How To Stop S-P-A-M And Save Time!
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How To Stop S-P-A-M (And Save Time!)
By Steve Nash
Don't you just love e-mail, but hate s-p-a-m (un-solicited
e-mail) and the amount of time it wastes?
If you're a webmaster, or your e-mail address has been put on your
website, chances are you'll get more than your fair share of un-
wanted, sometimes downright annoying, S P A M! (And it doesn't
bear thinking about how much time you probably waste, on average,
deleting those nonsense e-mails!)
Well, this short article shows you several ways you can reduce
this unwanted e-mail, and even what to do if a particular e-mail
address is being bombarded with s-p-a-m!
This article covers:
o How webmasters get S P A M in the first place
o Tip 1 - Encrypt your e-mail address with unicode
o Tip 2 - Encrypt your e-mail address using JavaScript
o Tip 3 - Use an anti- S P A M feedback form
o Help me! I'm being bombarded with s-p-a-m...
o Further reading
=> How Webmasters Get S P A M In The First Place
It's well known that putting your e-mail address on a website is
a sure way to get more than your fair share of s p a m. This is
because of so-called email-harvesting-robots - automatic programs
that scour the web collecting e-mail addresses.
So put your 'un-protected' e-mail address on a website, and - soon
enough - you'll have all sorts of unwanted e-mails in your in-box.
== ASIDE ==
You may well get S P A M sent to the e-mail address you leave at a
forum, or newsgroup too. In this case, you need to use a freebie
e-mail address instead, as mentioned in the article Post-Script.
== ASIDE ==
Here are a few tips that WILL help reduce what I call
'webmaster s p a m':
=> Tip 1 - Encrypt Your E-Mail Address With Unicode.
Simply put, this means replacing letters and numbers in your e-
mail address with its unicode equivalent; e.g. a@b.c would be
a@b.c
I use Mailto-Encrypter, a Windows-compatible program available at
http://www.ModernBytes.cjb.net , but you might want to visit the
following online resource. The "Advanced Email Link Generator with
Anti-Spam Encoder" generates mailto: links you can copy and paste
into your web pages and emails.
http://willmaster.com/possibilities/demo/aelgwase.html
(You can also find several mailto encrypters at Google
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=mailto+encrypter.)
=> Tip 2 - Encrypt Your E-Mail Using JavaScript.
Using a simple JavaScript program like this:
will produce mailto:aaa@bbb.com on your webpage; which will act as
a valid e-mail address, that can not be detected by the 'e-mail
harvesting' robots.
=> Tip 3 - Use An Anti- S P A M Feedback Form.
Not only can your e-mail address be extracted from a standard
Perl/CGI form, but sometimes your feedback form can actually be
used to send S P A M! (Early versions of FormMail suffer from this
security flaw, apparently!)
Enter the Master Feedback form from Willmaster.com - an anti-
S P A M feedback form. In the words of Willmaster.com: "Master
Feedback helps you S P A M -proof your site by not requiring your
email address anywhere on your page, not even embedded in hidden
form fields or other HTML tags. Now you can stop feeding [those]
email address harvesting robots!"
The feedback form is available, free, at
http://willmaster.com/master/feedback/
=> Help Me! I'm Being Bombarded With S-P-A-M...
The above tips will *definitely* reduce the amount of S-P-A-M you
receive. But what happens if your e-mail address is already
receiving loads and loads of junk e-mail?
Well, here's what I do with one particular POP3 e-mail address
that attracts all sort of un-pleasant e-mails - I read it online,
using Mail2Web.
http://www.mail2web.com
Ordinarily, I receive most of my POP3 e-mail - i.e. non web-based
e-mail - using Outlook. But for one e-mail address, I just visit
Mail2Web and read the e-mail as if it were a Hotmail account.
This doesn't stop me getting S P A M, but it's a lot easier to
mass-delete the e-mail nasties, and there's absolutely no need for
me to read them beforehand!
All you need to use this service is your e-mail address, and the
password used to access it.
http://www.mail2web.com
== ASIDE ==
I don't think Mail2Web works with Hotmail, Yahoo! or other web-
based e-mail account, but then there would be little point in
using it if it did. To reduce S P A M using one of these e-mail
services, I suggest you refer to their e-mail filtering options.
== ASIDE ==
=> Further Reading
This article has provided a few solutions to the problems of
receiving s-p-a-m; but they are not the only solutions. For
further reading on the ongoing battle against S P A M, and how
that battle is affecting both the innocent and the guilty, take a
look at these links...
http://www.ecommercebase.com/article/543
http://website101.com/SpamFilter/spam_fighting.html
http://website101.com/SpamFilter/spamfilter.html
http://website101.com/SpamFilter/spamcop_vigilanties.html
PS: And as for leaving your e-mail address on a newsgroup or forum,
all I can suggest is that you ONLY ever leave your Hotmail or
Yahoo! free e-mail address! Sign-up for your free e-mail here
http://www.Hotmail.com
http://www.TextMeFree.com/email
http://www.Lycos.co.uk
http://www.Yahoo.com
© Copyright 2002 Steve Nash. All Rights Reserved.
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