WHAT ABOUT SPAM?

SHOULD I REALLY ADD MY LISTING?

In a word, YES! Just as having your phone number in a telephone directory doesn't really cause all those marketing calls, adding your listing to this email directory puts you at no further risk than you were before. All information is held in a database on the server and is not accessible by spam collectors or anyone else who doesn't already know something about you to use as a search keyword. Of course a really keen spammer could search under Smith, A, then Smith, B, etc. but this is hardly likely as it is too laborious and time consuming and there are so many easier ways for spammers to get your details.

Want to know more about spam and how to beat it? READ ON.

Spam is the evil of the internet community. It's lurking in the background, waiting for an unsuspecting person to list their email address on a web page, opening themselves up to a world of junk email and a finger that never leaves the delete button.

At least, that's the general conception of spam.

But spam is more than that, and less than that. It's not really evil, just annoying, costly and often highly pornographic. (This last one could be considered evil if it's your child on the receiving end of course). It is true that spammers use "crawlers" to gather email addresses published on web pages, but they have so many other tricks up their sleeves that this doesn't necessarily put you at a higher risk. Some of their other tricks are to buy and sell "opt-in" address lists, use fake surveys and marketing offers to draw you in or they merely start sending email to every ISP starting with a@.., b@.., aa@... You should NEVER respond to this type of spam. Don't 'unsubscribe' or reply as all you are doing is confirming that you are a real person with a valid email address. Once they know you exist you get circulated on lists faster than you can blink. If you think you have a lot of spam now you would be surprised how much more you can get. I actually had to close down an email account because I learnt the hard way unsubscribing is not the way to get rid of the problem.

Spam can also be from companies you know, legitimate companies who have a poor marketing campaign and believe once you have made contact and handed over your details, they can send you as much email about their products as your inbox can hold. In this case you should reply. Write to the company and ask to be taken off their mailing list.

Obviously trying to beat spammers at the front end is not working as the amount of spam circulating just grows and grows. Estimates from different sources say spam could be up to 20% of all email circulated on the internet. (I hear you saying, more like 90%. Seems like that to me at times as well). You can report spam to your ISP and ask them to filter it, but as most filters are not perfect and can filter out the 'good' email as well, and because it costs them time and , most ISPs are reluctant to set up filters on the server.

Some ISPs are adopting systems to block known spammers, which is great but again, not foolproof. A lot of spammers route their mail through legitimate servers who are unaware they are being used and shouldn't be on the list.

The best way to reduce the amount of spam in your inbox is to either set up your mail program to filter out specific mail, or to install an anti-spam program.

My mail program is Outlook Express. If you are using a different mail program, check your help file for "filter". To filter spam, I just have to click on Tools, Message Rules, then Mail or Blocked Senders List. To use the Blocked Senders List effectively, rather than blocking each individual email address, which is almost pointless as spammers change addresses almost every day, block the entire domain. Be sure to use this only in cases of domains that are purely set up to promote spamming. You can check on this by going to the domain in the return address. If the site is only about marketing, or you get a "forbidden to access" error page, they are spammers. Block them. Using the Mail rules, it is possible to delete email that contains specific words or phrases (such as Viagra or other obviously pornographic words or common marketing phrases). This has to be done with care as it can filter out any legitimate email as well. I choose to send all filtered email to my deleted items box rather than delete it straight from the server so I can quickly check for anything I really did want to see.

As I mentioned above, if this is all too hard or too time consuming then you can install a spam filtering program. There are many anti-spam programs available on the market. I have not tried any of them and so am reluctant to recommend one over another. A lot of ISPs have arrangements where their clients can purchase anti-spam programs at a discounted price. Check with your ISP to see if they have a program for you. Otherwise, you can download a trial program from one of the free download sites, such as Download.com, or conduct a search on a search engine site, such as Google or AltaVista, using "spam" and "filter" as the keywords.

It's not an easy battle, but with vigilance we can all reduce the problem of spam. I believe it is better for us to do this ourselves, as individuals, rather than waiting for the governments or large businesses to step in. Some people actually like to receive offers and discounts by email, the same as some people like to read junk mail for the bargains. Other people enjoy pornography and can indulge themselves without any harm to others. Why should these people be stopped from doing what they enjoy? Would you be happy with your government deciding what email you are allowed to read? Starts to sound a bit too much like censorship in my opinion.