Junkmail or Spam
What Is Spam?
Any email that you don't want to receive. Just as a weed is a plant
which has the misfortune to be growing in the wrong place. Unsolicited
email, usually trying to sell you something or maybe just after your address
to pass on to their mates for cash.
It snowballs. Eventually you receive so much that you have to jettison your precious email address. If it's come as a result of someone visiting dodgy sites from your PC (I know you wouldn't) it could contain the nasty stuff we deal with in Protecting your PC from Virus & Spyware attack.
Why do I Get Spam?
Because someone has found your address: from a stab in the dark; a random name generator; or from those third party cookies which you haven't blocked. Find out about the implications of that and how to fix it here. Fix it as soon as you've finished this page - for peace of mind.
With Friends Like These......
Another problem is that your friends, relations and work colleagues send out mass emails with the latest joke and with all the recipients' addresses listed in the To... box. Those addresses all appear in the text of the email.
As a result, when that email becomes a "chain mail" and successive generations of recipients aren't savvy enough to "snip" the existing superfluous text full of previous addressees, many thousands, even millions, of people can have access to your address. Some of those people will be up to no good.
Blind copies are a must
If you send an email to more than one person, you should put the second and subsequent addressees in the Bcc... box — Blind Carbon Copy — unless there's a specific reason for the other people to know who received a copy, in which case put them in the Cc... (Carbon Copy) box. This would normally only be for business reasons and certainly not if it were to be sent as a mass mailer.
Remove the Garbage
If anyone sends you emails where others' email addresses appear in the text, or as a Cc... or additional To... addressee, ask them to desist. Send them links to these pages if it'll help make your protest less offensive. http://www.MistyWindow.com/email/junkmail.htm and http://www.MistyWindow.com/security/virus-protection.htm.
When you forward an email you've received from someone else, "snip" it. After you've clicked the forward button, the message appears in another window. You can then edit out all the extra stuff which doesn't need to be forwarded.
There's an excellent article by Dian Chapman about this important subject:
Are You an Inconsiderate Emailer?
by Dian Chapman, MVP, MOS
You've just gotten a brand new email address. No spammers have found you. How great! You promise yourself not to sign up at any sites that don't promise to keep your email address confidential, so you don't start getting hit with piles of spam. Good move! You've only given out this email address to a few, special people...maybe a few friends and family members. You want to protect at least this one email address from getting piled up with junk mail. Yes, you're on the right track.
And then...there it is...
Click here for the full article, and it's worth spreading the message.
Reprinted by permission of Dian Chapman - mousetrax.com
Dealing with Spam
Don't Reply
Never, ever reply to junk mail. They've stumbled upon your address and if you reply to their garbage they've hit the jackpot. They know there's someone home. Now they'll hock your precious address off to a whole scavenging pack of other spamming bludgers.
Don't Click Anything
Don't fall for the trap by clicking on the link which offers to unsubscribe you or remove you from their mailing list. That's not what the link is for. Again, they want to know if your email address is active. It might also release a nasty piece of malware into your PC.
Don't Even Open it!
Best of all, don't even open the email. You can usually tell from the source address and subject line if it's spam. Delete it whilst holding down the Shift key. This bypasses the deleted items folder and sends it straight to email purgatory.
That Shift key trick works when deleting any file or folder, but use it with care! Once it's gone it's dog tucker. Which reminds me, when did you last back up your emails and other data?
Filter it Before They send any More
Most email programs have a mail filter which you can set up to send email from any address straight to a junk mail folder. You need to go to the Help Menu if you can't sort it out intuitively.
In Outlook Express you must:
- open the mail item.
- double click on the text after From:
- select the email address in the summary tab of the dialogue box.
- copy it (Ctrl + C) then go to Tools/Message Rules/Blocked Senders List.
- paste the email address into the Message Rules dialogue box and click Add.
- This is complicated because Microsoft would prefer you to stump up for Microsoft Office with Outlook. that's fine if you need the Office suite, I use it faithfully. Otherwise go with Thunderbird.
- In Outlook you right click on the email entry, left click Junk E-mail, and select the appropriate action.
Unfortunately this doesn't work with most email spammers. They use dynamic, constantly changing addresses or they hide the real address behind somebody else's. They can even make the email appear to come from yourself.
Don't Encourage Them
If you can possibly avoid it, don't deal with spammers. It's out of control: many people in business have to deal with thousands of spam items a day. It's costing all of us through lost productivity and increased costs.
The Old Throwaway Email Address Trick
If they've got you in their clutches you have to dump your email address, get a new one from your ISP and then tell all your contacts. If it's a desirable address that can be very irksome. It's not easy to replace an easy address like john@his-place.com. You end up as john-doe387b@somewhere-else.com
Your email address is safe with mistwindow.com should you use my feedback page or email me. Nevertheless, as a normal policy, you should only provide your premier email address to friends, relations, and organizations which you know are trustworthy. Arrange at least one disposable email address with Hotmail, Yahoo, Incredimail or Gmail. If the spammers get hold of your disposable address you can dump it and get another.
Also helps to avoid your boss finding out that you're using company resources for unproductive activities.
Be careful when you sign up for one of these email addresses: check the fine print and make sure you haven't left checked a box which allows, say, Hotmail to "list you in the directory". Sheesh, that's the last thing you want. Think paranoia and privacy with anything to do with the Internet.
Coming Soon
Phishing
In the meantime, remember that banks, Microsoft, and other reputable organisations don't send unsolicited emails. if you haven't signed up for that newsletter which has appeared in your mailbox, it's probably out to do you mischief.
It's a con job! No matter how real it looks.
Now I know, gentle reader, that you're not one of those stupid trusting souls who send their bank account numbers, PINs and credit card details when asked, but don't anyway!!! OK?
Real Nigerian princesses who've fallen on hard times live in Manchester and work for a living.
Look for the secure padlock 
at
the bottom of your screen and a URL which starts with https:// rather than
plain old http:// before giving your credit card number. Don't give
it to anyone you're not absolutely confident in.
The Onscreen Keyboard – extra protection
When entering my online banking details or my credit card data I always use the Onscreen Keyboard as an additional layer of protection against "key-loggers". See the entry here on my web log @ my wits' end for how to use the Onscreen Keyboard and a description of the dreaded key logger.
And update and run your antispyware every day.
I have 4 antispyware programs and I run one each morning before I carry out any online financial transactions. See here.
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