| |
| TRI-STATE CONSULTING, INC. OF PITTSBURGH PA • 412-374-1490 |
| |
[ Return to Homepage ]
| SPAM TIPS |
SPAM / BULK MAIL
VS.
YOUR SANITY
|
 |
Junk mail. It's not just in your postal mailbox anymore. Considered one of the
top ten "dark sides of the web", junk email is increasing rapidly. The
moment you give your email address out, you open yourself up to be a victim
of spam.
What exactly is SPAM?
If you have ever received unsolicited e-mail, you have been spammed.
Spammers use programs to scan and harvest thousands and thousands of email addresses from the web, newsgroups, and
even stealing it directly from your web browser. They then either send out their own
spam marketing, or they sell those email addresses to other companies to use for spamming purposes.
Another common tactic spammers use is a simple one...
"guessing" email names. If you have a fall-thru email account (ie. a catch-all), you have probably
seen this happen many times. Spammers will blindly send out mail to multiple names, and more often than not it will get through. The more complex your real email account
names are, the better. Spammers usually guess common names, such as sales@, info@, feedback@.
They also use common single names, such as Bruce@, Mike@, Nancy@, etc.
Below is a screenshot of spam samples. Some spam is easy to detect due to the
goofy nature of the subject or the common spelling errors (spammers do this on purpose to try and
bypass spam keyword filters). Sometimes spam includes file attachments... never, ever
open file attachments unless you were expecting it and it's from somebody you know, otherwise
you will most likely end up with a computer virus or a security breach on your computer.
Bulk Spammers
Have you seen the "We will email your ad to 5 million people for $99!"
promotions online? You may have seen similar ones on the web, or perhaps
you have received promos for them in your in-box. There are individuals and companies
who send spam for a living.
What customers of these "bulk email senders" don't realize is that
sending spam to promote their product or service does more harm than good.
All they see is the "low cost advertising" promotion, and they are hooked.
What they are not told is that they will receive tons of nasty email and postal letters,
be reported to their ISP (Internet Service
Provider) risking losing their access, have their domain blacklisted,
possibly be reported to the FTC, and give an overall negative image of their product/service.
TO: Your email
FROM: Widget Company
SUBJECT: Advertise to 5 million people for $99!
If you want to quickly trash your company reputation, use
the Widget Company bulk email services!
|
FACT: Your name and/or email address has been harvested and is being
sold for a fraction of a cent to bulk email lists.
FACT: You cannot stop ALL spam, but you CAN limit the amount you receive.
FACT: 80% of spam received with a "REMOVE ME FROM YOUR LIST" feature
should NOT be responded to. All that will do is let the sender know your
email address is active and your name will be resold again, and again, ...
COMBATING SPAM
- Have at least two email accounts. Use one for regular
business purposes, and the other for giving out online (ie. online shopping,
website forms, posting to newsgroups -- basically, anything that you have
to "sign up" for.)
- Before signing up for something online, if you see a 'privacy policy'
posted, read it. Find out if they are going to share or sell your address.
If there is not a policy posted, first decide if you trust that site before
giving out your address.
- Do not reply to or acknowledge any SPAM you receive. Do not click
on the links they provide no matter how tempting. Deny them the satisfaction.
If you like what they are offering, goto a search engine and find a similar
company with a similar service that didn't send the SPAM.
- Don't provide your email address on your website. There are bots
that constantly surf the web harvesting email addresses. We realize this
isn't ideal for everyone, so if you do want your email address on your site,
you may want to turn it into a graphic instead (most bots can't read the text
on graphics), or instead of posting your email address on your site, use feedback forms for
your customers to contact you.
- Use Anti-Spam / mail filtering software (many email programs now have this feature built-in,
but you can also run third-party applications if you prefer).
TRUE LOW-COST ONLINE ADVERTISING
There are alternatives to sending spam. Here are a few.
- Put your domain name on your business cards and in your email signature.
- Opt-In mailing lists (these are legitimate lists of people who signed
up to receive email on various topics)
- Keyword purchases with search engines (can be very effective depending
on your product/service)
OTHER SPAM RESOURCES
- CAUCE.ORG - The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email
- Articles - Fight Spam on the Internet
We hope this information was useful to you. If you are a client
of ours and have any questions about junk e-mail (sorry, we can't help
with postal junk mail), contact us and we'll be happy to assist you. :)
[ Return to Extras Menu ]
[ Return to Homepage ]
|
|
|
|
Copyright © 1997-2005