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Home / Internet / Spam
Fight Spam! Strategies and Software to Take Back your Inbox
By:Casey Markee
Efficiency and accuracy in communication may be more important today than at any time in human history. The number of spam messages passed between individuals and businesses continues to increase significantly each day, to the point that some are literally overwhelmed by their sheer volume. Now, more than ever, it is vital that true non-spam email messages be absolutely accurate and arrive at the correct location, on time.
According to most studies, Americans are doing their part in adding to the vast number of electronic messages, but they are also creating a huge number of unwanted, unnecessary messages. One set of statistics shows that as many as 4 of every 10 spam items come from U.S. addresses. Europeans are far worse, however. Half of all emails originating there are spam, according to some statistics.
But what is spam, really? Of course, most people know about the canned food made from pork products (a Hawaiian delicacy). The definition widely used in electronic messaging and email defines spam as a "disruptive, commercial message that is unsolicited and usually sent indiscriminately." The sheer number of unsolicited messages is enough of a problem in that the sheer handling of this additional traffic slows the entire process of communication. In addition, those messages contain symbols, code etc. that actually cause system disruption or total failure. The resulting damage can be costly.
Some of the top stories in the world of email and electronic messaging recently have focused on the motivation behind spamming. In the end, it is mostly greed/money that motivates these "spammers" who spend their time distributing spam full-time through automated bots and zombie computer networks. Many of those who watch this industry carefully acknowledge that current Federal laws in the United States and at the individual State level fall short of controlling this type of "white collar" crime.
So, what can be done to remedy this situation? Actually, a number of steps can be taken to ensure that individual and business email is safe and efficient. Just making sure the inbox is free of unwanted messages is an obvious place to start. But how is that done?
Much of the spam sent to worldwide email addresses is meant to introduce products, in the hopes that the receiver will be enticed to buy. Financial schemes (the dreaded Nigerian Email scam) and illicit pharmaceutical adverts make up a significant portion of spam; as does pornography and offers for adult material.
Basic e-mail filtering (determined by the content of the e-mail) is a simple step each and every user should be taking at the start of each day and at the start of each email session. In essence, this filtering can be initiated by certain words or phrases that automatically send messages to the trash. Beyond this initial effective step, there are black hole lists (DNS-based) of known spammers, as well as email addresses that are not intended to be used except to capture spam (spamtraps) which offer more intermediate ways to combat the problem at the computer user level.
Some of the best methods employed by individuals and businesses have not been enough to stop the most determined of spammers, however. The most aggressive will use false names and addresses to establish multiple accounts across multiple ISP's. The use of "buffers" or third-party senders, helps to isolate the actual spammer from recrimination. Spammers have found and will continue to find open paths to unsuspecting inboxes, with the added risk of virus-infected messages a growing concern.
Spam and viruses are a particular risk to companies with extensive communications networks. While many of the simple steps noted above will help keep a system clean (with constant attention by administrators), more aggressive tactics are needed to ensure the continued success of larger, commercial internal communications networks.
New technology, such as highly intuitive anti-spam filtering software, may be the answer to many of the problems caused by a worldwide increase in spam. Current email users can download these anti-spam software updates in real-time and in doing so will help keep their network current. This type of technology is at the top of the list for users looking for email maintenance and for help in maintaining the efficiency and integrity of an entire communications system. Among the key focus areas for general email users are virus-free stability, lower maintenance and upgrade costs, email search capabilities for customized spam surveillance, archive services and anti-spam tools that put the daily maintenance in the hands of the local administrator.
Spam continues to grow, as senders find motivation to increase their efforts. At one time only a few hundred people received these unwanted messages. But over the years, the problem has exploded and now affects billions of email users and businesses each day. By one estimate, only about 15% of email is truly wanted and needed by the end receiver. Companies have come to realize this inefficiency cannot be supported over the long-term and are turning more and more to professional software protection options for help.
Don't let spam win, make sure your email messaging system is protected by a robust anti-spam software solution and take back your inbox today!
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Article keywords: gwava, groupwise, novell groupwise, spam, anti-spam, spam protection, get rid of spam
Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com
Casey Markee is a consultant with nationwide Novell GroupWise security software provider GWAVA. Visit them online for the latest in Novell Group Wise software and see why GWAVA is the #1 software provider to the Novell GroupWise community of users.
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| Top Spam Articles |
- 1). Free Spam Blockers By : Matt Garrett
Remember when spam was just another horrible thing you would never eat? And then you grew up a little and spam became the lyrics to a great Monty Python song. And now spam is something to avoid at all costs. Or, in the case of free spam blockers, at no cost at all. Everything is better when it’s free, right? Such is the case with blocking out annoying spam from your email account, too.
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- 2). Save Time, Money and Hassle - Stop Spam By : Justin Brown
Spam can be an absolute nightmare, and one that seems to spiral out of control in some of my email accounts. If i've been away for a few days and haven't had a chance to check my emails, I dread having to open up my email client when I get back online in anticipation of hundreds or thousands of spam emails.
Although I simply delete these emails, for some, they seem legitimate messages that can often cause the recipient to become the subject of a fraudulent activity.
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- 3). Antispam Organization Out There That's Fighting For You By : Robert Michael
There's an antispam organization out there that's fighting for you and could use your help.
CAUCE, the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail, is an all-volunteer global entity that began as SPAM-LAW, a group brought together for discussion only. They put all their efforts into getting legislation passed that would help stop and penalize spam.
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- 5). Real Businesses Send Spam, Too! By : Jerry Weinstock
Unsolicited Commercial Email or Spam has grown at epidemic proportions. It is rapidly becoming the number one problem that Information Technology departments deal with on a day-to-day basis, surpassing computer viruses. The volume and percentage of unwanted email received in business and personal email inboxes is starting to overwhelm and drown out legitimate email.
