| You are asked to join the fight against spam email. If | | | | popularity alone is called 'spamdexing'. |
| you or a friend has ever received a bunch of | | | | Where do spammers normally harvest email |
| marketing messages from people or companies you | | | | addresses? They usually collect addresses while |
| never gave your email address to, you will know | | | | surfing around chat rooms, forums, newsgroup or |
| what I am talking about. Unsolicited junk mail is | | | | websites. They also employ viruses to gain access to |
| annoying and a waste of your computer resources | | | | personal computers and their address books. |
| and time- unless you actually like receiving and | | | | Spammers usually send harvested email addresses to |
| reading junk mail. However, the chances of that being | | | | each other as well. |
| true are very slim. | | | | What can you do to help fight spam? Well, first of all |
| Just to be certain, here is my attempt at a general | | | | you should install anti-virus software on your |
| definition of spam email. Spam or junk emails are | | | | computer. This will help to keep your computer free |
| unsolicited electronic messages that are sent in bulk | | | | of viruses that may steal your personal contact |
| to email addresses harvested from the World Wide | | | | details, passing it on to spammers. You can also run |
| Web without the consent of the respective owners. | | | | daily scans and updates to keep your computer |
| The messages usually contain material of a | | | | healthy while removing any virus or spyware it may |
| commercial or marketing nature. How much email | | | | find. Use a spam filter to check your emails as you |
| spam is actually being sent on a daily basis? Some | | | | receive them. You may set up your email program to |
| figures suggests that about 100 billions spam emails | | | | filter out unwanted words in the title or message and |
| are sent each day. Networks of virus-infected | | | | so forth. Your internet service provider may also |
| computers are used to send most of the junk mail. | | | | provide this service to you if they can by filtering the |
| Yet some figures suggest that the spam mail | | | | emails on the server itself. |
| originates from only a few hundred spammers around | | | | If your internet service provider is not capable of |
| the world. | | | | blocking those spam emails or they block the emails |
| The amount of spam mail has decreased in recent | | | | from friends or family, which they should not block, |
| years, mainly due to the increased use of spam | | | | then you have to be prepared for some work. If |
| filtering and new spam laws. However, spam laws | | | | you setup spam-catching rules within your email client |
| have proven difficult to implement and still has a long | | | | software, it will help. If this does not help you |
| way to go. The use of opt in email has also had a | | | | catching more spam - then at least it should help by |
| positive impact. | | | | organizing your e-mails. |
| In the fight against spam there are other types of | | | | The second last resort before forking out a monthly |
| electronic spamming that presents a problem to daily | | | | payment for an anti-spam filtering service would be |
| users. | | | | to setup your own spam catching system. It will take |
| -Spamming on newsgroups. | | | | much more time and effort but it will work and it is |
| -Posting irrelevant information on forums. | | | | not going to cost you anything. The fight against |
| -Posting useless information or advertisements as | | | | spam continues! Join the anti-spam community and do |
| comments on blogs. | | | | your part to make the world a more original and less |
| -Sending lots of unsolicited text messages via mobile | | | | repetitive place. Who knows, you may be the next |
| phone. | | | | target of unsolicited junk mail. Report spammers and |
| -Search engine manipulation for search ranking | | | | promote spam protection. |