TIP: Pick a hard address to guess

Spammers get email addresses from a variety of sources including guessing. Businesses will often have common emails like ‘support@domain.com’ or ‘sales@domain.com’ and make them easy targets for spam. There are also domains that have thousands, even millions of email accounts, like Hotmail, which also make it easy to guess. It’s a pretty safe bet that someone has the address ‘john@hotmail.com’

To make it harder for spammers to guess your email try adding extra characters. You can also make it harder to guess by increasing the length of the address to make it harder to guess. Instead of ‘support@domain’ you could make it ’2468support@domain.com’ or ’123John123@hotmail.com’.

It may sound weird at first but people who contact you regularly will add you to their address book so it doesn’t matter how obscure your address is.

How can I stop receiving spam?

Unfortunately if you are already receiving spam then it is almost impossible to stop spam on that email address. If you are not receiving much spam then keep your address safe and follow some simple rules:

1. Make sure you only enter information into sites that display the SPAM SAFE SITES logo!!! We constantly monitor our members to make sure they are not sending spam, and they have a VERIFIED opt out/ unsubscribe feature.

2. Have several email addresses. If you have several emails for different purposes. Then you can use one to enter into sites you consider possible spammers, one for business and one for personal use that you only give to very close friends.

3. Use a spam filter/ stopper. We recommend and use Spam Arrest because it requires any unidentified senders to verify they are real before the message is sent. Automatic mailing programs used by spammers cannot verify their address so there is NO WAY spammers can get through.

Can I unsubscribe or opt- out of spam mail?

Simple answer: NO.

Part of the spam laws require all emails to have an ‘opt out’ feature so that people can opt out of mailing lists. Sometimes these will actually work, but often it will simply confirm that your email address is active and being read, leading to more spam.

The best thing to do is use your email program to tag the sender as junk and delete the email.

How do spammers get my address?

There are many ways that spammers get your address some of the most common are:

-Forms & Surveys

If you have EVER given out your email address ANYWHERE it is possible they have sold your address! Websites will often have a incentive like a competition, discount or newsletter asking you for an email and other personal information. This is then added to their database and sometimes sold to marketing companies who will resell the information.

-Harvesters

If you own a website, or have your email address published anywhere on the internet then it can be found by ‘Spiders’ or programs that prowl the internet searching for email addresses and other info, usually automatically.

-Friends

Sometimes friends will visit a website that asks you to ‘refer a friend’, usually in return for a free membership.

-Guessing

It is possible for people to guess your email address. Many companies will have ‘support@mybusiness.com’ as an address. Also free email services like Hotmail are very popular making it easy to produce a list of possible email addresses.

-Group/ forwarding emails

When you forward an email it will often contain the previous senders details. If this ends up with a spammer then they get a free list of prospects, often with nicknames.

MAKE SURE YOU DELETE THE PREVIOUS SENDERS EMAIL ADDRESS BEFORE YOU FORWARD AN EMAIL

PS: Bill Gates is not going to give you $5 for every person you send an email to, and you will not die miserable if you don’t pass chain letters on!

Who are Spammers?

There are a few different types of Spammers. Some are professionals and go to great lengths to hide their identity and fool junk filters while others often don’t even consider what they are doing is spam!

Email is very cheap way to advertise and can be tempting for people to use to sell their products and services. Lists of ‘prospects’ or ‘leads’ can be easily found and purchased from numerous websites.

Often the people selling your details are VERY well known companies. If you are interested, do a search for ‘mailing lists’ and visit any of the results. You will see exactly what information is for sale and often who is selling it.

The point is that it is once your details are collected by one of these companies, they are available to ANYONE.

What about Junk Filters?

Most email services and ISP’s have some kind of junk filter to help sort spam from legitimate email. Some fiiters will compare the senders address to a list of known spammers. Some will also look for certain words and characteristics in the email to decide is it is spam or not. Words like FREE, CHEAP, VIAGRA and thousands of others are often found in spam.

Filters do a good job but there is a fine balance that needs to be constantly adjusted as spammers get smarter. If the junk filter is too ‘strict’ then it may block legitimate emails from friends or business. If it is too loose then it will allow too much junk.

We recommend Junk filters that will separate Junk into a ‘Junk’ folder. You can then scan this folder regularly to see if any ‘safe’ email has been filtered accidentally. If so then you can add the sender to a ‘safe’ list to avoid being filtered in future.

What about Spam laws?

Some spammers go to great lengths to hide their identity so they can be difficult to track. By the time they have been tracked or stopped they have usually setup a new email account and started again. They will often use computers infected with viruses, or ‘Zombies’ to send email so the actual sender does not even know they are sending it. Your computer may even be a zombie and you don’t know!

Spammers will also get around spam laws by something called an ‘opt in’ email. If you visit a website that asks for your email then it can be argued that you are giving permission for them to email you.

Websites will often have a question asking if you would like to receive ‘special offers’ in future. By checking, or unchecking the box depending how the question is worded, you may be giving them permission to sell your details.

They may even be tricky and say something like ‘Click here if you do not want to receive emails from us’ (note the use of ‘NOT’). This is called a double opt-in and often tricks people into UNCHECKING it and ‘agreeing’ to be be spammed.

Why do people Spam?

Email is a free way for people to advertise. If a message is sent to millions of people and just a fraction of a percent respond then they consider it effective advertising

What is Spam?

Spam is ANY unsolicted communication.
Spam is usually by email, but can also be other electronic mediums like SMS, instant messenger, blogs, forums and newsgroups. Email spam is probably the most common, and arguably the most annoying so that’s what we are focussing on.

Phishing scams

‘Phishing’ is a term used for a type of scam where the sender poses as someone else trying to try to steal personal information such as bank accounts details, PINs and passwords.

They may also try to plant a virus on your computer and steal information without you knowing. Below is an example of a typical phishing scam:

“We suspect an unauthorized transaction on your account. To ensure that your account is not compromised, please click the link below and confirm your identity.”

Clicking the link will usually direct you to a COPY of the website you expect to see and prompt you for personal information.

How to identify a phishing scam

Legitimate companies will never ask for your personal information by email. Email is NOT considered a secure method of communication.

It is also very easy for senders to present a false email address. DO NOT TRUST THEM just because the senders address seems legitimate.

If you are unsure then call them by phone or type their website into your browser directly. DO NOT CLICK THE LINKS IN THE EMAIL. This can also apply to phone calls. You should NEVER give out personal information if they have initiated the contact (either by email or by phone)

For more information about phishing and other scams visit the phishtank to see a list of the latest scams and for more information about phishing.