How to Get Rid of E-mail Spam

Unsolicited junk e-mail, or spam, is an unwelcome and often offensive byproduct of the Internet's success. Although there's no guarantee you can avoid all spam, there are ways to avoid looking at most of it.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Basic prevention

1. If you're already getting spam messages, check with your Internet service provider to see whether it has a spam-prevention option that scans your incoming e-mail for known spammers.

2. If you're lucky enough not to be getting spam now, then sign up for a second (free) e-mail address from a service such as Yahoo or Hotmail. Use this address exclusively for e-commerce, mailing-list subscriptions and bulletin-board postings of any kind. Reserve your main e-mail address for private e-mail to and from friends.

Rule filtering

3. Create an e-mail folder called Suspected Spam.

4. Use the filtering feature in your e-mail program to create rules that redirect spam messages to your Suspected Spam folder. Most spam is not addressed to its recipient by name.

5. Define a rule for incoming mail that says, "If my name appears in the To: or cc: field, then move this message to the Inbox." The procedure for defining rules varies among e-mail programs, so you should consult your program's Help feature to learn exactly how this works.

6. Define individual rules to catch e-mail that isn't addressed to you personally but that you nevertheless want to receive, such as messages from lists you've subscribed to. Have these rules redirect the relevant messages to the Inbox or to special folders that you have created for mail from those sources--for instance: "If the Sender field includes 'MyList,' then send this message to the MyList folder."

7. Define a final rule that sends all other e-mail that hasn't already been redirected by one of your other rules to the Suspected Spam box. For instance, a rule that says, "If the Sender field isn't 'XYXYXYXYY,' then move this message to the Suspected Spam folder" would work as a catchall.

Tips & Warnings

• Never reply to a spam message, even to request that your name be removed from the list. That just tells the spammers that your address is valid.

[bravobritto]

on 2/18/2008 While a lot of the junk email you get is from hijacked computers of people who are guilty of not securing their PC but not directly of spamming and while there are a few spam-friendly ISPs, it still makes sense to report unsolicited emails to the administrators of the part of the internet where the message originated.

With Google security and compliance services, powered by Postini, you can secure all of your electronic communications - email, instant messaging, and the web – and manage your company's communication policies from one central location. These services can also make it easy to meet your archiving and encryption needs.

[bravobritto]

on 2/18/2008 While a lot of the junk email you get is from hijacked computers of people who are guilty of not securing their PC but not directly of spamming and while there are a few spam-friendly ISPs, it still makes sense to report unsolicited emails to the administrators of the part of the internet where the message originated.

With Google security and compliance services, powered by Postini, you can secure all of your electronic communications - email, instant messaging, and the web – and manage your company's communication policies from one central location. These services can also make it easy to meet your archiving and encryption needs.

[dogznbonz]

on 7/30/2007 The thing that has really got me upset about spam is that now all the ISPs are trying too hard to get rid of it.

Recently several ISPs blocked domain names like "aol.com" and "ebay.com" meaning any email with those extensions would be blocked. We all know people that use those accounts, its ridicules that they would get blocked.

I ended up loosing several legitimate emails. Needless to say I was a little mad about it. I believe the best way to fight against spam is to use filtering software. I bought MailWasher Pro (http://tts4.com/mailwasher1) and reduced my spam by 90%.

The most useful feature is the ability to report spammers to the authorities. The combined community of users all report, so when a spammer gets reported enough they get blocked across the board. I can’t tell you the satisfaction I get when report spammers to the authorities with just a mouse click!

on 8/8/2006 Companies that send you spam have a product they want you to buy. On their web pages, they'll usually have a support@ or other contact email address, since they want you to ask questions about their product, and for other business. Since the emails they spam from don't usually accept replies, this support email is the one you can use to get revenge. Do this:


1. Copy the link to the web page from the spam. Don't click on it, just copy it. Paste it into your browser's address window and go there.

2. Find the contact or support email address and copy it. Go back to the spam.

3. Forward the spam to the address you just copied. In the subject line, replace the "re:..." with something neutral, like "question." This way, they won't be able to distinguish it from real questions about their product. At the top of the email, you can put something like "Please remove me from your list."

