A Few Tips on Dealing with Spam
8 June, 2004

A Few Tips on Dealing with Spam

The prevalence of Spam has increased dramatically over the last year and virtually all email users in the world are affected. In this article, we attempt to outline some of the key pitfalls that should be avoided when dealing with Spam.

How do Spammers get our email addresses?

Spammers work closely with programmers- often the same ones who write email viruses that cripple personal computers worldwide. Facilitated by these unscrupulous programmers, a number of ways to harvest large email address list become available to spammers.

(i) Use of search-engine type robots that spider through websites and screen for email addresses, all email addresses extracted this way will be added to their list. It follows to mention that forums and other discussion groups often attracting thousands of participants become a real gold mine for spammers.
(ii) Email Bombardment - where they first gather a list of domain names that are known to exist, thereafter, generate by random a collection of email addresses using a lexicon of common names and dictionary words. A test email will be sent to the entire collection of email addresses and emails sent to the email addresses that bounce back will be removed from the list and the remaining ones will be added to the list.

There are other methods used to harvest email addresses- but the discussed are the predominantly used methods

Where does SPAM come from?

Recent surveys have indicated that approximately 85%-90% of all SPAM originate from the United States of America. It is important to note that the emails may originate from America but it may not be sent directly from America, more often than not spammers exploit email servers outside of America with compromised security to send out their SPAM. The possibility of relaying emails through compromised servers, renders the job of policing SPAM virtually impossible.

How to identify SPAM?

SPAM is sometimes referred to as Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE). SPAM can easily be distinguished from promotional emails sent from reputable and considerate corporations.

• SPAM will likely be sent from somebody or a company you do not know or have never heard of
• A large proportion of SPAM promote products/services like Viagra, Drugs, Mortgage plans, University Diplomas, Pornography, Software and other products/services that are illegal or borders on being illegal
• SPAM will never contain any physical contact address that will allow you to find them
• SPAM will never contain a contactable telephone/fax number

How to deal with SPAM?

The following is a list of things that you should NEVER do with SPAM:-

Never Reply to SPAM

You should never reply to SPAM, because by replying to SPAM you are reconfirming to the spammer that your email address is valid and that emails are being received and read. With this confirmation, spammers will know for certain that your email address is valid and they will continue to send you SPAM and even sell your email address to other spammers as an active email address.

Never try to Unsubscribe

When you receive a SPAM mail- never click on the "Unsubscribe" or the "Take me off the list" link at the bottom of the email. Spammers are the scum of the society and if you ever click on the unsubscribe link and subsequently enter your email address- you will merely be confirming to the spammer that your email address is valid and that the SPAM mail is being received which will invariably lead to increased SPAM to your mailbox. They will not take you off their mailing list.

Never Click on any Links

If there are any links within the SPAM you receive- never click on the links- because spammers can embed your email address in an encrypted form into the link. As soon you click on the link, they can immediately identify that your email address and ascertain that your email address is valid and track your behaviour once you are on the website they brought you to.

Never Buy anything through SPAM

Finally, never buy anything through SPAM- because more often that not- you will be scammed and additionally you will be indirectly sending a clear message to the spammer that their SPAM campaigns are commercially profitable. If spammers find that sending SPAM is profitable they will continue to send more SPAM and more email users will suffer. So, please do not buy and spend money on products/services advertised in SPAM.