Stop Spam: Ten Tips to Avoid Being Overwhelmed
30 June 2008
Read by 1937 persons
Unwanted invaders, spams are the bane of the web. While it's impossible to completely eradicate them, you can reduce their number. Here's how to fight them.
1. Turn a deaf ear
The best approach to spam is to delete it before even opening it. If you read it, especially don't reply, even if you are interested in the products or services offered. You would only attract a flood of ads by showing your spammer that your address is valid. Also beware of spams that offer to click to unsubscribe, it's another trick to verify that your address is active.
2. Check the right box
When you register on a site, always refuse that your address be communicated to third parties, in other words, business partners who could flood you with advertisements or resell your address to spammers.
3. Use two addresses
To keep your most "clean" address possible, feel free to use a second address. The main one will be communicated to partners you trust (frequent collaborators). The second will be used for mailing lists, newsletters, participation in forums... If the latter ends up being invaded by spams, you will only need to change it and you will not lose your important contacts who, themselves, contact you on your "clean" mailbox.
4. Encrypt your address on your website
If you have a website, encrypt (or encode) your email address so that it is undetectable by spammers' extraction software but usable by Internet users who wish to contact you. To do this, you can for example use the tools offered on the websites www.caspam.org and aspirine.org.
5. Create temporary addresses
Several free services such as www.kasmail.com allow you to create "disposable" addresses. Their lifespan varies according to your needs. This technique is very interesting for downloading software without having to communicate your "real" address. Or when you organize an event. Thus, as soon as the operation is over, you can delete this address and the spams that invaded it.
6. Ban generic names
Avoid at all costs having your address composed of generic terms such as "info", "contact" or "webmaster". Unless it is a temporary address. On the contrary, choose an email address that is difficult for spammers to guess, so if possible containing mentions other than your first and last name.
7. Disguise your address
Transform your email address so that it is understandable by those who wish to contact you and not by spammers. For example, if your address is gerard.dupont@lentreprise.com, you can transform it into mentionaretirer-gerard.dupont@lentreprise.com or gerard.dupont@mentionaretier-lentreprise.com. Thus, your correspondents will understand that you have "coded" your address. They will restore it so that the message reaches you, which spammers' robots do more difficultly.
8. Ask your contacts to be vigilant
Inform those to whom you give your main address that you do not wish to appear in mailing lists. Also ask them to refrain from sending you chains, however touching they may be. When you give your address to a salesperson, for example, it is not useless to specify that you do not wish to be included in a database intended for other users, perhaps malicious.
9. Beware of anti-spam lists
Anti-advertising lists have been created so that people who do not wish to be solicited by spams are spared. Unfortunately, this system sometimes backfires on them. Unscrupulous spammers consult these lists to collect addresses to flood with spams.
10. Use aliases
The principle is simple, it is to create several email addresses that all redirect to the same mailbox. Thus, you only have one mailbox to consult and if an alias is too spammed, you just need to delete it. Your access provider's website will tell you how to create these addresses.
Posted on June 30, 2008
lentreprise.com
1. Turn a deaf ear
The best approach to spam is to delete it before even opening it. If you read it, especially don't reply, even if you are interested in the products or services offered. You would only attract a flood of ads by showing your spammer that your address is valid. Also beware of spams that offer to click to unsubscribe, it's another trick to verify that your address is active.
2. Check the right box
When you register on a site, always refuse that your address be communicated to third parties, in other words, business partners who could flood you with advertisements or resell your address to spammers.
3. Use two addresses
To keep your most "clean" address possible, feel free to use a second address. The main one will be communicated to partners you trust (frequent collaborators). The second will be used for mailing lists, newsletters, participation in forums... If the latter ends up being invaded by spams, you will only need to change it and you will not lose your important contacts who, themselves, contact you on your "clean" mailbox.
4. Encrypt your address on your website
If you have a website, encrypt (or encode) your email address so that it is undetectable by spammers' extraction software but usable by Internet users who wish to contact you. To do this, you can for example use the tools offered on the websites www.caspam.org and aspirine.org.
5. Create temporary addresses
Several free services such as www.kasmail.com allow you to create "disposable" addresses. Their lifespan varies according to your needs. This technique is very interesting for downloading software without having to communicate your "real" address. Or when you organize an event. Thus, as soon as the operation is over, you can delete this address and the spams that invaded it.
6. Ban generic names
Avoid at all costs having your address composed of generic terms such as "info", "contact" or "webmaster". Unless it is a temporary address. On the contrary, choose an email address that is difficult for spammers to guess, so if possible containing mentions other than your first and last name.
7. Disguise your address
Transform your email address so that it is understandable by those who wish to contact you and not by spammers. For example, if your address is gerard.dupont@lentreprise.com, you can transform it into mentionaretirer-gerard.dupont@lentreprise.com or gerard.dupont@mentionaretier-lentreprise.com. Thus, your correspondents will understand that you have "coded" your address. They will restore it so that the message reaches you, which spammers' robots do more difficultly.
8. Ask your contacts to be vigilant
Inform those to whom you give your main address that you do not wish to appear in mailing lists. Also ask them to refrain from sending you chains, however touching they may be. When you give your address to a salesperson, for example, it is not useless to specify that you do not wish to be included in a database intended for other users, perhaps malicious.
9. Beware of anti-spam lists
Anti-advertising lists have been created so that people who do not wish to be solicited by spams are spared. Unfortunately, this system sometimes backfires on them. Unscrupulous spammers consult these lists to collect addresses to flood with spams.
10. Use aliases
The principle is simple, it is to create several email addresses that all redirect to the same mailbox. Thus, you only have one mailbox to consult and if an alias is too spammed, you just need to delete it. Your access provider's website will tell you how to create these addresses.
Posted on June 30, 2008
lentreprise.com
