One of my responsibilities as the owner of a web site development, hosting and online marketing company is to provide reliable email service to my customers. I utilize an excellent provider that minimizes the amount of spam they receive, while blocking very few legitimate messages. However, due to a lack of basic information, customers are often their own worst enemy when it comes to stopping spam.
During a recent family visit, I was embarrassed to learn that even my own mother was making the problem worse instead of better by replying to spammers, asking them to stop sending her messages. That’s like feeding a stray cat and then telling it to go home! So I decided to write this booklet, a collection of ten simple instructions for keeping unwanted emails out of your inbox.
If you’re stumped by any of the technical jargon in this booklet, please see the glossary on page 18.
Instant downloads of this booklet and other titles in the Top Ten Tips™ series can be purchased online at www.bitmojo.com/tips. Print copies are available at Amazon.com or can be ordered through your local bookstore.
Bot
An automated program that follows links between web pages in order to gather information from those pages. Used for legitimate purposes by search engines like Google, but also by spammers to gather email addresses. Also called a “crawler” or “spider.”
CAPTCHA
Stands for Completely Automated Pubic Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart. CAPTCHAs are those squiggly letters you have to type in when you submit a web form, so the site knows you’re a person and not a malicious computer program.
Dictionary Attack
A program that tries to deliver spam by guessing email addresses. The addresses are guessed by using names or other common dictionary words.
Harvesting
Using an automated program that accesses web pages for the purpose of gathering email addresses or other information from those pages.
Junk Folder
An email folder where anti-spam software directs suspicious messages to keep them out of the inbox. Also called a “spam folder.”
Phishing
Sending an email message pretending to be from a legitimate company for the purpose of directing people to a fake copy of that company’s web site. The fake site typically asks for personal or financial information that is used for fraud or identity theft.
Safe List
A list of email addresses of legitimate senders. Emails from those senders are allowed to bypass spam filers. Keeps legitimate email messages out of the junk folder.
Spyware
Malicious software installed on a computer that steals information from the computer without the owner’s knowledge. Often masquerades as a game, video player, or other desirable program.
Tarpitting
An email server software feature that protects against dictionary attacks by blocking a computer that tries to send messages to non-existent accounts.
Web Mail
A web site for accessing an email account using a web browser, instead of an email program like Outlook. Often used to access email while traveling.
WHOIS
The database containing contact information for the owners of domain names. Spammers collect email addresses from this database, so “private registration” services that hide contact information from this database have become popular.
These tips will help keep your email address away from spammers, but once they have your email address, they can be relentless. If you already get some spam, these instructions will help keep the problem from getting worse. But what if you’re already getting flooded? You might consider outsourcing your email to a company that specializes in providing that service. My company recently outsourced email for all our hosting customers to Mailtrust (www.mailtrust.com), a company that provides business-class email to over 700,000 users. Their spam protection tools are easy to use, and the number of junk messages I receive has been reduced to almost zero without blocking legitimate messages.
Finally, this should go without saying, but never buy anything from spammers! Most unsolicited email offers are scams being run by people who want to steal your credit card information or identity.
We welcome your feedback and will incorporate reader suggestions into future editions of this book. Please share your thoughts at: www.bitmojo.com/tips/feedback.
