Tips to Fight SPAM

SPAM is email that is unsolicited (email that you didn't ask for). This mail is commonly trying to sell you something. Typically it is just irritating, however SPAM could also include malware like a virus, or connect you to phishing websites that attempt to steal your private information. It is not possible to stop all spam, but the following are some methods to hold spam to a minimum.

You can be protected from malicious spam with antivirus software. Make sure that your computer has antivirus software installed. (There is antivirus software that has tools to filter out spam after it is downloaded to your computer). However, you might try to spot an email that has a dangerous attachment without opening it up; an email than includes a picture or is written with a Word document might be loaded with a virus -- be careful. Don't give your email address to people that are untrustworthy. If you have to give your email address to get something from a website, it is best to set up an email address just for the purpose of receiving junk. Hotmail or Gmail web mail is very good for this. Don't reply to any email unless you have asked for that email. A lot of spam messages include directions at the end of the message requesting that you answer the message if you desire to be taken off their mailing list. Don't do it, since this will only ensure them that this is a real email address, and you will probably receive more spam. For the same reason, you shouldn't give your address for opting-out or removing it from a list. Preview all your emails by reading their subject lines prior to opening the email. When you get emails that ask for money or help from someone you don't know, do not forward the message. It is most likely a hoax, and this is a great way for spammers to acquire more email addresses. A lot of emails warning about viruses are hoaxes too. You should do your homework about virus warnings before you warn your friends about it so that you don't spread the hoax on to them. If you pass along emails to multiple parties, address them through the BCC field, which safeguards their address by keeping it hidden. Ask people to send you emails in this manner as well. Just like item #2, above, don't give your address for placement on mailing lists in chat rooms or to newsgroups. You should have a 'throwaway' address to use for this and another address for friends and family. If you put your email address on your website, tell your web designer to encrypt it so that people who send spam can't see what it is. One effective encryption program is 'enkoder'. It is free of cost. You can do a Google search for Enkoder. You could register a complaint via email to the administrator of the server that hosts the spammer's website. The majority of servers provide an email address to notify of abuses in the WHOIS part of the IP address. It is possible to check the email's header to locate the source of the message and conduct a WHOIS lookup. There should be an abuse email address. http://whois.domaintools.com offers a free IP WHOIS lookup. Configuring Your Exchange Server to Filter Spam   Secret Techniques to Stop Spam That Work Every Time   Email Spam, Forum Spam, and Online Conduct   Did You Host Your Website to Receive Junk Mail?   

Got Spam? You're Not Alone!

A recent report showed that over 82% of all US email is spam. With about 980 million email accounts around the world, it would be interesting to see what the world wide spam percentage is. Spam is becoming more and more insistent and with spammers teaming up with virus writers, the situation is growing increasingly malicious. And for 114,000 new iPad owners, they may now find unwanted solicitations in their emails, because AT&T accidentally released email address of the iPad owners. On the list were notable people such as Rahm Emanuel, Diane Sawyer and a few other worldwide known personalities.

Software technicians work non-stop to block, combat and inform the public of new spam tactics. One such tactic is the "Literary and Poetry" spam. People open their emails to find entire chapters of books or entire poems in the email body. This has left quite a few people scratching their heads. The reason why spammers are now using this approach is it allows them to bypass spam filters.

Spammers never use their own email address, but will typical have thousands if not millions of disposable accounts. They can send spam out to millions upon millions of emails within minutes. The use of open proxies are often used to hide the spammer's location or the will take control of a host computer (a victim's computer filled with the right malware, viruses and worms) and send out mass spam. All the while, it remains completely undetected. With such a hit and run technique is can be very difficult to track down spammers. When they are found fines and/or jail time is common punishment.

There are numerous tricks that people can use that can off-set the amount of spam they receive. Most if not all email providers have their own encryption and security software to minimize spam. Then of course there are spam filters as well as white and black lists that individuals can use to decrease spam. Anti-virus software usually has spam guard features that can assist. Some anti-spam methods work better than others, so it's always best to research to find the best one that works for your needs.

Spam is not just annoying adult related ads or unreadable gibberish. Some spam is extremely dangerous and people have had their banking accounts wipe out, credit cards maxed out and have suffered identify theft. Identify theft is one of the hardest thing to get rid of. It can be almost impossible to regain your identity. A spammer only needs a little bit of information about you to receive all of your records. One dangerous type of spam is phishing. A phishing spam will look just like the original website, like PayPal. It will ask you to login to verify information, as soon as you login; the sender of the email now has access to your PayPal and bank account. Then there is the Nigerian type spam, to where the sender will use a convincing sad story over the course of time to get you to send or donate money.

There are millions of heartbreaking stories of people who have been victims of spam. The best way to avoid being a victim is never click a link of someone you don't know. Also make sure your spam exchange provider has a good spam filter and get a good anti-spam blocker from a reputable Anti-virus company. Plus stay on top of all the new spam trends. These spammers are becoming more sophisticated and now that they have partnered up with virus writers; spam is may just get a brand new face. Don't be caught unaware.

