Reducing Spam
	Reducing Spam

Install the filters at: http://www.mmgco.com/nospam/ They are updated every 1-2 weeks. Once you take the time to install the master list, all you’ll need to do is add the ones we send out in this newsletter each week.

If you post to discussion lists, online forums or Usenet newsgroups, expect to get your address added to a bulk email list. This is not to discourage you from participating, but sadly these are major sources that spammers use to harvest addresses for their lists.

One way to get around it, is to use a bogus address in your return address when posting to the list, or use an address that you use only for posting to such lists, that is not your main email address. Unfortunately, people from the list will not be able to contact you directly, and some lists do not pass posts with false addresses.

I participate freely with my own address in many discussion lists and newsgroups and yes, I do get added to many lists, but the good news is that over the last two days my filter settings have removed 100 percent of the junk email that has come in - over twelve messages per day, and all of them accurrately identified as crud. This is a first for me, and a good sign that my personal filter list is right on target.

Avoid signing up for many of these "Global Remove Lists". Many of these may possibly be fronts for the harvesting of addresses.

If an e-crud message makes it past your filters, don’t get angry at the person who sent it. Just add it to your filter list, delete it and move on with your day. Complaining to the ISP, IMHO this is a waste of time, and here’s why:

A) If their account is terminated by their ISP, they can be up and running again in 8 minutes and 37 seconds on a new ISP host. (I’ve timed it.)

B) It wastes your free time, which is better spent on productive projects.

C) If you complain or flame the sender, you may be flaming an innocent party, as a well-known technique used by spammers is to falsify the domain return address.

D) If you complain or flame the sender, you’ll get involved in an email exchange that is both non-productive and a waste of your time. You are not going to be the one that "saves" these people by converting them to more productive advertising methods, and why should you be? Who are you to preach what is right or wrong to them?

You are unlikely to convince them that it is not good to spam, and they are unlikely to convince you that it is an acceptable advertising practice, so the best thing to do is add it to your filters and DELETE.

This article is by the courtesy of Multimedia Marketing Group <http://www.mmgco.com/ >

The Online Agency promoting responsible marketing techniques since 1995