If everyone does this, support email boxes will be packed with their own spam, and the companies will have no choice but to open them if they want to sort them out from real questions.


If they continue to spam you, you can share their support addresses with other spammers.

on 11/22/2005 1. Forward any spam you get to the Federal Trade Commission ([e-mail]). Put the following message in the body of the communication: Subject: Notification of a spammer Body: Attention: Federal Trade Commission: I have included full headers to help you identify this spammer, who sent me this bulk, unsolicited, commercial e-mail ("spam"), pasted below. This type of communication is a waste of my time, and wrongfully shifts the spammer?s rightful costs of advertising to the Internet Service Providers who are burdened with the cost and time-delaying effects of spam. Experts say that spam accounts for about half of all e-mails and drastically slows down the speed of the whole Internet. Please do what you can to stop the spread of spam. Please take what action you can against this spammer. Thank you.

Then paste the headers, then paste the spam you got. To find the headers in MS-Outlook, right click on the subject line, then go to options. If it is too much trouble to forward every spam email you get to the FTC, just forward the most offensive ones.

2. Send spam to http://spamcop.net and paste in the following addressee ([e-mail]) and header: NOTIFICATION OF A SPAMMER, The spammer below is using your resources to send out bulk unsolicited commercial e-mail ("spam"). ee information regarding your customer, pasted below. I have furnished full headers. I hope you can take action against this spammer.

Note: I have found that this approach takes even longer than reporting spam to the FTC, but it results in spamcop reporting spam to the ISP that allowed the spam. This could result in the ISP canceling the account of the spammer.

3. Add the www.SpamBlockerUtility.com to your Outlook software. It will add a button bar to your Outlook and Explorer, and will move spam you get to a separate folder, as it comes in. It doesn?t result in the offense being reported to anyone. Click on the link above to download this software to your PC. If you later decide you want to unload spamblocker from your PC, you can do so through your PC?s control panel. Commercial software programs, such as Norton anti-spam use the same approach as this free software option.

4. Join the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail: http://www.cauce.org/members/join.phtml

5. Write a letter to your congressmen. To determine who your congressmen are anywhere in the USA, go to this website: http://www.abate.com/pages/writecongress.htm
Here is what to say (You can put it into your own words, if you wish):
Please support stronger anti-spam legislation. I strongly urge stronger legislation to prohibit spam. Spam is bulk unsolicited commercial e-mail and is primarily used to promote classic scams like quick (and/or easy) ways to get rich, lose weight, get an unsecured credit card or erase accurate negative information from a credit record. Receiving such junk is nothing but an annoyance to most recipients. Those who are naïve enough to respond almost always are victimized.

It is enough that we are bombarded daily with junk mail and telemarketing calls. Receiving dozens of unsolicited commercial e-mails every day is too much of an invasion of privacy because it is too easy and costs so little for the sender to perform that it in essence shifts the sender?s cost of advertising to the Internet Service Providers that are burdened with the real cost of sending this junk. Experts say that spam is so plentiful that it slows down the speed of the entire Internet!

Contrary to what spammers contend, this is not an issue of censorship, rather it's a matter of stopping the deceptive and damaging business practice of shifting costs from where they belong (the spam advertiser) to ISPs. Also spam makes it so cheap to advertise fraud, that those who are inclined to do so just can?t resist it.

Please give us legislation that requires an "opt-in," where individuals don't receive advertising they don't want, and don't have to fight to get themselves dislodged from mailing lists. I strongly oppose "Opt-Out solutions" because those approaches do not require the advertisers to bear their own costs, and place far too much burden on e-mail users to delete far too many e-mails that are far too easily and inexpensively sent. All too often ?opt outs? are only used as a means of validating email addresses and actually result in the recipient getting more, rather than less spam.

Please amend 47 USC 227, the ban on junk faxes, to specifically include e-mail or pass a new law that would make spammers financially liable for every unsolicited commercial e-mail advertisement received by an unwilling recipient. Only a requirement for opt-in, and a stiff and aggressively enforced penalty for violators will stop the tide of spam.