Thursday, December 7, 2006
Can I have spam for lunch?
It won’t fill you up, but sure, go ahead. Spam is unsolicited email. This means that you never requested to receive the email. Spam can be porn, offers for bank loans or it can be an offer for antivirus software IF you never requested it. Spam CAN contain viruses, phishing attempts and even adware and spyware. In general, if you have antivirus, adware and spyware protection on your computer, spam is generally more annoying than destructive.
How do I stop getting spam?
A legitimate email list will have a Remove link at the bottom and will honor that quickly. Unfortunately an illegitimate company will also have a Remove link at the bottom and if you click it they know they have an “active” email address on their list. What do you do? Unfortunately if you are on a spam list, there is NO way to get off. Don’t try to call the company/sender, don’t reply to the email and curse someone out and don’t threaten with lawsuits … you are just wasting your time as no one is reading it. Spam software is very effective in monitoring and blocking what you see BUT, spam software does not have your brain, so it does not always know what you want to see. A receipt from a legitimate online purchase can get blocked easily, Aunt Ginny sending you a joke can get blocked and anything with an attachment or pictures can easily get blocked. If you get good spam software AND you are willing to put forth a little effort then you can effectively block a significant portion of the spam email you get.
As an industry professional I can tell you that this is probably the most difficult and ongoing frustrating aspect of the online industry. The Can Spam Act has made legitimate companies follow guidelines which are beneficial to the consumer but has done little to stop illegitimate companies from sending spam.
Recently, the spam trend has gotten worse and it is estimated that 90% of email is spam. A New York Times article yesterday (12/6/2006) really shows the depth of the problem and how difficult it is to correct.
Here is the catch ... you place an order online and you go to your email account, the likelihood is that Yahoo, Hotmail or AOL have labeled that spam as it comes from a commercial enterprise.
For the consumer the best solution is good spam filtering software whether it is Spam Shield or another spam product. It takes time and it will alleviate some of the headaches, but stopping spam is really something that the authorities are going to have to get serious about, or we will simply have to deal with it ourselves.
How do I stop getting spam?
A legitimate email list will have a Remove link at the bottom and will honor that quickly. Unfortunately an illegitimate company will also have a Remove link at the bottom and if you click it they know they have an “active” email address on their list. What do you do? Unfortunately if you are on a spam list, there is NO way to get off. Don’t try to call the company/sender, don’t reply to the email and curse someone out and don’t threaten with lawsuits … you are just wasting your time as no one is reading it. Spam software is very effective in monitoring and blocking what you see BUT, spam software does not have your brain, so it does not always know what you want to see. A receipt from a legitimate online purchase can get blocked easily, Aunt Ginny sending you a joke can get blocked and anything with an attachment or pictures can easily get blocked. If you get good spam software AND you are willing to put forth a little effort then you can effectively block a significant portion of the spam email you get.
As an industry professional I can tell you that this is probably the most difficult and ongoing frustrating aspect of the online industry. The Can Spam Act has made legitimate companies follow guidelines which are beneficial to the consumer but has done little to stop illegitimate companies from sending spam.
Recently, the spam trend has gotten worse and it is estimated that 90% of email is spam. A New York Times article yesterday (12/6/2006) really shows the depth of the problem and how difficult it is to correct.
Here is the catch ... you place an order online and you go to your email account, the likelihood is that Yahoo, Hotmail or AOL have labeled that spam as it comes from a commercial enterprise.
For the consumer the best solution is good spam filtering software whether it is Spam Shield or another spam product. It takes time and it will alleviate some of the headaches, but stopping spam is really something that the authorities are going to have to get serious about, or we will simply have to deal with it ourselves.
Labels: Spam Protection
¶ 8:39 AM
