Don't Enter Online Promotions or Contests: Be wary of online promotions and contests that ask you to enter in your email address (or other personal information) in exchange for being entered into a free drawing.
      • Signing up for free trial software is another way for spammers to find and use your personal information.
    3. Avoid Forwarded Emails: We've all received funny or amusing emails that have been forwarded to us (often many times removed) by a friend or colleague. While some of these may be harmless attempts at amusement, some can be a simple way for spammers to collect large amounts of working email addresses.
      • You can usually tell that an email has been forwarded multiple times if it has "Fw:Fw:Fw:" in the subject heading.

  • Tip 5: Report Spammers

    • While you shouldn't make it your life's work to track down and expose spammers (there are just too many!), there are some ways that you can help by reporting spammers and their activities to the proper authorities. Here are a few:
    1. In order to report spam, read through the United States Justice Department's website regarding how to report unsolicited e-mail. This page will give you information on how to report different types of spam email.
    2. Email the Federal Trade Commission at spam@uce.gov in order to report spam. The FTC then uses that information to help find and prosecute suspected spammers.
    3. You can also report spammers to your Internet service provider. This can help them identify people who are sending spam through their system. For more information, see Mahalo's guide to How to Report Spam to your ISP
      • Again, when reporting a spammer, be sure to include as much information as possible, including the full email message, heading, and IP address (if possible).

  • Use Spam Reporting Services

    • If you don't have the time, energy, or technical savvy to manually report spammers to the proper organizations yourself, you can take advantage of some of the independent spam reporting services that have popped up in the past few years. By signing up for an account with these services, users can quickly and easily forward spam messages to them. Those messages are then analyzed by the services and the proper actions are taken to stop the spammers. Here are a couple of the most popular spam reporting services:
      1. SpamCop: Probably the most used spam reporting service, SpamCop is a great resource for people who want to help fight spam. While signing up for a basic account and reporting spam is free, SpamCop also offers premium email accounts that make use of their extensive databases to provide users with spam-free email.
      2. Spamhaus: Spamhaus is an International non-profit organization that works to battle spam around the globe by compiling lists of known spammers and their IP addresses. They also provide anti-spam services for large organizations and businesses.

  • Do Not Spam List: Fact or Fiction?

      • While you may have heard rumors of a National "Do Not Email Registry" (similar to the Do Not Call Registry), the truth is that such a list does not exist. In fact, in a report to congress, the Federal Trade Commission actually decided that such a list would not work in combating spam and might actually contribute to the proliferation of spam.[1] Their reasoning was that any list that is a compilation of email addresses and accounts can be accessed by spammers and used as a "Do-Call List". Sorry.

  • Conclusion

    • While the wonders of the Internet have given us many amazing things (i.e. Lolcats, Chocolate Rain and instant communication with anyone in the world at any time), it has also brought us a few things that we'd rather do without (SPAM!). If you feel like your online life has become overrun by deceptive advertising and useless junk mail for Viagra, Watches and Cheap Flights, then it's time you did something about it. With a little bit of effort and information, you should be able to cut down the amount of spam you receive to a manageable level and give you more time to enjoy the important things in life.

 


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