Lumpy's Corner

The Basic Common Sense Minimum

1. Never respond to spam. It is more likely that all you are doing is letting them know your e-mail address is good. Once you verify that your e-mail address is good, odds are you will be spamed more and sold off to other spam companies. I am aware that none of these tactics are "legal" but, if you think anything other than what is described above, you are living naively.
2. Never post your e-mail on a website. There are programs running around the web looking for email addresses. They are harvesting them. When I was a total n00b to web design, I made the mistake of doing just that on a Geocities web site. The site has been gone for 4 years. The e-mail address currently receives about 600-800 spam messages a day. I emptied the inbox on the account 4 hours ago and as of this instant it has 264 spams in it.
3. Use another e-mail address in news groups and forums. Use one you do not care to drop if need be. Spam was born in newsgroups. Safe bet a listed addy will be harvested.
4. Be leery of who you give your e-mail address to. Always read the privacy policy of sites and such BEFORE you give them your e-mail addy. Be especially leery of phrases like "receive e-mails with special offers", "receive e-mails regarding product updates" and even "newsletter". If they ask you if you would like to receive information and special offers and you check yes, you are either very unwise or very lonely.
   
   It is also a good idea to use a separate e-mail addy for newsletters and such. If the organization is legit, you can always change the subscription address later.
5. NEVER buy anything advertised in spam. It would make about as much sense as continuing to pay your cell phone bill for months after it is ripped off. I don't care how good the deal is don't encourage them.

All of the items mentioned above will help, but none of them are really "protection", for that you need some type of filtering. There are several methods to filter and how you filter is dependent on a number of things. In this blog, I will cover what you can do from your PC. In the future, I will blog about what you can do if you have server access.

Using Web Based E-mail Only

If you do not use software on your PC to manage your e-mail then you are using web-based e-mail. If you do not have access to the actual server via command line or some type of interface then you are at the mercy of what your e-mail provider offers. Most services such as hotmail, yahoo and g-mail offer some type of filtering and a degree of control available to the user. As far as how to use this to lighten your spam burden, check with your service provider.

As far as what I have tried and like hotmail has been one of my standards for years and their bulk mail feature works pretty darn good. I recently was invited to gmail (thanks Gnimsh.) and I have yet to get a single spam. (This is only my fifth week with the account though.) From what I have heard about gmail, it is great. (If you know me, you have my email address and can get an invite from me if you wish. If you do not know me, sorry.)

Short of what I have just told you, there is not much you can do other than the above if all you use is web based e-mail. The next level of protection would be to use some type of software either on your own server or on your PC. I will cover Windows based software only and discuss that first.

PC based Software

First of all there are, I am certain, hundreds of different programs out there to combat spam. I am not attempting to write a book on this matter. (Although due to my long-winded nature, it may well seem that way.) I am far from an expert on this subject and have no need to become one. I am also not going to spend a horrible amount of time looking into this matter. I don't need to.

The truth of the matter is that I know whom to ask. If you are going to use software to deter spam, you do need to know just a few things. There are basically two types of software out there. There are those that work off of some type of list and their are those that use an algorithm and "learn". We could actually categorize them a bit further if we wished.

There are basically two types of list options;

1. There are black list which block any member of the list. Often these programs update from some service on the web. The disadvantage of this option is that you will need to frequently update the list or let it update via a service on the web. Spammers often disguise their e-mails and change addresses frequently so either your service need be good or plan on being very busy. Cloudmark Spamnet is one such program and service. They offer their software for free and their service on a thirty day trial. The service then cost 3.99 a month. I think it is money well spent.
2. The other list option is a white list. I know you will all be amazed when I tell you that it is just the opposite of a black list. It allows only those on the list. This is, of course, most efficient and will definitely block all the spam. It also means that you must maintain your own list for I doubt there are many services, which will update it on your behalf. (prersonalsecratary.com?) It also means that when Uncle Joe Jim Bob, who's email is j.jim.bob@whitetrash.com, meets Mrs. Trailer Right, who's e-mail is IWannaBeABarbie@fatchance.com, and changes his name to Uncle Joe Jim Bob Billy Jean, with a new e-mail J.JimNailsBarbie@delusion.net and sends you an e-mail from their new address, you will be completely unaware of it. (I am not saying this would necessarily be bad.)

The black white thing is basically how a list works. It could look for certain words in the subject line, the body and/or the address or anywhere else for that matter. The main problem with list type filters is that they, regardless of black or white, are only as good as the list. The list must be accurate and current. Your protection is only as good as your list. As far as PC side software goes, I use cloudmark. This, combined with hotmail's built in protection seems to work very well. As far as emails on my domain, my server has Spam Assassin. I will cover server side spam protection in another blog.

The other type of software is that which uses Bayesian Filters. This means that the software looks for certain characteristics within the e-mail and identifies it by an analysis based on that. To find out a bit more on how these work, you can read here. This is a nice option and there are several programs, which operate on just such a principle. K9 is one such program which several people well in the know recommended to me. K9 is free which is Lumpy's favorite price. Mailwasher is supposed to also be very good but is not a free program (which, if you know Lumpy, means it is outside of my current budget). Tucows recommends spamfighter and it is free for personal use. Spamfighter will, however, sell itself in a signature in all your outgoing e-mails.

There are also a few other things to consider for e-mail spam protection. One is the software you use to actually check your e-mail. I am guilty of using Outlook Express and rely on plugins to fix things. I am told, however, that the built in spam filter protection in Thunderbird is supposed to be great. Being the IRC addict I am, I have been informed by many that it is all they need.

There is also another program, which I personally like. Although it is no longer in development nor supported by the vendor Bounce Spam Mail is a rather creative alternative to getting off spam lists. The way this program works is you cut and paste information into it's windows and hit send. The program creates a fake bounce message and sends it back to the source. IF it gets there, it MIGHT convince the spamer that your address is bad and you might be removed from the list.

There are also a number of organizations which you can use to report spam to. Many of them offer spam-filtering services as well. One of the better known is Spamcop, another which has a server based list that I use is The Spamhaus Project and a third is CAUCE.

There are other programs and organizations out there. These are ones I know of from either personal experience or reference by someone who knows what they are talking about. I hope this blog was helpful to you. You may contact me at dummie694 if you have any suggestions. (And I know, I just broke the first rule but that e-mail is just for errors, corrections and suggestions. If someone spams me there it is, first, heavily filtered and, second, I just ban the IP from my server. Unfortunately, I must allow some method of communication with those of you who read my stuff.)