Are you sick of SPAM - Junk Mail?

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Some hints to avoid future new spam.

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Emails - Newsgroups and Chatrooms
Personal Webpages - Registered Domains

Emails.

Spam Programs

You can buy anti-spam programs. They contain a long list of known spammers. Your email program will compare each received email with the list in the spam program. If it matches - then the email will be deleted.

But that only deals with known spammers. What about new ones?
The program should have an option for adding more email addresses.

But you can also set up your own blocked senders list.
In Outlook Express: Click on the message header.
Then on the Menu Bar
Click on Message -> Block Sender.
The emails in this list will now be automatically deleted.

Hotmail users.

If you have a Hotmail account, go to Hotmail, log into your account, and set up your address book there. (You do know that at Hotmail you can have an address book don't you?)
Put email addresses in it from all the people you know and expect emails from.
Then go to the section for junk mail filters and set the filter to HIGH.
Every email that comes to Hotmail and does not have an address in your address book will be transferred to the junkmail folder by Hotmail.

I suggest that for a month you check that there is no email in the junk folder from someone you know. If there is - click on the button marked "This is not Junkmail". The address will then be put into you addressbook automatically.
Hotmail will empty the folder after 14 days.
I started to get a lot of spam at my Hotmail address. Now I get none.
Let me rephrase that - I get none in my Inbox - it all goes to the Junkmail folder
I no longer recommend Hotmail. If you need a different webmail address try www.yahoo.com
I have had an account there for months and no spam ever arrives there.

Mailwasher

There is a free program available called Mailwasher. This allows you to view all the emails on your server before you download them to your PC. You can then mark all the ones that are SPAM and delete them. The program has an option to bounce it back to the sender which is not necessarily a good idea. It just sends more SPAM travelling round the Internet. Just delete them.) http://www.mailwasher.net/

 

Newsgroups and chatrooms

In a newsgroup or chat room NEVER use your real email address. This is where spammers find a lot of email addresses. The following hints will prevent NEW spam. Any old stuff will still continue.

For Outlook Express users:

Tools -> Accounts -> News -> news server -> Properties -> Email address
Alter your e-mail address here eg: elly@eebee.cjb.net.noway

Then add a line to your signature as to how people can contact you if need be.
Tools -> Options -> Signatures
eg: My real email address is elly at eebee.cjb.net

If you are a serious newsgroup user I suggest you get a program called Free Agent from www.forteinc.com
This program only reads newsgroup - it does nothing else.
Then in this program change your email address somewhat so that when spammers use it, it simply gets bounced back to them as undeliverable.
EG: elly@eebee.cjb.net.noway
Smart people can figure out the real email address. Email harvesters for spamming purposes cannot. Email harvesters are programs. They are not real people.

Then what do you do if you want to email someone in a newsgroup. Speaking for myself I move back to my email program. I copy the message and paste it into an email, and then reply. Might be a bit cumbersome, but how often do you email someone in a newsgroup anyway?

 

Do you have a personal webpage?

Email harvesters search on webpages - looking for email addresses. Then I found out about ascii coding for email addresses. Now I get very little spam.

Look at the source code on this page and look at the code for the email address. It looks normal in the browser. But behind the scenes is a different matter. It is about 3/4 down the page.
Internet Explorer users: On the menu bar click VIEW - go down to SOURCE.
The code will open in Notepad.
Netscape Users: On the menu bar click VIEW - go down to PAGE SOURCE.
The code will open in a Netscape Viewer.

Email harvesters cannot read a coded email address!

Sites for dealing with Spam:

http://www.siteup.com/encoder.html
Go to the site, type in your email address and they will send the ascii code to your mailbox.
This is an Ascii coded email address: elly@eebee.cjb.net

http://innerpeace.org/escrambler.shtml
Go here and type in your email address. You will receive a Javascript code for your html code. They do not keep your email address. I have the page on my computer and I can use it offline.

Another Javascript encoder at:
http://javascript.internet.com/page-details/email-protector.html

This email address is coded in Javascript.

http://www.pobox.com
You can set up an account with any name you like eg: elly@pobox.com
You then set up your spam filters whichever way you want them.
You can also decide what you want done with the junk eg: delete them, file them in a trash folder etc.
True emails will be redirected to your real ISP email address.
The service costs US $15 which could be less than the price of a spam program.
There is a 30 day free trial period.

www.GoodbyeSpam.com
This particular spam facility lets you keep your own email address. It checks the emails on your ISP server against a list you have provided, as well as a list they already have.

GoodbyeSpam costs only $2.99 per month to filter 1 mailbox (email address). You can add additional mailboxes (email addresses) for just $1.00 each per month. Subscriptions are charged quarterly.

GoodbyeSpam resides on the Internet rather than on your computer. There is no program to download or install.

 

Is your webpage a Registered Domain?

A registered domain has a special problem that a personal webpage does not have. The main email post box is usually a catchall one. This means that any email addressed to that domain - even one with the incorrect addressee - will be sent to that postbox.

If you have your own access to the setup I suggest that you remove the catchall facility from this mailbox.

If you do not have your own access please ask the personal responsible - at the site of your domain - to remove the catchall facility.

Spammers will send junk mail to any conceivable combination of letters eg: 123@yourdomain.com, xyz@yourdomain.com, gyoth@yourdomain.com, hello@yourdomain.com, etc.
They find the domain names on the internet - they are freely available.
These emails will all arrive in your catchall mailbox. By removing the catchall facility the spam gets bounced back to the sender, and only legit email will come to you.
If a friend mis-spells your name the email will get bounced back but at least they can then rectify the matter.

The suggestions above for the personal webpage can also be used.
Everyone should absolutely code their email address.

1. This is an Ascii coded email address: elly@eebee.cjb.net

Send your email address to http://www.siteup.com/encoder.html and they will send you the encoded version.
The HTML Encoder is a service of SiteUp Networks. The Encoder will format your E-mail address in a way that IS NOT readable by any E-mail extractor or search engine.

2. This email address is coded in Javascript.

3. And of course, you could put your email address on a graphic, and not have an email link in the html code at all.
Then people can READ it, but robots cannot.
I did not want to put a graphic on this page. But here goes - it is not clickable. spam.gif
People can then simply copy the address into their email programs.

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ASCII codes for email addresses
for the DIY person.

A AB BC C D DE EF F G GH HI I J J
K KL LM M N NO OP P Q QR RS S T T
U UV VW W X XY YZ Z @ @# #& &  
a ab bc c d de ef f g gh hi i j j
k kl lm m n no op p q qr rs s t t
u uv vw w x xy yz z SPACE