How to stop Spam 31 January 2005
Unwanted or unsolicited mail - better known as spam, can easily take over our inboxes and our lives if we don't watch out and manage it from the start. The problem with spam is that it's not only an increasing annoyance in our day to day lives but it now posses a threat as being the main route for viruses.
There is no way of completely stopping spam but these tips will help you keep it at bay and stop it from controlling your mailbox and your business life.
Never respond to spam
The worst thing you can do is reply to a message that's spam - even if the message indicates you will be taken off a mailing list if you do so. If you do reply, be warned that you will either get a reply back saying your message was 'undeliverable' or worse still, your email address has proven to be authentic and will be extracted and added to more spamming lists.
It is important to keep your employees on spam so having a Internet Use Policy in place will keep your company secure to some extent.
Don't believe everything spam tells you
Spam messages can contain anything. It may be pornographic, have titles like 'Get rich quick' and 'Our research indicates you might be interested..." or occasionally, it may seem like it's a personal message directed at you.
The key thing to remember is that though it may seem so, these messages are not personal messages. Spammers pick up emails address by trawling the web, extracting addresses from postings, mailing lists, looking up companies mailing directories and fooling people in to replying to messages. So you are just one of a million people or more receiving that message.
Have two email addresses
Unfortunately, if your address is posted on in places like messageboards, newsgroups or online directories then you become open to attacks from spammers. The best precaution you can take is to have two email addresses - one for private use which you release only to trusted sources and one for participating in activities such as messageboards etc.
Delete any suspicious mail
Because of the security threat spam poses, the best precaution you can take is to delete any suspicious mail. Do not open what looks like spam or any attachements that come with it because you may be attacked with a virus. If you receive mail you think might be Spam - alert everyone in your company to prevent further damage.
Set up message rules to reduce spam
Most email clients such as Outlook allow you to set up message rules to help identify Spam and delete it. The instrcutions for these will vary depending on what email client you have.Find out how to set up message rules for your email client.
Use a spam filter
The BT Business spam filter checks incoming emails and 'tags' the subject header of those which it identifies as spam with *SPAM?*. These emails will still be delivered to your inbox but are now easily identifiable as spam. Additonally, you can subscribe to 'blackhole' list services that block delivery of emails from known spammers, or 'Signature Database Lists', which prevents the delivery of known spam and other digital junk.
Related links
- Find out more about BT's Email protection system
- Find out about Distributed Sender Blackhole List. (link opens in a new window)
- Anti-spam protection from Spamhaus. (link opens in a new window)
