Tech Team: In the Trenches

Volume 1 Issue 1

Table of Contents


Preventing Spam

E-mail scams. If you spend a lot of time on the Internet, you probably see them almost every day. Some are easy to spot -- they promise fabulous free offers, easy ways to make money or the newest health/diet/money secrets for the low, low price of only $129.95 per year. But the newest breed of scams are harder to detect and the senders are after more than your credit card number or check. They ask for personal information, look and sound more realistic and may even masquerade as a well known, legitimate businesses. Click here for some recent scams our analysts have spotted.

Some things you can try to prevent some of the problems:

  • DON'T give out your e-mail address if you can help it. If a web page requires your e-mail address and does not display a Privacy Policy statement, consider not giving them your address.
  • DON'T link your e-mail address on your web page. Use spaces in your e-mail address so a robot can't read it, but a human can.
  • BEWARE of e-mail that greets you as if you are an old friend, or implies the e-mail is in response to an earlier correspondence.
  • If anything about an attachment appears suspicious, even if it's sent by someone you know and trust, take a few minutes to phone or e-mail them and check up on it.
  • If you receive e-mail from a "listserv," don't just open it. Warnings should pop into your head if you see that your full name, which no one but your mother and a math teacher has ever called you, is in the greeting. Example "Hi, Felix Mendelssohn Jones" or it asks you to "enjoy" the embedded links or it says "Hi again!"
  • If the attachment is a Word or Excel document (.DOC or .XLS files) and when opening it asks you to enable macros, do not enable macros.
  • DON'T fill out forms just to get free stuff, especially "free e-mail" accounts (they use or sell your address). READ their e-mail address security policies and, if they have none, don't give them your address.
  • Use one e-mail account for friends ONLY, another for the rest of the world.
  • Use a FAKE e-mail address or anonymizing service if you know how.
  • DON'T bother to even look at a piece of e-mail with an unfamiliar "From:" address.
  • NEVER reply to junk e-mail, not even if they have a valid address (rare), and offer you the moon, several stars, unlimited wealth, etc.
  • NEVER, never click on a link to a program if you have no idea what it does. Such programs have names that end with .EXE, .COM, .SCR, .BAT, .VBS or others.
  • NEVER click anywhere inside a popup window. Just close it with the "X" in the corner.
  • NEVER click on a link if you received it unsolicited, unless it's from someone you trust completely.
  • ADD your e-mail addresses to the Direct Marketing Association's (DMA) e-mail preference service - go to http://www.dmaconsumers.org/optoutform_emps.shtml.

Let's talk about the DMA e-mail preference service. This service is used by many of the country's largest direct marketers to clean their lists - in fact, all companies who are members of the DMA are required to use the service. If you register (and re-register every two years), you are likely to receive fewer unsolicited commercial e-mails. According to the DMA, the number of unsolicited e-mails you receive should begin to decrease about two months after your e-mail address is entered onto the file. However, registration won't stop all commercial e-mail, including those of a business-to-business nature as the service does not apply to advertising sent to your business address.

Three Spam Blockers
These services help you eliminate spam:

Copyright 2003 FAR