Posted on: Tuesday, May 14, 2002

Wired In
Battling spam requires well-planned choices

By Jonathan Sidener
Arizona Republic

In countless American households, the morning begins with coffee, corn flakes and spam. For Internet users, dawn often brings the ritual of wading through unsolicited offers for porn, herbal Viagra and too-good-to-be-true diet plans.

Of course, it doesn't end there. For most, there are dozens more spam messages waiting in the in-box at work. And technology overachievers can now get spam on the run, downloading bogus stock tips and offers of discount inkjet cartridges on cell phones and other mobile devices.

When delete won't do

For years, the leading approach to fighting spam has been to simply hit the delete key. But computer users are wearing out their delete keys and the problem keeps getting worse. Prompted by spam rage, people are fighting back. And the Internet is filled with sites offering to help, and services or software. But experts caution that it is important to study the problem and calculate your response, because the wrong approach can make things worse.

The first principle of fighting spam is to avoid it. It is easier to stay off spammers' lists than to get off one.

The second principle of fighting spam is to never respond to spam. Most spam lists are filled with invalid addresses. If you respond, it confirms that your address is valid. Verified addresses are like gold to spammers. Responding to spam is guaranteed to get you more spam.

A key step to stay off spam lists is to jealously guard your e-mail address.

Many sites require an e-mail address as part of registration. Lisa Pollock, director of messaging products for Yahoo! recommends carefully investigating a site's privacy policy before giving out e-mail information.

"Treat your e-mail address like you would your home address," she said. Many people create a secondary e-mail account to use for registrations.

Internet veterans argue that spam is technically only off-topic messages sent to multiple newsgroups and does not include unwanted

e-mail. The majority of Internet users make no such distinction.

It is important to know that

e-mail has to be both unsolicited and commercial to be spam. If your neighbor's cousin relays an annoying e-mail hoax, it's not commercial, so it's not spam.

Most e-mail providers have a department where you can report a true spammer.

To effectively report abuse, you will need to configure your e-mail program to include the full e-mail "header" for the providers to verify origins of the e-mail. The header is the unseen portion of the message that routes it through e-mail servers. Spammers have become skilled at forging headers to confuse readers.

This is another reason not to reply to spam. If you send a spammer an expletive-filled piece of your mind, chances are good that you will end up sending it to an innocent third party.

Opting in or out

In registering to use a Web site, there is often a little check box authorizing the site to send you information, newsletters or special deals. The box often comes with a check mark and the user must opt out and uncheck the box. On other sites you can opt in.

Either way, if you have intentionally or inadvertently given a site permission to send you e-mail, it is not spam. This is an important distinction.

If it is not spam, and a legitimate site has your permission to send you e-mail, you will falsely accuse them of spamming you if you report them. You can contact a legitimate site and opt out of their list. But be certain it is a site that you recognize.