Sarasota PC Monitor
Tech Talk (07/02)
Spam, Spam, Spam and ...
by Brian K. Lewis, Ph.D.*
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.I've spent the past month on the road using my laptop computer and a dial-up connection (when available) to surf and check my email. The first thing I learned was that my Outlook Express on my laptop wasn't configured to remove spam. I had to fight my way through far more useless messages than I expected since my home system is configured to automatically filter about 90% of the incoming spam. I also picked up my Hotmail a few times using a free high-speed Internet cafe connection. That was also an eye-opener with regard to the amount of spam showing up in that mailbox. Part of this is due to my use of the Hotmail address on many different Websites and mailing lists. By using a Hotmail address this way, I manage to keep spam out of my personal POP3 mailbox.
There are a number of ways to reduce the amount of spam arriving in your regular mail-box. I simply use filters to put it in my deleted folder. Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Pegasus and other mail software all provide methods for filtering your mail as it is being received. You can even set up special folders for holding email from specific individuals. You are not restricted to just the default in-box.
The easiest filter to set up is the one that removes all mail that is not addressed specifically to you at your email address. In Outlook Express this can be done quite simply by selecting Tools, Message Rules, Mail. Then check the box "Where the to line contains people" in the top list (No. 1). Then click the underlined statement in box 3 (contains people). Type in your email name, not the complete address, and click the Add button. Do this for each of your email names. Then click on the Options button and select "Message does not contain the people below" and if you have more than one address also select "message matches any one of the people below." Then click on OK back to the first window. In the "Select Actions" list (No. 2) put a check mark in the box by "Delete it."
You may need to check the deleted folder for the next few days to insure that no mail you wish to keep is being deleted. Some mailing lists that you may be on may not contain your email address in the To line. In that case you will need to set up a message rule to prevent that specific mail from being deleted. To do that you can set up an additional rule using the "From line contains people" and use the sender's email address. This may still not block all of the spam from getting into your regular in-box. You may need to set up message rules based on words in the Subject line or words found in the body of the email message.
Outlook, Netscape and Eudora have similar schemes for filtering your email. With Outlook and Outlook Express, the catch to all this is that it only works on POP3 email accounts. If you have a Hotmail or Yahoo account then you need to take steps on their Website to filter out spam. Hotmail does have a spam setting that can be used. However, since you don't have the degree of control that you have in other email software, you need to check the mail that ends up in the spam folder to be certain that you are not removing mail you want to receive. The other problem with this system is that the spam filters miss more than they catch. In general, however, any reduction in the number of emails you have to scan and delete is an improvement.
Another method to keep spammers out of your primary mailbox is to set up a free email account at Yahoo, Hotmail, or Web2mail. Then use this account whenever you need to post an address on the Web. Never use your primary address for anything other than personal or family mail. If you have business email, then it is advisable to use another address for that. Most Internet service providers (ISP's) allow you to set up more than one email account. If you set up a personal account, a business account and a Web account, then you are far less likely to get spam in your personal mail. Another tip that might be useful is to use numbers in the middle of the account name. I know many of you have accounts with numbers at the end of your name. However, setting up an account with numbers intermingled with the name does seem to help reduce spam. Some spammers use software that simply uses common spellings of names. Unfortunately, none of these systems are foolproof. So it is important that you keep checking and modifying your message rules to block incoming spam.
To your ISP and to network administrators, spam is a major problem. It uses up a considerable amount of bandwidth, hardware resources, and people-hours. You can help stop spam at its source by reporting it to your ISP. If you are an AOL subscriber, you can forward spam from AOL accounts to TOSEmail1. Spam from non-AOL accounts should be forwarded to TOSSpam. You can get more information on this by going to the keyword Spam and select "Report Junk Mail." However, there are some significant problems associated with trying to report spam. First, you really need to be certain that you did not "opt-in" for the email you received. If you did and you subsequently report it as spam, then you may find yourself on the receiving end of a lawsuit. For more information on this and other legal problems checkout http://website101.com/SpamFilter/Spam_kills_ business.html and the topics listed on http://website101.com/SpamFilter/index.html.
You also should be aware that the address shown on the spam email may not be the real address where the spam originated. Before reporting it to anyone you should review the complete header of the email. To do this in Outlook Express, right click the title and select properties. Then click on the Details tab. This will provide routing information for the message. In most cases the Received From address will not be the same as the From line or Reply To address. You need to review all the Received lines to see if you can determine the actual originating domain. If you can, then you have an ISP to whom you can forward the spam email. Usually, that can be sent to Postmaster@domain or abuse@domain. In many cases, you may not be able to identify the origin of the spam. Spammers are getting very good at hiding their originating domains. So be cautious and be certain of your information before forwarding any emails that you consider to be spam.
If you aren't satisfied with the spam controls in your software there are other solutions available. SpamFilter, available at the site listed above, is software that will remove spam from your mailbox. You can download it for a 7 day free trial. Beyond that they want a $12/month fee to keep filtering your email. Another spam blocker (SpamKiller) is available from McAfee for $39.95. However, SpamKiller does not work with Hotmail or other HTTP (Web-based) email accounts.
There is one more possible solution to the spam problem. That is Avirmail, a free email program from www.avirmail.com. This program allows you to scan, read, filter and reply to email before it is downloaded to your computer. According to their Website, you can set up filtering which will delete mail before it is downloaded to your computer. You can also manually delete mail while it is still on the mail server. This would allow you to delete mail containing viruses before they would have a chance to infect your computer. It is a ZDNet five star recommended freeware program. I have yet to use it, but it comes with some strong recommendations and the price is right.
So, spam control is possible on your computer, but it requires some effort on your part to setup the filters and constant review to keep the system going. If all this seems like too much time and effort-then there is always the "Delete" key.
*Dr. Lewis is a former university and medical school professor. He has been working with personal computers for more than twenty years. He can be reached via email at brian_klewis@hotmail.com or voice mail at (941) 925-3047. :
Copyright 2002. This article is from the July 2002 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/The Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. has 1,300+ members and was established in 1982. We are members of the Assoc. of PC User Groups (APCUG), the Florida Assoc. of PC Users Groups, Inc., and we are members of the America Online Ambassador Program.
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