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Tips For Dealing With Your Spam Problems

There are plenty of spam advertisements that are trying to sell you prescription medication, home refinance deals, and emails trying to get you to sign up for online casinos - these are just plain annoying. But there are many other e-mail scams whose main purpose is to take your money - all of it if they can.

The Nigerian bank scam is one famous example of this. The sender, who says that they are related to a government official or they are a former dictator from Nigeria, tells a story in the e-mail of how millions of dollars are sitting in the bank and are inaccessible. They're willing to share the jackpot with you, if you're willing to help them. Your help, however, requires the transfer of several thousand dollars from your own bank account. While it seems that most of us would be too smart to fall for this scam, the reality is many people fall for it every year. An older Czech man who put up his life savings through this scam shot the Nigerian consul in one highly publicized example of how this scam can be devastating.

Some of the most common Internet scams offer you almost unbelievable investment schemes with paybacks that are too good to believe, and too good to be true. Usually these investment schemes claim to be without any risk but once you turn over your money it's highly unlikely you'll see any payback. One common scam targets people with bad credit. This one asks you to send money for processing fees and a security deposit and you'll get a credit card. You will get nothing in return for your money and by the time you start getting help or an investigation, the scammer is long gone.

Another common scam involves multilevel marketing schemes (commonly known as MLMs). These emails will suggest you buy huge quantities of some hot product. You're told you can resell the product for an easy and lucrative profit. You'll receive a commission on each sale you make and the sales others make who work under you. Once you've bought the merchandise, though, your distributor will disappear, and will usually not even deliver the goods.

It's important to remember that legitimate businesses don't advertise this way. Usually they will e-mail select groups, people who have previously purchased product from them or who have signed up and given their e-mail address to them. Often these e-mails will address you personally rather than in a generic mass e-mail kind of way. Any other offers should be ignored and you can simply delete the e-mails or click "junk e-mail" in your e-mail client so the server knows these are coming from a spammer.

One lesson that people need to learn is to never reply to a spammer. Even if you reply with "stop e-mailing me", that e-mail won't be read and instead you'll simply get more e-mail. Don't even click on the link that says "click here to remove your e-mail from our e-mail list" -- you won't be removed from the e-mail list and you will be added back into their database.

Finally, never give out any personal bank account information, private data, or your credit card number to anyone over the Internet you do not know. Banks, PayPal and other credible businesses will never send you an email asking for passwords or other personal information.

It's another common scam for you to get an email from a "bank" asking for your password or other personal information. You'll be told that the information is necessary to confirm your account. Don't click on these e-mails. If you wonder if they're for real, you can always call the bank directly.

Most of these scams are obvious. And you can know by looking at them that their spam or certainly not on the up and up, but if you aren't sure always look at who the sender is. If you don't recognize the name of the sender name, it's likely the e-mail is spam.

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List of All Hoax Emails

Email has changed the way people communicate and has made it easier to send all types of correspondence, from personal notes to business memos. This acquired convenience however, comes with a price: security. Virtually anybody can create an email account and it is this anonymity that has given rise to a number of email hoaxes that continue to plague the World Wide Web.

The first in the list of all hoax Emails is the popular Chain Mail. Chain Mails are more annoying than they are dangerous and they are easy to create. They start with either a story or a quote, and end with a warning that if the user does not pass the mail to a number of friends, bad luck will befall them. Some chain mail comes with supposedly true accounts of what happened to people who did not heed the warning. Fortunately, other than it being a waste of time and inbox space, chain mail doesn't pose a serious threat to a user's security.

Virus Hoaxes also appear in people's inboxes quite often. The subject line for this type of hoax is usually deceiving, and once you open the mail, it will warn you that you have opened a virus, which will erase your files, take your personal information and crash your computer. Though some emails do have viruses in them in the form of attachments, viruses cannot enter a person's computer system by merely opening a message.

The first two in the list of email hoaxes merely employ scare tactics but the third, the Phising Scams, should be taken seriously. Hackers use Phising scams to obtain personal information like bank accounts and credit card numbers. Some scammers even create phony websites that resemble legitimate online sites, complete with real-looking images, menus and logos. An email sent to the intended victim contains a link that when clicked, leads to a page on the fake site, where they must share sensitive information in order to register or to update their accounts.

Lottery scams, though easily detected by mail filters, do end up in people's inboxes every now and then. The subject line is always catchy: the user has won a prize and must claim it immediately. Scammers claim that the user's email address has been entered in a lottery draw and they can claim their prize by contacting the authorized representative assigned to the raffle. This scam is harmless until the user replies, wherein the scammers then try to slowly draw as much personal information as they can by pretending they need documents as proof of identity.

The list of all hoax emails goes on, and new scams come out every day. From the bothersome spam mail, to the deceiving charity request email, spammers and scammers alike find new ways to take advantage of the unsuspecting public. While some hoaxes are practical jokes, others put people in danger of identity theft and robbery. To protect themselves, people must remain vigilant in the contents of their inboxes. They must always exercise caution when opening email attachments, and must always be suspicious of emails promising money with no strings attached. Eradicating email hoaxes may be impossible, but with caution, people can prevent becoming victims of it.