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- 6). Spam Filter - Bayesian Filter to Fight back Spammers By : Micky Sing
The most prolific and path breaking innovation of last century had been the developments in the communication field. It literally changed the business working, product marketing, support services and most importantly, the advertisement campaigns.
But just like all goods things comes with a price, so was the communication. It brought in the problems of Spam Emails.
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- 7). How Do Anti Spam Solutions Work? By : Paton Jackson
We have all suffered from these annoying dangerous spam emails. Most of us still do. There are excellent anti spam solutions in the market, there is no reason to tolerate this no more.
To understand the solution we must first understand the problem. So, what is this spam email? Spam is unsolicited, unwanted, irrelevant or inappropriate email. Spam email is mostly used for commercial purposes.
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- 8). How to Reduce Spam in Your Inbox and Enhance Your Email Security By : Richard Rogers
Spam is the internet’s equivalent of junk mail. Spam is defined as an e-mail message sent to people without their consent or permission. Addresses of recipients are often harvested from Usenet postings or web pages, obtained from databases, or simply guessed by using common names and domains.
Spam is sent to promote practically any product or service ranging from “Adult” products to logo design for websites.
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- 9). Seven tips for securing your organization´s network from spam and email viruses By : Todd Green
Seven tips for securing your organization´s network from spam and email viruses
Providing security against email related threats has become a burden for most IT professionals in 2006. According to a recent study by Postini, spam and email viruses now make up to 80% of all emails sent out as compared to 50% in 2000. As a result, IT professionals now face a tougher challenge in providing network security for this amount of spam.
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- 10). Email Anti Spam And Virus Protection For Businesses - There Is Hope By : John Tourloukis
With anti spam vendors offering low cost licensing, businesses can now afford advanced email spam and virus protection with a simple to use interface at a much lower cost. The great thing about technology is that as it evolves it gets faster, additional features and economical. Over the past few years the same evolution has taken place with anti spam technology and services.
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| New Spam Articles |
- 1). Identifying Spam When it Arrives By : Keith Londrie
Most of us have opened our email program and found, alongside correspondence from people that we know, offers for products from commercial web sites. Some of these emails we expect. We have asked to be notified of sales and other opportunities or joined a mailing list offered by the company.
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- 2). Save Time, Money and Hassle - Stop Spam By : Justin Brown
Spam can be an absolute nightmare, and one that seems to spiral out of control in some of my email accounts. If i've been away for a few days and haven't had a chance to check my emails, I dread having to open up my email client when I get back online in anticipation of hundreds or thousands of spam emails.
Although I simply delete these emails, for some, they seem legitimate messages that can often cause the recipient to become the subject of a fraudulent activity.
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- 3). A Quick Look At Email Spam Filters By : Oliver Turner
You must be eagerly finding for a way out to stop receiving Spam mails in your inbox. Take a quick look at email spam filters to get some idea on how to check spam. There are a number of email spam filters that you can use in your computer. For official purposes, you have anti server software spam where the spam filter is located in the server level to trap all email spam.
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- 4). An Introduction To Spam Filters By : Peter Emerson
Using spam filters is another very effective way of combating spam or junk mail. These programs use some keywords like ‘guaranteed’, ‘free’, etc and block any email with those words in them. But this has the disadvantage of sometimes blocking even important mails from your contacts and preventing those senders from sending mails to your address again.
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- 5). What Is Spam? By : Daniel J.Fox
You have probably seen an increase in the amount of junk mail which shows up in your email box, or on your favorite newsgroup. The activities of a small number of people are becoming a bigger problem for the Internet.
Chain letters that ask for money, whether for reports or just straight up, are illegal in the US whether they are in postal mail or e-mail.
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- 6). Fighting Spam! By : Darry J.Oswald
It's been nearly a decade since spammers and their enemies begun evolving competitively. As with the classic cheetah/gazelle model originally formulated by Darwin, each time one group becomes a little faster or more agile, its adversaries develop traits for outwitting and outrunning it.
In addition to wasting people's time with unwanted e-mail, spam also eats up a lot of network bandwidth.
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- 7). Two Main Groups Of Spam! By : Camry James
There are two main types of spam, and they have different effects on Internet users. Cancellable Usenet spam is a single message sent to 20 or more Usenet newsgroups. (Through long experience, Usenet users have found that any message posted to so many newsgroups is often not relevant to most or all of them.) Usenet spam is aimed at lurkers, people who read newsgroups but rarely or never post and give their address away.
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- 8). Antispam. Aren't We All! Don't You Just Hate It? By : Robert Michael
Antispam. Aren't we all! Don't you just hate it? You've got enough to do without having to sift through a bunch of worthless, or worse yet, offensive junk e-mails in your Inbox.
So what can be done about it? What antispam procedures and software really work?
Spam filtering software is the first stop in your antispam campaign, but in some ways it's the easiest to subvert.
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- 9). Everybody Hates Spam By : Jay Ashley
There is nothing like checking your email only to find out that your inbox is swamped with unsolicited message from people you do not know. No you’re not interested to buy dog food, beauty products, slimming pills, plants, or software! But still, you get these irritating emails.
Spam, this tiny four letter word has annoyed millions of people around the world.
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- 10). The Spamming Trap For Online Business Beginners By : Rami Doleh
People who begin their online business ventures would naturally be unaware of many of the internet business rules, protocols and etiquettes. Yet, as in any law, the internet law does not forgive for ignorance. One of the most important issues that are governed by many controls over the internet is Spamming.
A beginner in online business can very easily fall unintentionally into the spamming trap while conducting internet marketing activity to promote his/her business.
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