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Techno-files
Spam remains distasteful annoyance for online mail users

By Riley Gay

It clogs your inbox with amazing offers and implausible promises. It costs you precious time and valuable bandwidth. It may bring unwanted pornography or, worse, viruses that can destroy your data.

And it’s named after a well-known canned meat product.

If you use Internet email you’re already well acquainted with “spam”-- the electronic cousin of junk mail and telemarketing.

It’s defined as “unsolicited commercial email,” and no matter whether you delete it, refuse it or try to block it, it just keeps on coming.

Though you’ll probably never get it to go away completely, there are some things you can do to minimize the amount of spam you receive.

Since there’s very little that you can do about spam after it arrives, the most effective strategy is one that will stop spam before it gets to you. And the best way to do that is to stay off the spammer’s mailing list in the first place.

By far the easiest way for marketers to get your email address, of course, is for you to give it to them.

When you install software on your computer or register for a website, the process often includes an option to receive third-party advertising.

What this means is that they can then give your email address to just about anybody. Make sure you read all dialog boxes during the registration process so that you can opt out of this type of marketing.

Spammers will also use “bots” (computerese for automated search robots) to perform automated searches of newsgroups, chat groups and website message boards. If you post to a newsgroup or message board, and need to include your email address, it’s a good idea to insert a nonsense word or phrase within your address, such as “”yourname@no.spam.isp.com.”

Other posters will know to remove the “no.spam” part, but the “bot” won’t see it as a valid email address.

A good alternative is to set up a secondary email account with one of the many free email providers out there, such as Yahoo (www.yahoo.com) or Excite (www.excite.com). Use this address when providing your contact information for software or website registration. If your Internet provider allows you multiple addresses on a single account, that might also be a good solution.

Another way for spammers to get your address is through computerized mass-mailings, including a link in the message to “unsubscribe.” In most cases, however, clicking on this link will only ensure you an increase in the amount of spam you’ll receive by giving the sender verification that they’ve found a “live” email address. Your address can then be sold to other marketers. Unless you know that the sender is legitimate, don’t fall for this widely used ploy.

If, in spite of your efforts, spam still manages to find its way onto your computer, there are some steps that you can take to lessen its impact.

First and foremost is to simply delete any obvious unsolicited email. The subject line will usually allow you to identify most spam messages. Since viruses are primarily spread through email, it is especially important that you avoid opening any attachments from unknown mail sources. Even so, it’s possible for a spammer to include a script or Web bug in the message body that will alert them when you preview the message. For this reason, it’s a good idea to turn off the preview pane in your mail client.

Most mail programs can be set up to automatically delete or reroute email before it gets to your inbox simply by specifying rules to filter out unwanted messages. By creating a list of words that might likely be used only as part of a spam message subject line, for instance, you can configure your mail client to send these messages to a special folder or to delete them altogether.

The drawback to this approach is that it’s always possible that a legitimate, and potentially important, message might be unwittingly rerouted as well, so be especially careful in your choice of keywords.

You can also filter messages according to a sender’s name or address. The problem here is that spammers have gotten very good at using random addresses and disguising their identities, so this approach may prove less than effective as a filter for certain types of spam.

Check the Help files of your particular email program for information on setting up mail filters.

Many Internet Service Providers will attempt to screen out bulk mailings and other types of spam, as well. You can check with your ISP to see if there is an email-blocking feature available to filter mail from specific addresses.

Help may be on the way, too, at the state and federal levels. A number of states have enacted legislation that prohibits many types of unsolicited mailings, and there is legislation pending in Washington, D.C., that will further help to curb some types of spam.

Meanwhile, taking steps to guard your email address, applying some basic precautions with the mail you do receive, and using the controls built into your computer’s mail program will help you to control the growing onslaught of spam.

Neighbor Riley Gay is Wrangler News’ director of technical services.

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