Spam – It is not just mystery meat
SPAM. Most of us know it as the mystery meat in a can that was affordable, tasty and really quick and easy to prepare when those hunger pangs hit late in the evening after a raucous night of “studying” at the college dormitory. This article is not about chopped pork bits but about electronic messages that can fill up your mailbox in a hurry, carry links to malicious malware and viruses and disrupt your blogs and websites with denial of service attacks.
SPAM is defined as the use of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately. The key word in that sentence is unsolicited. The most notably recognized form of spam is email spam. They are used mostly by advertisers because it is very cheap to do so. You know those annoying emails you receive every day in your mailbox, the ones promising you performance enhancing placebo pills that will change your life forever. The rest of this article explains how to avoid spam and what to do if you receive it.
If you receive email spam, especially those with attachments, please follow the guidelines below.
1. DELETE THE MESSAGE. Think of it in the same context as throwing away the junk mail you receive at home.
2. DO NOT REPLY to the spam message. This can inadvertently cause all original addresses to receive the reply, causing another flood. Mailing lists can explode into thousands of recipients. NEVER retaliate with more spam; you’re just exacerbating the problem.
3. DO NOT RESPOND TO “instructions to remove me from the mailing list”. Most often, this will result in a bounced (rejected) mail message to you. It may also result in hardening your address onto spam lists, as it serves as a confirmation that your account is active and the mail is being read. For advertising purposes, this makes your address more valuable.
4. If you do happen to open the email and if there are hyperlinks to other websites, NEVER click on them.
It is simple. If the email is unsolicited, meaning you have not requested nor warranted a response, DO NOT open the email. Delete it.
How do you avoid getting bombarded by spam? Well, over the last few years, email systems have gotten much more sophisticated in their filtering technology to prevent spam from overwhelming everyone’s email box. However, no matter how sophisticated these systems become, there will always be some spam that gets through. You can limit the exposure by being very selective with your email address. Treat your email address like your phone number. You don’t just give your phone number out to anyone do you? Well, don’t type your email into just any form out there on the Internet. Make sure you are on a reputable website run by a reputable company. If you can, read their email policy to make sure they will not sell your mail to advertisers. Most reputable organizations will not sell this information. If you are like me and use the Internet every single day and have entered your email at hundreds of websites over the years, do what I did. If you are unsure of the website but really need to download that demo of software but it requires a valid email address then use your “junk” email address instead of your normal email address. What’s a “junk” email address? That is an email address that you sign up for (somewhere) that you really don’t use for anything other than for the specific purpose of using on untrusted websites. You can always change the email address at a later date if you find the website is valid and you are not receiving spam.
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_%28electronic%29
