Email Rules

Reviews of our top Spam Filters

If you don't know what Spam is, it is the name for those irritating emails with subjects like "E-mail marketing works!", "Credit card problems? The solution is RIGHT HERE", "Generic Viagra!", "UNIVERSITY DIPLOMAS", or "Are You Getting the Best Rate on Your Mortgage?" If you still don't know what I'm talking about, praise yourself lucky and hope that you'll never receive any, because once you've received one, you can be pretty sure that thousands will follow soon...

The flow of unsolicited commercial e-mail can be slowed with advanced filtering and other new technology, but curbing spam also requires the combined action of computer users, industries, and government.

Never purchase Spam-advertised products!

Aside from encouraging the spammers, this also makes more of your personally identifiable information - name, address, phone number, credit card numbers, and the like - available to spammers. It also can guarantee that you'll get more spam at your email address.

Use a public email address when online.

Set up and use a public email address - either an additional address from your ISP or a free email address. Use this email address when participating in newsgroups, joining contests or anytime that your email is requested by a third party online. Potential spam will go to your public email address instead of your private email address.

Always protect your personal information.

.
Only share your credit card, social security number or other personal information when making purchases from a company or financial institution that you know and trust.

Don't open Spam.

If the Spam is HTML (one of those attractive graphic emails) and you open it, graphic images are pulled from the spammer’s server. Your computer informs the spammer that your email address is in use.

Don't Reply.

Never reply to spam messages you have been sent.  If you do, you increase your chances of your email address being sold to more spammers.  You will get removed off one list and sold to ten more.

Don't post your email address online.

.
You'd be surprised how often you use your email address online for newsletter subscriptions, to join online groups or in chat rooms. Before you post your email address, know whether it will be displayed or used. Then use a public email address when necessary

Never send personal information to email requests.

You should never be asked for a password, credit card number or social security number from a legitimate source via email. Beware official-sounding notices that require you to give up your personal information due to supposedly dire consequences

Don’t unsubscribe.

Honorable marketers will unsubscribe your email address if you request it, but distinguishing between legitimate companies and those who are not is a challenge. Check their privacy policy and complaint procedures. Submitting and unsubscribe request can be used against you—your email address may be confirmed by or sold to spammers. When this happens, your Spam will increase when you thought you’d submitted an unsubscribe request.

Use Technology to Help Block Junk E-Mail.

Set up filters that assist in blocking junk e-mail. You can set up many e-mail programs to scan incoming mail for certain addresses or for phrases that are commonly used in junk and adult-content messages. Even though the perfect Spam filter doesn't exist, there are many good Spam filters in the marketplace that can help reduce the Spam you receive.  Check out our Best filters.

CAN-SPAM Compliance Climbs, But Has Little Impact On Spam


 

Compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act hit a new record in November, according to analysis done by message security firm MX Logic, with a whopping six percent of all junk mail toeing the federal law's line.

The number represents a doubling of October's compliance rate and the highest monthly figure since CAN-SPAM went into effect January 2004.

November's slightly rosier picture notwithstanding, CAN-SPAM's poor showing means that users are getting more spam, not less, as was the intention. "Nearly a year after President Bush signed the CAN-SPAM Act, compliance remains marginal, while the overall [spam] volume has increased steadily," said Scott Chasin, MX Logic's chief technology officer, in a statement.

"The CAN-SPAM Act might have deterred some part-time spammers [but the act has had little impact on sophisticated spammers," said Chasin.

These professional spammers, added MX Logic, increasingly turn to networks of compromised machines -- dubbed "zombies" -- to transmit their junk mailings. Within the last three weeks, spam sent through zombies climbed as high as 69 percent.

The owners of zombie PCs -- which are usually connected to the Internet via DSL or cable broadband links -- rarely have a clue that their machines have been hijacked by spammers.

Double The Hassle -- Not Double The Fun

 

My colleague John Dickinson advises that you should use two or more e-mail addresses to help you keep on top of spam. Keep one of them private for priority mail, and give other addresses out more freely when you need to give someone your e-mail address—especially when you need to give an e-mail address to an online merchant, and you're not sure whether that merchant will spam you.

I posted that advice to this site because it seems to work for a lot of people. Doesn't work a bit for me, though. On the contrary, I've done everything I can to consolidate all my e-mail onto one account. That address is mitch@wagmail.com. Spammers already know it, so I'm not worried about getting more spam. It's the same address that my boss uses, and my wife, and my brothers and closest friends.

It's not my only e-mail address. I often give out the one my employer supplies, mwagner@cmp.com, because think that looks more professional. And I use several online services which supply me with e-mail addresses, and require me to use those addresses. But, whereever possible, I forward those addresses to mitch@wagmail.com.

The multiple-address strategy is one of several pieces of spam-fighting common wisdom that have never made sense to me.

Here's another: Sign up for a service that provides you with multiple, "disposable" e-mail addresses, and give those out to unknown people who ask for your address. So, like, if you sign up to buy salami at Joe's Online Salami Emporium, and they require an e-mail address, you give them a one-time, unique e-mail address. Later, if you start getting spam at that address, you'll know where it came from, and you can simply cancel that e-mail address.

I tried that, and found the problem was keeping track of all those throwaway addresses. Which address did I use for Joe's Online Salami Emporium? At the time, I was using mitchwagner.com as my mail domain---but what address did I give out to Joe's? Was it joes@mitchwagner.com? joe's-salami@mitchwagner.com? joessalamiemporium@mitchwagner.com?

This was a serious problem; my delicious spiced sausage hung in the balance.

Multiple e-mail addresses are just more stuff to keep track of. I can't even keep track of where I left my car keys. And I was still getting all the spam I was getting before, just spreading it out over multiple accounts. And dealing with the overhead of managing multiple e-mail addresses. Where's the fun in that?

Another piece of spam-fighting common wisdom is to avoid using your best e-mail addresses on the web and in chat. Or, obfuscate your e-mail in some way so the spammers' robot harvesters can't read it. Many people will insert the string NOSPAM into their e-mail address when publishing it to the web, like so: mitch@NOSPAM.wagmail.com. However, this serves only to inconvenience legitimate mail senders who want to get in touch with you, and need to remember to edit the string out of your e-mail address. Spammers have other ways of finding your e-mail address.