You gotta love Poynter readers. Here I was, ready to write a column on tips for fighting spam after my column last week on “Spam That Got Me.” But now I don’t need to. So many of you sent me good suggestions that I can be lazy and just run the following instead.
(Incidentally, you may have noticed I did not mention the word “spam” in the headline for this column, as I did in last week’s column. The reason is that the headline is used as the subject line for the e-mail newsletters that Poynter sends, and reader DANIEL MARKHAM pointed out that some e-mail programs automatically delete messages with the word “spam” in the subject line. Thanks for the tip, Daniel; we’ve now changed the way Poynter Online handles such headlines.)
MARTYN WILLIAMS, Tokyo Correspondent, IDG News Service, writes: I think most people know this one already but it’s a good idea never to reply to any spam and never use the “click here to remove” link. Any response is often taken as a sign by the spammer that it’s an e-mail that is actively used … thus ensuring more spam.
It’s also a good idea to switch off things like automatic preview of mail or any HTML mail functions. Many spammers include a link embedded in each e-mail to a unique file on their site. When a request comes in from your mail client to access the file, the spammer knows the message has been opened. By keeping a record of which file was specified in mail to which e-mail address, it accomplishes the verification process described above.
Excellent tips, Martyn. Though I have learned from my workshops for journalists that too many still think writing a nasty message to a spammer will help. And the only exceptions to the point on “click here to remove” links is that they might work properly if they are from mailing lists you signed up for.
BILL DEDMAN of the Boston Globe and PowerReporting.com writes: I like ChoiceMail, from DigiPortal: everything is presumed to be spam. Unless I’ve sent that address mail, or unless I have listed it as an approved domain, or unless the text or subject contains words I’ve named, then every piece of mail is assumed to be spam, is held in a queue separate from my inbox, and is responded (to) by an e-mail asking the sender to register. If the sender doesn’t register within, say, 4 days, the e-mail is deleted and I never see it.
And it keeps count. Since 8/29/03, I’ve received 24,913 messages, of which only 21 percent were valid and came to my e-mail inbox. So that’s about 300 pieces of junk mail a day that I don’t have to delete. Pretty good deal for $35 [now $39.95]. By the way, ChoiceMail is not the only one to do that trick. There are others, and (they) may be better.
A note for those of you complaining about your e-mail inboxes: Please note that Bill received nearly 25,000 messages in a little more than two months!
DORALISA PILARTE, a Miami-based freelancer, writes: Spam drove me nuts until my ISP, EarthLink, developed its wonderful spam blocker. This free program will stop all incoming messages whose senders are not on my web-based “allowed senders list.” The stopped messages will be sorted into two web-based bins: Suspect Messages and Known spam. Senders of Suspect Messages get an auto-reply from Earthlink saying they must hit a link and ask me to put them on my “allowed senders list.” Such a request will come through to my inbox and I can decide at that point who gets on the list.
The rest of the incoming messages are held up at those two web-based bins until I look at them. I can program the spamblocker to send me a reminder every so often about who’s on the Suspect Messages bin. The Known spam self-cleans every 14 days. I’ve reviewed the Known spam and never once found any non-spam messages there. Some clever spam gets on the Suspect Messages bin but doesn’t make it to my inbox. I highly recommend it.
When I wrote back to Doralisa to thank her for the tip, here’s the automated reply I got (I removed her e-mail address from the note): “This is an automatic reply to your e-mail message to [ ]. This e-mail address is protected by EarthLink spamBlocker. Your e-mail message has been redirected to a “suspect email” folder for [ ]. In order for your message to be moved to this recipient’s Inbox, he or she must add your e-mail address to a list of allowed senders. Click the link below to request that [ ] add you to
this list…”
MERRY SELK, a communications consultant in Albany, Calif., writes: I’ve signed up with spamcop.net, and the spam seems to go away for periods of time. You sign up EACH e-mail account with spamcop. Then you get back a special spamcop e-mail address for submitting spam.
Each time I get a piece of spam:
* I “forward as attachment” to the spamcop address.
* I copy the message source information (ctrl-F3 on a PC opens the window; it opens under “source” on a mac) into the body of the e-mail and send it to spamcop.
* A few minutes or hours later, I get a confirming e-mail back from spamcop that directs me to their website
* At the website page, I click a link to report the spam officially and can add comments (eg, “African donation request scam spam”).
LINDA PESCATORE writes: I’ve been using MailWasher. It lets you preview messages (won’t open up images, unlike other so-called previews) and then forges a bounced e-mail to the spammer. The rationale is that when they get bounced e-mail, they will take you off their lists. I don’t think my volume of spam has actually decreased, but I do like the ability to preview and bounce. I don’t think it matters what sort of e-mail client you use, either.
I just hope you don’t open anything that has attachments unless you know the person.
Others recommended MailWasher, too. On Linda’s second point: A lot of people tell me not to open attachments unless I know the person, but I am not sure knowing someone makes attachments they send safe. I once got a virus by opening an attachment from someone I knew and trusted.
SARAH MILSTEIN, freelancer extraordinaire, writes: A couple times a week, I’m fooled, too. I’d send some examples, but I’ve deleted them all directly to hell. I figure I inadvertently nix 2 percent of my important e-mail because I assume it’s spam. Very frustrating, and I don’t have any tricks you don’t already know, though I do use disposable e-mail addresses sometimes (not often enough, really): http://www.spamcon.org/services/dea/.
Your turn: Have an anti-spam tip or site you want to recommend? Let me know at poynter@sree.net.
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