Dealing With Junk E-Mail

        By Claudia Lynch, Benchmarks Editor (lynch@unt.edu)

        The "Network Connection" article in this issue provides a pretty good picture of where we are, legally, with regard to unsolicited electronic mail. If you read the article you will see that we seem to be on shaky ground in terms of out right prohibiting it, although things may change in the future. In the meantime however, how do you deal with all that spam?

        The April 3 issue of The Internet Tour Bus (< a href="http://www.TOURBUS.Com">www.TOURBUS.Com) printed an edited version of an article ("How to Combat Bulk Unsolicited E-mail") by Adam Boettiger, moderator for the I-Advertising Digest.

        How do they get those addresses?

        According to Boettinger, there are five ways that bulk emailers get your address in the first place:

        1. E-mail stripper programs - used to "strip" E-mail addresses from classified ad sites, bulletin boards, online discussion groups and/or Web sites. They compile the addresses into a list, weed out the duplicates and then send out ads to thousands of people.
        2. Newsgroup/Discussion Group "trolling" - another method used to obtain your E-mail address or mail you an advertisement is simply to respond to your ad or message you post to a newsgroup.
        3. E-mail capture devices - buttons that can be inserted in any Web site. Clicking on one of these buttons will send your E-mail address directly to the Web site owner. If you have your browser set properly, you would be warned before your address is sent to the site owner.
        4. Surfing the Web - Many advertisers simply use search engines to hunt for sites similar to their target market and send press releases to the Webmasters of sites they visit.
        5. Commercial Bulk E-mail services - One of the easiest ways to obtain an E-mail list is to buy one that someone else has compiled. Many companies on the net will sell lists targeted to a specific group, or even easier still - they'll do the mailing for you.

        Reducing the Number of Unsolicited E-mail Messages

        The thesis of Boettinger's article is that there are ways to reduce the number of unsolicited E-mail messages you receive each day. He quotes several "Anti-spam Experts" and then offers the solution that has worked for him, filtering. If your E-mail program has the ability to filter incoming mail, you can use it to look at the headers, subject line, or any text in the body. Following is his description of the filtering process:

            Say I get email from CyberPromotions, and they use the domain "spam.com" in their email address. All I do is create a filter that looks for @spam.com anywhere in the headers of any incoming email message I receive, and transfers it to a special "Spam" folder that I have created just for this type of message.

            I do not have it transferred to the trash, because occassionally a legitimate message slips through. I check my spam folder once every few days to see if any legitimate messages slipped through.

            If you'd like to learn how to filter your incoming email, I have put up instructions and a list of the domains that I filter for Spam at: http://www.exposure-usa.com/email/spam.html

        Anti-spam Resources

        Adam Boettinger also provides a handy list of places to learn more about spam and how to combat it. Following is the list that was included in TOURBUS.

        • JunkBusters (http://www.junkbusters.com/) - A site that provides an outline of how to handle junk E-mail. They also provide a fine notice "to senders of uninvited E-mail solicitations" which can be published at one's Web site and/or used as a response to junk E-mail.
        • Spam Hater (http://www.compulink.co.uk/~net-services/spam/) - Free software for Windows 3.x & Win 95. Analyze junk E-mail to find appropriate addresses to send a prepared response to.
        • Win95 Mail Utilities and Addons (http://www.windows95.com/apps/mailutils.html)
        • Filtering mail FAQ for Pine, Elm and UNIX accounts ( http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/mail/filtering-faq/faq.html)
        • Mail Filtering Resources ( http://www.glue.umd.edu/enee/medlab/filter/filter.html)
        • E-Filter Software (http://catalog.com/tsw/efilter/)
        • Get that Spammer Software (http://kryten.eng.monash.edu.au/gspam.html)
        • Junk Email remover (http://www.fishnet.net/~seddigh/)
        • Register to stop receiving junk E-mail (supposedly):
          • http://kenjen.com/nospam/
          • http://www.islandnet.com/~cvcprod/abcmall/email.html
          • http://www.directnet.com/~spiegel/
          • http://pages.ripco.com:8080/~glr/nojunk.html
          • http://drsvcs.com/nospam/
        • Anti-Spamming Fax Law (http://www.ca-probate.com/faxlaw.htm)
        • Netizens against gratuitous spamming (http://axxis.com/~ian/nags/index.html)
        • Death to Spam (http://www.mindworkshop.com/alchemy/nospam.html)
        • Outlaw Junk Mail now (http://www.public.asu.edu/~dtopping/ojen.html)
        • Usenet sources to fight spamming (http://www.mindspring.com/~mdpas/research/intro.html)
        • NetAbuse FAQ (http://www.cybernothing.org/faqs/net-abuse-faq.html)
        • Anti-Umail FAQ (http://www.accessnt.com.au/faqs/spam.htm)
        • Blacklist of Internet Advertisers (http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~cbrown/BL/)
        • Internet Scambusters (http://www2.scambusters.com/scambusters/)
        • Russ-Smith's Telemarketing and E-Mail Marketing Consumer Information Source (http://www.russ-smith.com/)
        • To complain about unsolicited E-mail sent from ALO accounts, write Tosemail1@aol.com OR abuse@aol.com

        1 I-Advertising Digest is a moderated discussion on Internet Advertising, Marketing and Commerce (http://www.exposure-usa.com/i-advertising). The full text or the article, is available at http://www.exposure-usa.com/i-advertising/sr.html

        2 I assume Mr. Boettinger is talking about cookies here. Cookies are sort of like personal tags, assigned to you as you browse the World Wide Web. They are used for many legitimate reasons, but can also - in some instances - capture more information (your name, E-mail address) than you would feel comfortable giving out. For more information about cookies, see http://www.cookiecentral.com/ To find out what your browser is telling other sites about you, go to the JunkBusters site (http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/cookies.html) and "try their test." You can "turn off" cookies in most Web browsers, but that can be inconvenient because you are constantly asked if you will accept them - which most people do anyway.



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