Fighting back against spam

ANALYSIS

This list of available methodologies is by no means exhaustive. As the volume of spam grows, so too do the options for its prevention. Whether you decide to employ a service, purchase a software package, implement a free solution or select an email system with built-in anti-spam options, it’s vitally important that you fully understand all the implications of the methodologies employed. At the very least you should seek answers for the following questions for each solution you consider:

  • How high is the risk of blocking legitimate mail in this environment?
  • Can blocked mail be retrieved, and if so, for how long?
  • Is there an option for informing senders/recipients that a message has been blocked?
  • How many hours of maintenance are required?
  • How many different methods does the package employ?
  • Is it possible to customise the strength of each method, e.g., strong or weak heuristics?
  • What reporting tools are provided?
  • In the days when the occasional spam message interrupted our day, we could afford to treat it as a mild irritation that was fixed in a couple of seconds with a click on the delete button. Those days are long gone; it is now an insult to our sensibilities and a threat to our productivity; its management demands handling with commensurate importance and attention.

    Regardless of the size of your spam prevention budget, there are certain steps you can take -- at the very least -- to reduce the volume of spam without spending a single penny:

  • Never follow the instructions for removing your address or unsubscribing from a spammer’s mailing list. In most cases this will not have the desired result; instead it is merely confirming the validity of your email address.
  • Forward all spam to spamrecycle@chooseyourmail.com -- this site offers a free service informing the Federal Trade Commission and Web filter developers of spammer’s addresses.
  • Never enter a company email address in any Web site.
  • Ensure that your mail servers are not open relays; if you do not know how, http://www.mail-abuse.org/tsi/ar-fix.html contains instructions for over sixty email systems.
  • Utilise any spam prevention tools you may already possess, such as the junk-mail filter provided with Microsoft Outlook.
  • Do not automatically assign Internet addresses to all users. Even if all employees require internal email, they do not necessarily need the ability to send/receive Internet mail. Require users to have written approval from their manager before they can receive an Internet address.
  • Delete unused addresses from your domain as soon as possible and do not reuse them.
  • Talkback

    As I waste 30 minutes of my life every day trying to find usually less than a dozen real e-mails buried in usually 200 items of American spam and increasing by the week, it's obvious to me that *nothing* is going to be done by American legislators or anyone to else to control American spam until the international e-mail system has become completely unusable. This is American "Free Speech" gone berserk.

    13 Nov 03 18:41 Reply

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