Fry Up Some Spam Tips To Alleviate The Nightmare That Is Your Inbox

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span old-fashioned way.

class="cap">I‘m

Just What Exactly Counts as
sure you’ve read that Spam Spam Anyway?

accounts for roughly 90-95% of

There are two basic types of
all email. If you haven’t read spam:

this, read the previous sentence

(1) nuisance emails – these
again because it’s a fact             are the most abundant, your
according to Barracuda Networks.      typical run-of-the-mill offers
Only 5-10% of the email that          for cheap blue pills, sultry
reaches the average inbox is          ladies of the night waiting just
supposed to be there. This isn’t      for you, and various other things
good from an identity theft           that are just too good to be
perspective considering spammers      true.

aren’t the most ethical bunch.

(2) malicious emails – As a
Sure, email has its upsides. How      writer of an identity theft blog,
did we ever live without the          these are of most concern to me.
occasional crude joke from a          These spamtastic little devils
well-meaning brother-in-law or        are out for one thing and one
“friendly reminders” from the         thing only: to deceive you out of
phone company that our bill is        your money or your personal
twelve seconds passed due?            information. One common malicious
Unfortunately, those upsides come     email type is know as a phishing
with the aforementioned bad           attack. This is when a spammer
sides: Spammers love clogging         disguises his email as though it
your inbox with offers to             came from a credible source, such
increase certain parts of your        as a common store, website, or
anatomy and decrease others. It’s     financial institution.

just so darn cost-effective for

Not only can spam be
them compared to buying stamps        dangerous, but it can cause you
and annoying you the                  to miss emails you actually

wanted to read. How many times Shenanigans?!

have you accidentally deleted an

Easy there, big fella. The
email only to realize later that      Federal Controlling the Assault
it was from a trusted source? How     of Non-Solicited Pornography and
many times have you not received      Marketing Act of 2003 (CAN-SPAM,
a wanted email because your spam      clever, no?) requires unsolicited
filter acted liked an                 commercial e-mail messages to be
overprotective mother?

labeled and to provide

How Did Those Unscrupulous instructions on how the recipient
Yahoos Find My Email Address can opt-out. The law also
Anyway?

requires the spammer to provide

Honestly? You gave it to them.     its physical address and
Well, maybe not directly. Did you     discontinue the use of deceptive
fill out a form online? Did you       subject lines and false headers
post to a forum? Did you sign up      on the messages.

for a mailing list of some sort?

Here’s something nifty: if you
Spammers search the Internet for      receive a piece of spam that
such address, typically using         doesn’t comply with the laws,
harvesting software to do it form     just forward it to spam@uce.gov
them (spammers are tremendously       to unleash the full, unbridled
lazy…that’s why they are              fury of the Federal government
spammers).

upon the poor, unsuspecting

Of course, some websites sell      spammer. Well, “unbridled fury”
your information to third parties     might be a bit of an
who, in turn, sell your               overstatement, but the email will
information to fourth parties and     at least be logged and used to
so on until it gets into the          help track down spammers. I setup
hands of a spammer.

a folder in my inbox to

I Pay My Taxes! Why Hasn’t automatically forward any email
Uncle Sam Put an End to These placed in it to the government

email address. That way it’s just

2. Don’t click the link! That
as easy to report spam as it is link could call some seriously
to delete it.

nasty code or alert the spammer

That’s Great but What Can I of the validity of your address.
Do?

Neither are good. (This won’t be

Your ISP or email host is an issue if you heed #1.)

already working behind the scenes

3. Don’t Automatically Delete
to screen out a great deal of         Your Junk Folder. If you use
spam sent your way. Further, a        filtering software, be sure the
properly setup spam filter is         rejected messages are sent to a
keeping another layer of spam         special folder other than your
from hitting your inbox. Of           email “trash” basket. Your
course, if this was enough you        overprotective spam filter might
would have to clean out your          mistake Uncle Bill’s chili recipe
inbox every morning.

email for spam. You know you’re

Here are a few ideas to clean dying to know what the secret
up the clutter:

ingredient is. (It’s chocolate,

1. Don’t open it. Don’t you by the way.)

dare open an email unless you

4. Have a backup e-mail
know the sender. There could be       account(s). Use throw-away email
malicious code in there. There        accounts from Hotmail, Yahoo or
could also be a graphic that          contains a script that alerts the     title="http://Inbox.com"
spammer that you opened the           target="_blank">email. This tells them that the       color="#001000"
address is good. You are now          size="-2">http://Inbox.com
about to get hit with a                (great free email account!)
spamvalanche (if you didn’t catch     for everything other than family,
my poor attempt at humor, that’s      friends and your most trusted
an avalanche of spam).

consumer and business contacts.

You’ll still get spam, but it way related.)

won’t be in your primary

8. Remove e-mail addresses
account.

from your Web site. If you list

5. Make your email address         or link to your email address,
unique. Again, spammers are lazy.     you are likely to be spammed by
They will bombard servers with        address-harvesting robots. If you
combinations of common words and      must include your e-mail address
names. Numbers and symbols trip       on the site, try posting it
them up.

written out in words (”example at

6. Don’t email the spammer to      domain dot com”) instead of
give him a piece of your mind.        example@domain.com. That way a
Again, this just tells him you        human user can understand the
exist. Further, don’t give out        correct address, but a robot may
any of your information in any        not recognize it as such.

way in any medium to a spammer.

9. Report spammers to their
Don’t call a phone number in the      domain. Most e-mail accounts have
email, nor leave information on a     an anti-spam requirement in their
website linked in the email.

7. Consider using disposable       here is Yahoo’s Anti-Spam Policy:
online addresses. This goes a         http://docs.yahoo.com/info/guidel
step further than #4. Setup           ines/spam.html

separate email addresses for each

Completely defeating spam is a
individual newsletter or service      difficult task without breaching
and forward all mail from those       the freedom allowed by the
addresses to your main account.       Internet. Policing spam too
Just suspend the use of any           drastically could make it
address that starts receiving         increasingly difficult to receive
spam and abandon it. Better yet,      non-spam email. Realistically it
try out http://www.gishpuppy.com.     is up to the individual to take
(A free service which I am in no      responsibility. Spam would die a

quick death if it wasn’t              href="http://www.identitytheftins
profitable. Don’t allow yourself      ider.com">to be a part of the problem by        size="-2">http://www.identitythef
instigating spammers with             tinsider.com Find out
uninformed                            what he believes to be the worst
actions.

d>About the                        title="HERE"
Authorid="authorbio"                        ider.com/identity-theft-risks/don
class="membersnoticewhite">As a       t-be-a-phish-phishing-identity-th
former identity theft victim, Dan     eft/"
Riffle writes extensively about       target="_blank">HERE

identity theft issues at