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Beware - A New Strategy Came Up on the Internet - And a Free Online Solution For Your Protection

I suppose that everybody knows the old ones, with the poor Russian family, with the lottery prize and with the relatives of dead generals or ministers from countries like Senegal, Nigeria and, more recent, Iraq. The common thing to all these attempts is that they are coming as SPAM emails. Do not trust anyone which send you an unsolicited email, no matter what you read inside.

The usual one, with the lottery prize had made a lot of victims until now. You are announced that you are the lucky winner of a great prize of hundreds of thousands of dollars from some lottery based on email addresses and they ask you to give some personal information to cash your prize. The purpose is to get your personal dates and to practice the so called "Identity theft". Every lottery from every country has a web page, if you look in Google Search you will find it, and all of them make very clear their program and their procedures. Maybe there are few differences from case to case, but there is one rule which is universally available. YOU CAN NOT WIN IN ANY LOTTERY IF YOU DON'T PLAY.

The poor Russian family with bank accounts of million dollars from dead relatives and the descendants of generals and ex-presidents of African countries are proposing you to help them to recover their fortune and, in exchange, they will share it with you. There is no place in this world where you can just go and say: "Hey, I am John Doe and I am the legal descendant of the ex-president Madomba!" You will just be fooled to pay some fees to fictive legal counselors or government taxes, and you will never see your money back.

Whenever you are buying something online, do it through well known payments systems. I imagine that everyone knows about PayPal and ClickBank, companies with tradition and solid reputation. These companies gives the possibility to any merchant to open an account with them and to sell their stuff through their system, and gives you the insurance that they will track every transaction which you are making through them, offering you an excellent support. There are rumours that PayPal is tough with the merchants and shut down accounts very easy, but I am glad hearing that. It means that they keep an eye on every transaction and when they find something unclear, they are in action. I had once the occasion to be scammed by someone on PayPal, and they solved it in three days. I trust them more than myself.

The new strategy I was talking about is that you receive an email from some bank with common name, (I received until now emails from "Liberty Reserve" and from "CitiBank"), where you are announced that your account is blocked and you need to reset your information in order to open it, or that someone has accessed illegally your account and you need to reset your information. No serious bank in this world would ask you private information on the Internet as long as you don't have an account with them. Do not answer to these emails, and, if you have the opportunity and the time, report them as spam.

The solution I was talking about is a free online plug-in from Mozilla Firefox. It is called WOT, (Worth Of Trust), and every time when you are accessing a web page or you are hovering a link in your browser, it gives you a trustiness degree of that web page. When you are accessing a web page with bad reputation you are warned very clear about the reputation of that site. I am using it for some time and I have convinced myself that it is very useful. The Firefox browser is free to download, very easy to install and you may install the WOT plug-in in the very same moment you have installed the Browser.

If you want to find out more information about Internet issues, visit my site. Until the next time, I wish you good luck and may the Google be with you!

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Email Overwhelm - Overcome it in 5 Steps

Are you drowning in email? Got dozens or hundreds of messages in your inbox waiting for you to sort through and respond to them? Do you feel overwhelmed just thinking about clicking the "check mail" button? Don't panic! You can overcome that flood of email!

1) Use a Good Spam Filter

Check with your website host to find out what spam filtering options are available. I don't recommend the challenge response type that forces anyone sending an email to you to request approval before their email can reach you - this option can often frustrate potential clients or customers and they'll look elsewhere. Instead try an option like Spam Assassin(tm) or Mailwasher(tm). If you prefer using webmail, consider setting up GMail to use your email address with it so GMail can filter your mail.

2) Report Spam to Teach Your Filters

Once you have a spam filter setup take time to read about it so know how the filters work. Many learn by watching what you report as spam or rescue from the filter.

3) Unsubscribe Ruthlessly

I'd venture a guess that most of us are subscribed to far too many newsletters and other lists. Start using that unsubscribe link. You may find that you can follow your favorite stores, mentors, or friends better with a blog RSS reader or on social networks like Twitter or Facebook.

4) Recruit Help

What types of email do you receive that you don't need to handle personally? Talk with your virtual assistant about what you can outsource such as customer service issues or pre-sales type questions.

5) Automate & Template

Technology allows us to automate many aspects of email handling from auto-filing mail into the proper folders or labels, to sending an auto-reply to messages with certain requests or topics. Create templates for your most common replies so they're ready to use and you don't have to type the same information over and over again. Learn to use the time-saving options available in your email program. It may take an hour or two initially to become familiar with all the options but it will save you time.

Configuring Your Exchange Server to Filter Spam   Secret Techniques to Stop Spam That Work Every Time   Email Spam, Forum Spam, and Online Conduct   Did You Host Your Website to Receive Junk Mail?