The best ways to prevent Spam
I hear a lot of people complaining about spam, and with good reason. Jupiter Research analysts estimate that the average e-mail inbox receives 42 spam messages a day—a number that's expected to increase by more than two-thirds to 70 by 2007. Analysts at research firm Gartner have predicted that more than 50 percent of e-mail messages will be spam by 2004. So how can we stop it.
Now when I look at those stats, I know I must be doing something right. In the past two months I haven't received one spam message (after 2 months, my emails are archived in a separate folder). If I do get spam, its ususally less than one a month. So how is it that I get 1260 times less spam than the average email inbox?
1. Have separate personal and public accounts.
If I need to give my email to sign up at a forum, buy a product online, or any other situation that could make my email public, I use my public email address. I have a gmail account that I now use for public email, and before that I used a hotmail account. Many companies will sell your email address to advertisers, or at least send you frequent emails about their specials, trying to get you to do business with them again. I don't condone this (by this I mean the latter, not the selling of email addresses to advertisers) because I recognize it as a useful way to stay in contact with your past customers. But if it is a business I don't want to hear from often, I'll make sure I give it my public email address.
2. Use forwarders.
If I am going to post a request for contractors (people to whom I can outsource work) on a public forum or website, I will most likely give a forwarding email address. Basically a forwarder allows you to receive emails without disclosing your real email address. For example, I might say "Send all inquiries to contractors@aestheticstudios.com" which then forwards to my email address. Then once I no longer need this email address, I delete the forwarder. That way any spambots that found the email address wouldn't get much use out of it.
3. Don't use the root email account.
If you have your own domain name (www.yoursite.com), you were probably given a root username and password. Usually this is "admin", but it can be whatever the host sets it to. The problem with using this as your email account is that (usually) all email that doesn't reach a destination at your domain will be sent to you. So let's say there's some spam being sent to the email john@yoursite.com. When that account is deleted, all the email going to it will be forwarded directly to the root email address, admin@yoursite.com. By giving yourself another email account and setting the mailbox size for the root email to a small amount, you aren't sent all the leftover emails that don't have anywhere to go and you don't store all these on your server (if you left the mailbox size pretty large for the root email, eventhough you don't see the emails they would be stored in the mailbox).
4. If you do have to post an email on a website, encrypt it.
Sometimes it's necessary to have an email address listed on a website, like a company's contact page. Spambots crawl the web searching for email addresses, so how can you prevent them from finding your email address but still allow customers to see it? Easy. Encrypt it. Safe Mail will allow you to change a normal email address into html browser code (which most spambots can't read). Here's an example:
info@aestheticstudios.com
In your browser, go to View > Page Source and look for "Here's an example." Right below it is where the email address "should" be, but it isn't. Each letter was converted to a series of numbers, #'s and &'s. That is exactly what we used for the Aesthetic Studios Contact Page. People visiting the website can see it, but spambots can't.
5. When all else fails, have a good spam detector.
You can't expect to prevent all spam, and even if you implemented all these steps, you would probably receive spam from back when you didn't. Unless you are willing to switch email addresses, the people currently spamming you won't suddenly stop. (I've changed email addresses at least 5 times, I've finally learned how to prevent spam and not keep changing emails.) That is where spam detecting software comes in. For email, I use Mozilla Thunderbird which comes with some pretty good spam detecting software built in (although I've been lucky enough to not have much experience with it). This way, if and when spam does get in, it is dealt with.
Hopefully these tips will help you cut down on your spam. But keep in mind that all of these tips except the last are preventative measures. If you are already getting a lot of spam, you might consider changing your email address. The only way to stop current spam is by changing your email address or getting a good anti-spam program. These tips should help you stop from getting even more spam than you already receive. I know if 50% of my emails were spam I'd go crazy.
Now when I look at those stats, I know I must be doing something right. In the past two months I haven't received one spam message (after 2 months, my emails are archived in a separate folder). If I do get spam, its ususally less than one a month. So how is it that I get 1260 times less spam than the average email inbox?
1. Have separate personal and public accounts.
If I need to give my email to sign up at a forum, buy a product online, or any other situation that could make my email public, I use my public email address. I have a gmail account that I now use for public email, and before that I used a hotmail account. Many companies will sell your email address to advertisers, or at least send you frequent emails about their specials, trying to get you to do business with them again. I don't condone this (by this I mean the latter, not the selling of email addresses to advertisers) because I recognize it as a useful way to stay in contact with your past customers. But if it is a business I don't want to hear from often, I'll make sure I give it my public email address.
2. Use forwarders.
If I am going to post a request for contractors (people to whom I can outsource work) on a public forum or website, I will most likely give a forwarding email address. Basically a forwarder allows you to receive emails without disclosing your real email address. For example, I might say "Send all inquiries to contractors@aestheticstudios.com" which then forwards to my email address. Then once I no longer need this email address, I delete the forwarder. That way any spambots that found the email address wouldn't get much use out of it.
3. Don't use the root email account.
If you have your own domain name (www.yoursite.com), you were probably given a root username and password. Usually this is "admin", but it can be whatever the host sets it to. The problem with using this as your email account is that (usually) all email that doesn't reach a destination at your domain will be sent to you. So let's say there's some spam being sent to the email john@yoursite.com. When that account is deleted, all the email going to it will be forwarded directly to the root email address, admin@yoursite.com. By giving yourself another email account and setting the mailbox size for the root email to a small amount, you aren't sent all the leftover emails that don't have anywhere to go and you don't store all these on your server (if you left the mailbox size pretty large for the root email, eventhough you don't see the emails they would be stored in the mailbox).
4. If you do have to post an email on a website, encrypt it.
Sometimes it's necessary to have an email address listed on a website, like a company's contact page. Spambots crawl the web searching for email addresses, so how can you prevent them from finding your email address but still allow customers to see it? Easy. Encrypt it. Safe Mail will allow you to change a normal email address into html browser code (which most spambots can't read). Here's an example:
info@aestheticstudios.com
In your browser, go to View > Page Source and look for "Here's an example." Right below it is where the email address "should" be, but it isn't. Each letter was converted to a series of numbers, #'s and &'s. That is exactly what we used for the Aesthetic Studios Contact Page. People visiting the website can see it, but spambots can't.
5. When all else fails, have a good spam detector.
You can't expect to prevent all spam, and even if you implemented all these steps, you would probably receive spam from back when you didn't. Unless you are willing to switch email addresses, the people currently spamming you won't suddenly stop. (I've changed email addresses at least 5 times, I've finally learned how to prevent spam and not keep changing emails.) That is where spam detecting software comes in. For email, I use Mozilla Thunderbird which comes with some pretty good spam detecting software built in (although I've been lucky enough to not have much experience with it). This way, if and when spam does get in, it is dealt with.
Hopefully these tips will help you cut down on your spam. But keep in mind that all of these tips except the last are preventative measures. If you are already getting a lot of spam, you might consider changing your email address. The only way to stop current spam is by changing your email address or getting a good anti-spam program. These tips should help you stop from getting even more spam than you already receive. I know if 50% of my emails were spam I'd go crazy.
posted by Bill Erickson at 1:45 PM