Stop Spam Email

In today’s world most of us regularly use a computer whether just for simple word processing tasks, sending and receiving emails, an Internet browsing or for more extensive use for business, shopping, or gaming and hobbies.

Unfortunately with this popularity has come an increasing risk from hackers and other people of malicious intent. It seems that not a day goes by without a news item about some new computer virus, trojan or worm intent on wreaking havoc with your computer’s hard drive. (more…)

It doesn’t come as email, but I still consider it spam…. junk mail.

The post office delivers an average of over 500 pieces of junk mail to each U.S. household every year. If you have a good credit rating you probably get even more.

There are steps you can take to reduce the amount of unwanted email you get. The Direct Marketing Association maintains a Mail Preference Service that allows you to opt-out of recieving advertisements and pre-approved credit card offers.

Get complete information for reducing junk mail at:
http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs4-junk.htm#getonlist.

If you want to hire a service to do the paperwork for you, one is available at:
https://www.41pounds.org/

Don’t forget… as an added bonus to reducing all that incoming junk mail is that you’ll be helping to save trees!

Now that many of us have found ways to reduce the spam in our email inboxes, many spammers have taken to spamming our website contact forms.

At first I wondered why someone would bother to spam me through my web forms. Why bother sending the junk to just me? But then I realized, it’s not just the forms on my sites. It’s a spambot that’s automatically surfing sites and filling out every form it encounters.

Here are some tools and techniques to help combat form spam: (more…)

Before I knew better, it seemed like such a good idea…. Set up one catch-all email address and then make up email addresses as I registered for various online sites. I could track where the email was coming from and sort it in my inbox without having to set up all those different email addresses.

Not sure what a catch-all email address is? Find an explanation at the bottom of this post.

Now I know better….. a catch-all address is a spammers best friend. Not only can they send email to my server by making up any email name they want (toanybody@myserver2.com), but they can forge email headers with any number of email addresses on my domain and I’ll get all the bounced email messages. (more…)

Scam artists are out to steal your personal and financial information. And they are using some pretty sophisticated methods to trick you into giving them your passwords, bank information, credit card numbers, and other valuable information.

What is phishing?

If you’ve ever gotten an e-mail that began “Dear Valued Customer,” then you’ve probably been the target of a phishing scam. Simply put, a phish is an attempt to trick you into entering personal information into a fake website. Often, the perpetrators are searching for account numbers, pins, social security numbers, birth dates, or anything they can use to access your accounts or spoof your identity.

What are some typical phishing techniques? (more…)

3 Thing You Should Never Do

1 - Don’t send spam. You’re probably thinking, “that’s obvious; it doesn’t need to be on the list,” but unfortunately, many people send spam without realizing what they’re doing. Have you ever forwarded an email to your entire address book because you thought it would help find a lost child or result in money being sent to all your friends? It’s spam. Or do you automatically add senders to your email address book and then send an announcement of a sale? It’s spam. Those might not fit the legal definition of spam, but most of us don’t welcome such messages. (more…)

1 - Keep one email address for very personal use only. This is the email address that only your family and closest friends will know. Don’t use it for any other purpose.

2 - Use “throw away” email addresses for all your online activities. That way if any one email address becomes overwhelmed with spam you can just delete the address. (more…)

The only sure way to avoid receiving spam is to make sure your email address is never published or listed anywhere on the Internet. Not a realistic choice for most of us who have any kind of online presence and just about impossible if you do business online.

There are steps you can take to minimize your exposure and keep your inbox relatively spam free.

The number one most effective technique you can use to keep spam email out of your business inbox is to keep your email address off of your website. However, here at Spam Stopping, we believe that to succeed in business online you must promote a feeling of trust and to do that, you must provide a variety of ways for your customer to contact you, including via email.

Here are several methods you can use to provide email access to your customers while keeping your email address off of the spam email lists. (more…)