5 ways to stop spam
I don't like SPAM!
One of the questions I get asked fairly often is “Why am I getting so much junk email?” The answer is simple… money.
Well, it’s more complicated than that, but ultimately that’s what it comes down to.
Money? Yes, money.
Estimates say that in 2005 there were *only* 30 billion spam emails sent… in 2007 the number jumped to over 90 billion. (source: wikipedia) The amount tripled in just 2 years and it seems like we are getting even more unsolicited commercial email (UCE) in our mailboxes every year. Why? Because it’s almost free to send email and it works. People still respond to these messages. The bad guys make money from folks ordering prescription pharmaceuticals, viewing pornography, buying replica designer watches, downloading software, and even turning your computer into a spam email sender. The return on investment in huge because it is basically postage due advertising where the cost is paid by the recipient. And it only takes a tiny fraction of people buying this junk to keep the incentive for the spammers.
So what can you do about it?
1) Don’t respond – Take away the financial motivation for the businesses who send junk mail. Most of us don’t respond, but it’ll only stop if everybody stops buying from companies who use unsolicited email for their marketing. Don’t fall for the trick of “unsubscribe from these emails” either. Any response to junk mail just serves to verify your email is legitimate. A verified address is more valuable to spammers because they can now sell your email address to another spammer.
2) Turn off auto-preview – Many email clients automatically open up email as a “benefit” to users. Actually, it benefits the junk mail senders, virus writers and malware creators more than it benefits users. Auto-preview does a few things that help keep spam alive. Auto-preview might download images from the web which is another method spammers use to “verify” your email address. Auto-preview may allow security threats to automatically launch multimedia files, harmful executables, infected PDF’s, etc.
3) Keep your system updated. – Out-of-date security is worse than no security. Software vendors have made a concerted effort to regularly update their software to ward off new and emerging security threats. But if you don’t keep your software updated, then the bad guys can exploit known flaws and install malware on your machine. So how does keeping your computer secure stop spam? Malicious software known as “trojan horses” are designed to allow a hacker remote access to your computer so he can turn your computer into a spambot. An army of these bot machines are rented out to spammers at the rate of $700/hr allowing them to send email from multiple machines at alarming rates.
4) Use layered protection – As with all security, a layered approach works best. Most email providers will offer spam protection for their users. Then add another layer on your desktop to catch anything that might slip through the first layer. Typical desktop protection costs between $30-40/year. Below are a few of the top rated desktop solutions. McAfee and Norton also offer protection within their security suites.
MailFrontier Desktop – http://www.mailfrontier.com/products_matador.html
SonicWall Anti-spam Desktop – http://www.sonicwall.com/us/products/anti-spam-desktop.html
Cloudmark Desktop – http://www.cloudmark.com/desktop/
5) Don’t give out your email address to just anyone – It may be too late for this last bit of advice. I urge people to treat an email address like a credit card: only give it out to folks with whom your are doing business or whom you inherently trust. If you receive more junk mail than legitimate mail it may be time for a new email address. There are lots of freely available web-based emails out there, Gmail, Yahoo, MSN, to name a few. Sign up, send your friends and family the new email address, and start using that as your primary email.
GMail – http://mail.google.com/
Yahoo – http://mail.yahoo.com/
MSN – http://www.msn.com/
If you have any questions or comments let me know. I’m here to help.
-Erik