Computers and computing:
How to slam spam! - not the tinned stuff
by Robin Marshall
Unwanted email is a waste of time, space, and effort, but there are ways you can fight back against the sea of spam.
It’s fun getting email... but that fun can turn to fury when you are bombarded with junk email. This mostly comes from people you don’t know - and don’t want to know. This type of nuisance email is known as spam and is a growing scourge on the Internet.
Why me? you might ask. Well, it’s not just you. Most people with email accounts get spam. The bad news is that you can’t do much to stop the stream of junk mail, but there are some things you can do to stem
it. First, you need to understand what it is and how it operates
How spam works
Your email address is harvested by spammers in several ways. You’re fair game if:
you post your
email address on a website (for example, a guestbook, or in a discussion area), or your address is listed on
a website for another reason (spammers have software which can trawl a website and pull out email
addresses);
you’re in a mailing list discussion group where correspondence is posted on the Internet;
you
used your email address when buying something on-line;
you have added your email address to an on-line
form;
you use ICQ, Usenet, or IRC (Internet Relay Chat) because your email address can also be
“collected” by other users.
The people who use these methods are called “acquaintance spammers,” meaning that you have given
the spammers your email address, or someone you know has - whether they meant to or not.
Chickenboner spam is when you get email from a person or company you’ve never dealt with or never
heard of. Some spammers are pretty good at guessing email addresses, so some spam you get could be
quite random.
What you can do
Hit the delete key when the spam email comes in. (Be sure that it is not a legitimate email first; with
practise you’ll get to know the rubbish from the real stuff); or set up a filter on your email program to send
junk-mail straight to the Trash.
Never buy anything from a spammer. It will only encourage them to spam you more, and to keep
spamming. Spammers need only make a tiny number of sales to make their efforts worthwhile.
If you receive spam from a company you have dealt with in the past, and their correspondence in this
case is unsolicited, don’t do business with them again. If you can, seek the email address of the owner or
manager and tell them why you won’t be doing business with them any more. Chances are they don’t know
the minions on the coal face are spamming customers. If you can’t get the email address of the person in
charge, find out the boss’s name and try sending your complaint to firstname. surname@company.com, as
well as the originating emailer.
Avoid posting your email address on a website. If you do need to post your address, try “munging” it
... which stands for “mash until no good.” This is “breaking” your email address. For example, place a #
(or another character) in your email address instead of the @. Don’t forget to write somewhere nearby that
the # must be replaced with the @ for email to get to you.
It will not stop dedicated spammers from finding your address, but it will stop the automated email
address collectors which go through webpages collecting names. You can also try writing your email
address as myemail@myisp.co.nz.does.not.exist - but, again, tell people to remove the “.does.not.exist”
from the end of your email.
When you register software on-line, anti-spam advisers recommend you do not use your normal email
address. Amazingly, these firms will often sell your address (or use it themselves to spam). Some
companies demand an email address to register, so you could get and use a web-based email address for
this purpose, or if you need to leave your address on a website. The downside: you have to register with a
webmail company, and you might have to log in regularly to keep your account valid. You also have to
remember to check the account, and when you do, it will no doubt be filled with spam.
If you can see where the email has come from (and most spammers use fake return addresses), click
Forward on your email program, and send a message to the abuse desk at the ISP it has originated from.
Send to abuse@the-isp.com. Write a short note that you’re not impressed about receiving spam, and that
the ISP should do something about it. In some cases this will work. You do not need to launch into a saga
on why spam is bad (they already know full well), and don’t get nasty; that won’t achieve anything and is
more likely to get the ISP offside.
It is important that you include the full header of the email when you send it to an abuse desk - behind
the to and from header that you see on your email program there is a fuller header showing the source of
the message.
The Network Abuse Clearing House will also send email to ISPs on your behalf - see their information
at www.abuse.net/howwork.html.
Many spammers send from Hotmail or Yahoo addresses; these firms will usually delete the spammers’
account when a complaint is received, but spammers generally have multiple email accounts and are long
gone by the time you get your spam.
If you are filling in an on-line form, there is often a “click here if you want to receive offers from us”
checkbox. Sometimes this is ticked automatically; make sure you are saying no.
What not to do
The one thing you must never do, under any circumstances, is reply to spam email with the word
“Remove” in the subject field.
All you will be doing is confirming to the spammer that your email address is valid and that you read
your email. Once they have this information your email address suddenly becomes far more valuable and
can be onsold for a higher price.
You might be tempted to send hundreds of emails back to the spammer to clog up their email inbox, but
it’s likely they will be long gone from that email address. Worse, the return email could belong to an
innocent person who does not know their address has been used in this way.
