How can you protect yourself from Spam?

Preventive measures against junk mail.

Over the years the amount of advertising mail distributed on the net has increased until it has become, together with the virus plagues, one of the main problems of e-mail communication. The prognosis for any Internet user who activates an email account, publishes his address on his web, in the usenets and in some visiting books and forums, is to end up receiving thousands of messages per day about "Viagra", "Sexy Singles", "Credits"... While waiting for a global technical and legal solution to this problem, known as “spam”, nowadays it is essential to take some precautions :

DO NOT PUBLISH YOUR ADDRESS ON THE INTERNET

It is very important never to write your e-mail address on any Internet page, whether it is your own web, or a visiting book, debate forum, etc. The majority of people who carry out massive advertising mailings, called “spammers”, use automatic systems to search the web and to obtain e-mail addresses that they use later for their mailings.

Those who have their own web page are recommended to offer visitors a contact form that completely hides the mail address in an external archive, such as, for example a script php. If we put the address in the same source code as the form, within a tag Input Type=Hidden, the "spammers" will still be able to capture it.

There are other techniques to hide the mail address, such as showing it in an image format, although this solutions presents accessibility inconveniences for the blind.

Some people use the technique of hiding the addresses with formats such "userATdomain.com" or "userSHITSPAM@domain.com", but nowadays scan programmes exist that bear these solutions in mind and are able to deduce and capture the real address.

Another technique that is used to stop scanners capturing the mail addresses of the pages is to codify the text of the address in ASCII format, and on the net there are several tools that facilitate the coded version, such as: www.wbwip.com/wbw/emailencoder.html or anti-spam.hostbankoi.com/codificaremail.asp. But it is also possible that the "spammers" use tools to fool this technique, and so it is still better to use the contact form.

When it is not possible to use a contact form or any other technique to hide the address, it is recommended to use a specific address for each topic, so that we can diversify and plan the opportune changes at any moment. For example, people who register domains are obliged to show their contact details within the register Whois. A large part of the junk mail arrives via this data base of Whois. Therefore it is preferable to have an address dedicated for this that we can substitute easily. Nowadays, the majority of domain registrars offer services to hide the identity of the registrant, but it is an additional service paid per domain and is expensive

CHOSE ADDRESSES THAT ARE NOT EASY TO GUESS

Many “spammers” send messages with the format “whatever@domain.com” or use common combinations such as "info@domain.com", "webmaster@domain.com". Therefore it is preferable to use user names that are difficult to guess. For example "antoniapons@domain.com" will be harder to guess than "antonia@domain.com".

DO NOT CONTINUE EMAIL CHAINS

The email chains are a mine of information for the “spammers” and therefore you should never participate in email chains. And if you cannot avoid forwarding an email, it is essential to erase the heading, and remove the addresses incorporated in the forwarded message

USE THE OPTION BCC IN THE COLLECTIVE MAILINGS

When a message must be sent to a group of people, instead of putting the addresses in the field “To”, “A” or “Cc”, the option BCC (Black Carbon Copy) should be used so that the addresses are not visible for the other recipients.

ACTIVATE THE BOX "DON'T RECEIVE COMMERCIAL MAIL"

On the majority of webs, when a registration form is filled in, you can choose the option of receiving or not commercial notifications. It is very important to consult the privacy policy in the web sites before facilitating your address

DO NOT ANSWER THE SPAMMERS MESSAGES

Often the "spammers" send random messages without knowing if they will reach a destination. By answering a publicity message, this confirms that the address is working and it becomes an even more interesting objective for the "spammers".

MORE ADVICE ON THE USE OF EMAIL

- Do not use the MS Outlook programme. There are many free alternatives, such as Thunderbird (Mozilla), Eudora, Sylpheed, amongst others, that offer better safety guarantees and very practical antispam filters
- Avoid the use of the HTML format in the messages. The text format is much lighter and compatible with all user agents.
- If you have to send an attached file, try to reduce it or condense it, and explain its contents and format in the main text of the message. .
- Do not install plugins that put decorations and/or modify the aspect of the messages.
- Do not leave the "subject" in blank and use it correctly. If you answer a message that had a "subject" and the topic of the conversation has changed, modify the "subject".
- Configure the computer's time correctly to avoid confusion and problems to the recipients.
- Do not answer messages quoting the whole original message, if it is not essential. Often it is enough to quote only a few lines to be able to follow the original dialogue.

Forum: How can you protect yourself from spam?

Date of publication: 30/04/2004

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