Internet Tip of the Week
by Bob Osgoodby
One for the Money, Two for the ShowWe receive such a tremendous amount of unsolicited commercial
email (sp^m) in our In-Box everyday, we can certainly understand
why some people become "Anti-Spam" crusaders. Since the majority
is sent with phony return addresses, it is virtually impossible
to track down. While there are ways to find out where it
originated, it is usually an exercise in futility, as most come
from professional spam houses who own their own servers, and
aren't about to shut themselves down. Most people simply delete
the clutter, or create filters with their email package to
automatically get rid of a lot of it.Over 80% of all email sent is sp^m and the CAN-SPAM Act, signed
into law by President Bush in December of last year, simply is
not having any positive effect. What a waste of resources and our
time! To add insult to injury most Internet Service Providers
(ISPs), in their sometimes overzealous efforts to protect us from
this, attempt to filter out unsolicited email and wind up
deleting valid email.There is no such thing as a perfect filter. If a certain
blocking technique is installed, the sp^mmers quickly find a way
around it. Face it – this is their business. They will quickly
go out of business if their email is not delivered. But, if
someone sends a legitimate email that happens to trigger one of
the filters of the receiving ISP, it will never be delivered. To
make matters worse, neither party will ever know it wasn’t
delivered, as most ISPs simply dump it into hyperspace.They do this in two ways. The receiving ISP either blocks the
Internet Service Provider (IP) address of the sender, or their
actual email address. If they block the email address, and let’s
assume it’s yours, this means that you can’t send any email to
anyone using that ISP. This is a harsh penalty for an innocent
mistake.Last year, AOL reported it blocked over 500 billion (Yes that’s a
Billion) email messages, and regularly blocks 75-80% of all
incoming mail. Additionally AOL blocked all CI Host customers' IP
addresses, the numeric addresses that identify a computer user on
the Internet, for almost two weeks until CiHost got a restraining
order against AOL. What were the consequences of this? Over
200,00 people (mostly businesses) using CiHost’s Servers could
not communicate with anyone using AOL. It is reported that a
class action suit for loss of business against AOL is being
considered. Is this arbitrary blocking wrong? You bet your life,
but it is a common practice used by ISPs to block sp^m.So what can you do to protect yourself?
Never – and that is a very long time – use your primary email
address on the web. If you frequent chat rooms, bulletin boards
or have ads for your business, do NOT use your primary email
address. These places are where the sp^mmers usually find their
victims.Before signing up with an ISP, it is a must to determine their
privacy policy. One of the MAJOR ISPs, who most diligently
blocks spam, actually sells their members email addresses to
sp^mmers, who then have carte blanche to send you their junk.Keep your primary email address private. Get some free email
addresses such as Hotmail for your travels throughout the web.
Get another for the publications you wish to receive. Don’t
think that different user names from AOL will solve this problem,
as if they block an email address sent to one, it is
automatically blocked for all.If you sign up to receive a Newsletter and don't get it, or it
suddenly stops arriving, one of the legitimate articles most
likely triggered the Spam Filter of your Internet Service
Provider. Some of the articles discuss actual offers on the web
and may use some of the terms they block. For example, if an
article is discussing a known scam, it has to refer to some of
the words that they might use to block the actual scam. Once it
is blocked, you may never get it again.You can ask your site host to reduce the level of filtering on
your Email, or to never reject something sent through the email
address of the publisher. Many can do this. If your ISP cannot
or will not honor your request, the solution is simple – get one
that will.The ideal solution is to get “One for the money, two for the
show, three to get ready, and four to go”. If you have multiple
email addresses, from different vendors, you should be able to
not only conduct your business and receive your valid email, but
send the majority of the spam to addresses you won’t check
anyway.-----
Bob has been publishing online since 1996. All the “tricks of the trade” are contained in his latest E-book. Learn how to avoid being shut down by your ISP for Spamming, and where to find “E-mail friendly ISP's. Learn which software packages are available to easily manage and distribute your email. For more information - http://www.adv-marketing.com/business/handbook.htm
We
Have Zero Tolerance for Spam