Read Part 1 of Fighting Spam

According to the MX Logic Threat Center almost 80% of the emails on the internet is SPAM. Some of it undoubtedly will find its way to your mailbox. Your ISP / Email provider may put in several measures to reduce this spam, but you may still find yourself fighting spam!

Note: Most of the items below are meant for those who have POP / IMAP access to their mailboxes. Wherever applicable, I have mentioned the equivalent if you're using a web based email service such as Hotmail / Yahoo / GMail / AOL / any other paid / free web based mail service.

1. Avoid opening spam mails. Try to figure out if a message is spam, by reading the sender's address, subject line and any other information available without opening the message. Though this sounds rather difficult, it isn't. Try it. Many spam emails contain what are called 'beacons', which are nothing but specific code that while fetching an image from the internet, also confirm your email address to the spammer. So, when you open such emails to read, you're actually letting the spammer know that the email is being read by your email address, and hence, the email address is verified to be active. A list of verified addresses is quite valuable, and sells for more. Unless you like receiving spam (in which case you shouldn't be reading this anyway), you don't really want your email address to appear on a list being sold to more spammers. This is true irrespective of what kind of email account you use.
2. Configure your mail client to NOT download content from websites without your permission. You will want to check the documentation / manual of your email client on how to do this. Email clients such as Thunderbird and MS Outlook 2003 onwards have this setting pre-configured. This helps because even if you do open a spam mail, no beacons will be activated, since any content (including images) that needs to be downloaded from some website will not be downloaded till you ask it to. So, even if the message is spam, no harm done (unless you downloaded the images within the message). This feature is also available with many web based email providers.
3. Use a good Anti-Spam software / service. With so many different anti-spam software and services being available today, finding the ones right for you may not be quite simple. If you are using a web based email service provider, you don't have much choice. For those using POP / IMAP access for your mail, I could recommend the following.

1. If your email address is of a domain you own ( eg. you@yoursite.com ), you have the option of using both services and / or software.
2. If you use an account provided by your ISP, you can still use a service and / or software.
3. If you use a web based email provider, you may be able to use some software, depending on your provider.

Anti-Spam Services have the following advantages:

• You are not bothered to perform the constant updates to the software.
• You are not bothered to maintain the computers that run the software.
• Most such service providers will maintain a large cluster of servers to do the filtering.
• You receive a daily quarantine report letting you know which mails were blocked, and giving you the option of releasing and receiving them.

Some of the prominent providers of anti-spam services are:

1. MX Logic - Email Defense. Works only if you recive mail at your own domain. Learn More and Buy.
2. SpamCop - Works as long as you have POP access to your mailbox. Learn More and Buy.

Anti-Spam Software need to be installed on your computer to work. You also need to keep updating the software regularly. Some offers from the good anti-spam software providers are listed below:

Block unwanted and malicious emails. McAfee SpamKiller.

CA Anti-Spam 2007

The following offers are for complete Security Suites that include AntiVirus and Anti-Spam software

CA Internet Security Suite 2007

Take $20 instantly on the McAfee Internet Security Suite!

Get Total PC Protection with McAfee Total Protection for $79.99!

Last but in no means the least, be sure to report spam whenever you come across it. You should report any spam to your ISP. Better yet, open a free account with SpamCop and report spam there. SpamCop's business is getting spammers into trouble.

Even if it doesn't reduce the spam you get overnight, and appears to have no results, do understand that you're making life difficult for one more spammer. Imagine if every concerned person went about reporting spam, how many more spammers would find their lives a lot tougher, and how many would simply quit due to the pressure. That thought alone makes me breathe a lot easier.

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