The Spam Epidemic
If you already haven’t heard, email spams are at epidemic proportions. Our staff considers this urgent enough to inform you of how spam is creating havoc on our networks and relay some preventive tips you can employ in your organization.
The spam epidemic has a few familiar themes that bombard your inbox: phone cards, cable descramblers, vacation prizes, easy credit, easy weight loss, free vacations, free Girlz. Inkjet cartridges and black-market Viagra, get-rich-quick schemes and every possible form of pornography. The crush of these messages on the world’s networks is now numbered in billions per day.
Spam is not just a nuisance. It absorbs bandwidth and overwhelms Internet service providers. ”Spam has become the organized crime of the Internet,” said Barry Shein, president of the World, one of the original Internet service providers. ”Most people see it as a private mailbox problem. But more and more it’s becoming a systems and engineering and networking problem.”
Below are some tips that can help you from being spammed:
- Use an alternate email address for web registrations and commercial email lists.
- When forwarding emails, make sure you Blind Carbon Copy your other recipients and always remove the existing headers in a forwarding email
- Disguise any email addresses on your web page. Ex: Remove the @ sign with <at>. By doing this you effectively prevent automated software programs that scan hundreds of thousands of web pages for spammable emails from having access to it.
- Use a form for feedback on your web page instead of an email address
- Spam-Protect your organization’s email list archives, and get all the email lists you post messages to to do this.
- Use Spam Filtering Software. Just remember, this solution is not 100% accurate, although it will help curb the amount of spam in your inbox.
- Set up Temporary Email Accounts and Mail Aliases
- Avoid using a common first name as an email address
- If you need further clarification on our tips, or assistance with spam issues, please don’t hesitate to call. Whether you are our network support client, web client or both, we value your business. We know you depend on technology to operate your business and we want nothing more than to see you operate successfully.