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 The techies call it spam, based on a Monty Python sketch. But this has nothing to do with potted meat, and it’s not funny. Spam goes far beyond ordinary old-fashioned junk mail, although it doesn’t have to be adult in content
It can be an email trying to convince you to buy software, lower your credit cared interest rate or visit a new website – in other words, it’s trying to sell you something. Still, you can take some measures to protect your family from spam:
Do:
Complain to your ISP. If you receive an unrequested and unwanted message, forward it to your ISP. (Your ISP, such as BT Internet or a local operation, provides you Internet access and service.) Ask your access provider to block incoming mail from that address and to complain on your behalf.
Use an online blocking service. Check to see what filtering options your access provider or email service may provide to subscribers. America Online, for example, has a preferred mail option (keyword = preferred mail) to protect a user’s account from receiving email from known junk emailers. iVillage also has some filtering services in its email programme.
Secondly, look at free online services such as Bright Light Technologies, with screens mail before your read it and promises to eliminate up to 90 per cent of spam without eradicating wanted email.
Install a filtering programme. There are dozens on the market. Two that we like are Spambuster, a shareware programme, or PC Spamkiller which has one of the highest ratings on the market.
Forward offenders’ names to websites committed to stamping out spam. Two examples are, the Blacklist of Internet Advertisers and SpamCop. Both are US sites, but then the States has a bigger problem with spam than the UK and Europe.
Complain to your ISP. To do this first you’ll need to make sure you have the right domain name (whatever follows the @ sign, such as @ivillage.com), since spammers often disguise their domains so nice people like you can’t find them to complain.
Visit the SpamCop site’s FAQ for tips on how to find domain names. Once you have the right domain, send complaints to the following standardised address: abuse@ (their domain); postmaster@ (their domain); root@ (their domain); admin@ (their domain).
Don’t:
Answer the spam messages. You’ll be on their hit list if you respond. Just ignore and delete the message in the hope that playing possum will convince the spammer that you’re a lost cause.
Give out your email address. Whenever you visit a website or buy an item from an e-commerce site, read the site’s privacy statement to determine whether it sells e-mail addresses and how you can ensure you don’t get on that list.
Join mailing lists. Unfortunately, mailing lists are a big source of email addresses. Spammers ‘harvest’ the addresses of all who post. Avoid that by not posting replies to the mailing list.
Use your main mail account for commerce. Instead, set up aliases or ‘dummy’ mail accounts under other screen names. These are e-mail addresses that you only use for discussion groups (bulletin boards, chat rooms and so on). You can easily delete them later or ‘empty out the rubbish’ (the spam) every week from these accounts with ease, diverting the bad mail to this account rather than your main email account.
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