How to fight spam and avoid the risks

Spam is the major pest of the Internet. This name is given to junk mail, unsolicited, sent to e-mail or messaging services. Unfortunately, there is no 100% effective tool against spam. Programs to combat spam have already been launched and are in constant process of improvement, but still managed to show any great efficiency. The following recommendations from experts will help you ensure that your mailbox is not flooded with junk mail.

Never respond to spam. Never in any way respond to spam messages. The vast majority of spam comes with a text saying something like "click here if you no longer wish to receive our messages," or "please respond to this message with the subject Remove to delete your email from our database." Never send email to spammers, even for swearing at them. Often this deception is used to confirm the existence of an e-mail. Do not click any link to unsubscribe, in some cases, just one click and you confirm that your address is alive. After identifying a spam message, delete it before reading it and avoid entering sites that you know that send spam to advertise their services. If users feel their spam emails are being ignored, you may discourage this practice. Do not run applications or open files from unknown origin. They may contain viruses or a Trojan-horse, and other harmful applications that are hidden to the user, but allow the action of cheaters on your behalf by capturing information on your machine. Install a protective barrier (firewall).

Do not fear threats. Do not take seriously emails with notices of charges or threatening warnings to pay debts or to make fictitious actions in organs of credit institutions, IRS or others. These entities never request personal information via e-mail with anyone. Never provide your details, ID number, address and telephone number in response to these emails. That's exactly what they seek. Watch out for scams. Keep an eye on a new type of spam that continues to grow (phishing e-mails): scammers copy the features of messages sent by well-known companies - banks and online stores in order to obtain your credentials. Instead of trying to sell some product, the goal is to make the Internet user send them passwords and other credentials through fictions data forms.

Preserve your email address. Do not give your email address in online chat rooms (chat), instant messaging, forums and discussion groups. The chat rooms are the main sources of capturing e-mails that spammers use. The sophistication in this case is such that programs are used in chats solely for this purpose, therefore, avoid disclosing your e-mail chats. Spell your e-mail addresses, if you need your email address, replace the @ symbol for a word. For example: "name at gmail.com". This tip also applies if you need to disclose your email on a website or mailing lists. By writing everything in full, you hinders the action of robots that scan the web in search of e-mails. In chat rooms also do not put information like address, phone number, full name, where you work or study, neighborhood where they live etc..

Avoid personal information. In automatic messages or even your electronic signature, avoid spending a lot of details about you. Use the blind carbon copy (Bcc). When sending a message to multiple users, use the blind carbon copy. It's a way to prevent e-mails from friends and colleagues from being known by others, generally, many of these messages are forwarded. Beware of unknown sites. Do not register your e-mail sites whose confidence is doubtful. Many offer fabulous prizes to attract Internet users and capture e-mails. Even in large sites, check the privacy policy to be sure that your email will not be disclosed to companies\partner sites. Never go to the site of the ads in spam. Otherwise, spammers will think that advertising is working and send more messages. Upon receiving "proposals must see" or an email from "a friend you do not know", ignore it. These proposals have other purposes. Therefore, always suspicious. In instant messaging programs like ICQ and MSN Messenger, these same rules also apply. You can still add the address of the spammer in your ignore list.



What is Email Spam?

Email Spam is characterized by the reception of unsolicited messages sent in bulk to a network of contacts, usually for advertising purposes. Recent studies have shown that up to 60 percent of the worldwide e-mail traffic is SPAM.

How to Avoid Email Spam

Do not disclose the mass email with the publication in the same sites;

Use different emails for different purposes, for example an email to personal contacts and other sites for inclusion in the information or subscriptions;

Report the spam messages received in their e-mail service, the more easily relate patterns of transmission are identified, refining the filters;

Do not send emails to the entire list of contacts, they are also forwarded in mass and contacts will be a good target for spammers;

Never respond to emails from spam, thus demonstrating that the email remains active and will continue to be victims of unwanted emails.

Anti Spam Tools

Spam can be fought at three different levels: network, server and personal pc.

At the network level there are dedicate hardware for detection of illicit traffic including spam. These machines are called "Security Appliances" and should be deployed and managed by the network administrator.

At the server level it is possible to implement a spam detector common to all accounts and should be deployed and periodically updated by the service administrator. Usually the spam messages are marked with a value that characterizes the proximity of one specific message to common spam messages. Messages with a spam proximity value above a specified threshold will be marked as spam and will not be directly delivered to the end user, usually is stored in a particular folder that the end user can access to verify if some message was erroneously classified as spam.

At the personal Pc level, the end user as the main role in using application with adaptive filters that will learn which messages are spam based on the user's feedback and mark future messages according with that learned profile.

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