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Fighting Spam the Right Way
Spam today has made many internet users rethink about the usability of emails as a mode of communication so even the spread of computer virus is a matter of great concern. With the signing of the Can Spam bill by President Bush in December 2003, the first standard was set against bulk unsolicited email which are of commercial in nature.
This bill essentially stops all senders of bulk commercial emails which are unsolicited after hiding their real identities by giving false return addresses and using tools like dictionaries to make such mailers. No waylaying subject line and the email must have an opt out provision are two important rules for the sender to follow. The law prevents the sender from accessing addresses from websites and any violation of the law can entail imprisonment up to one year.
A major point to ponder is that these days the there are various countries of origin for spam and they are larger in numbers. Such spam is harder to combat because of their alien origin. These problems are difficult to handle, though the laws may sound good since the internet knows no country barriers. Is there any way out of the situation? Here are the best 5 strategies against spam:
Number 1: Whatever you do, make sure that your email address is never there on the net. 'Spam spider' is a kind of product which looks for email addresses in the net and then gather them for sending subsequent emails. If the word 'spam spider' triggers your interest do a search for this word on the net, the results might just shock you. The internet rogues like 'spambots' and 'spam spiders' are controlled very effectively by a site called WebPoison.org which is a open source project as they send them bogus web pages which carry equally bogus email addresses.
Number 2: Get yourself a software which blocks spam. Chances are that you might decide to go in for the professional version but whatever you do getting the software is a must since it would help you save plenty of time. The software is not foolproof, but they really do help although you will usually have to carry out some manual set up to block certain types of email.
Number 3: Start to use more than one email addresses. Having plenty of email addresses could mean that you use them for specific communications and have another few as back ups. It would be like giving your cell phone number to your best friends and the business number to everyone else.
Number 4: One of the common features about spam is that they carry attachments which could easily carry viruses. Large corporations usually use spam filters which prevents any spam mail from reaching you. Firewall vendors offer this type of services.
Number 5: These days email services can be had with the facility of 'bulk mail' baskets. In case your existing service provider does not support this concept, try to switch to another vendor. All you have to do is to collect such mails and put then in a bulk email pile and 'choose' to let them dwell in your circle. Any spam blocking software would also run with the same principles but there is nothing like having a couple of extra precautions - so it is worth looking into.
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