The
first thing I recommend to try a
good spam
blocking product. If you are
still getting some spam and need
to report it, read on (also read
article 6)!
What Can I Do about Spam?
In this article we discuss who
you can and should report email
spam to... (article 9)
Have finally got so tired of receiving
spam that you can’t take it
anymore? Are you desperate, panicky
and frantic about the thought of
receiving another piece of unsolicited
email? If so, you are not alone,
I have conversed with a number of
people in this condition. Some of
their actions however only make
matters worse.
What can you do if you’re
the victim of spam, what can’t
you do, and what shouldn’t
you do? This is the 9th article
in a series about spam, if you’ve
been following along then you probably
have a good idea of some of the
things you can and can’t do.
Today, we are going to be discussing
how you can strike back at spammers.
How to legally exact revenge on
those that have turned your private
email into a cesspool of binary
refuse.
“Beware of strangers bearing
gifts”, an adage that has
great pertinence in the realm of
spam. Recently there have been a
number of pages/emails posted regarding
a global “Do not email”
list. Although the idea is noble,
those behind it are anything but.
There is to this date NO global
“Do not email” list,
what is more, the likely hood of
one being orchestrated is far from
probable.
The individuals posting such sites
are using your own disgust and repulsion
to spam as a means to harvest emails.
What good could such a list do for
someone you reason? Well, on the
surface, logic would dictate that
a list of emails to people that
are absolutely unresponsive to email
marketing would be worthless to
spammers. Furthermore, one could
reason that an emailing campaign
to such a list would be fruitless
and eventually cost prohibitive.
That is unless you took into account
a not so well known fact about spammers.
A spammer will make money if only
1 in 500,000 emails generates a
sale. But even in 500,000 who would
be so foolish as to respond you
ask? In comparison, have you ever
been in a hurry to get to work?
Maybe you were running just a bit
late when all of the sudden traffic
comes to a practical stand still.
With no visible reason for the slow
down, you inch along commenting
about the questionable ancestry
of those in front of you. Finally
you pass an accident, only to find
that it was on the other side of
the road and that the ONLY reason
why traffic was slow was because
of the “Rubbernecks”?
Spammers know these kinds people
exist, as a matter of fact, they
count on them for their livelihood.
I have been to so many websites
professing that simply not responding
to the ads will make spamming non
profitable. Unfortunately, our gene
pool is too muddied for this to
be a viable deterrent.
“How can win a war that we
only fight on at home?” Unless
the enemy just stops attacking you
cannot. With that in mind, the next
prudent question would be, “How
can we take the war to them?”
The answer, we must control their
points of ingress. A spammer cannot
send spam to you if he does not
have a connection to the internet.
That is why it is vitally important
to report spam. In general ISPs
are very receptive to closing accounts
that are abusing their “Acceptable
use” statement. (Spammers
inevitably are).
Who should you report spam to? Well
first and foremost, your own ISP,
depending on your service provider,
they can take steps to insure that
mail from that carrier will not
be accepted or at the very least
more verbose logging procedures
can be enacted so that the tricks
spammers usually use to hide their
identity will be less effective.
Secondly, report the spam to the
ISP that sent the email, so they
can research the account that sent
it, and hopefully disable it.
Lastly, report the spam to spam
abuse reporting sites, my personal
favorite is Abuse.net,
they do a good job of getting the
word out to all the other spam reporting
sites.
Reporting spam goes a long way towards
preventing spam, besides it might
help you sleep better to think you
had a hand in disabling a spammer’s
capability. In our next issue, which
will be our last, we will bring
into perspective all that we have
talked about. We will present the
world of spam as it is, and as it
should be. You will have all you
need to stop spam for yourself,
as well as becoming a positive influence
in the overall elimination of spam.
Until then, remember to have fun
and take care.
Spam
Blocking Software - Click Here
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