SPAM (a holiday nightmare)
By Ellen Kozel, CEO, Badger Web Hosting
The holiday season quickly approaches as it gets closer, it becomes a spammer’s dream come true. All of a sudden, around the world, people’s email boxes fill with everything to buy, from diet aids to tips on the latest stock whether you want it or not. There are several ways, however, to prevent this from happening, and in the next few lines, I can give you some tips on how to reduce what’s in your mail box.
Today, so many of us love to shop from the comfort of our chair and computer at home. But as soon as we start shopping, it seems the spam entering our house becomes unmanageable. This comes from going to sites to get the best deals. One of the first things they ask you for is your email address so they can send you a receipt for your purchase. Prior to making the purchase, you should check the site for a privacy statement that insures you that your email address is only used in conjunction with your sale. If you’re savvy you have set up an email account at Yahoo, Hotmail, GMail or some other free email service and use this account as your email account of choice when making purchases so any spam generated from your sales goes to it instead of your inbox.
You always hear “keep your password private.” Well, the same should hold true about your email address. Ask friends and family to only use your primary email address when directly corresponding to you. Ask them not to add it to any lists or give it to any website without your permission, and ask them to follow the same policy with their own email addresses. If they want to send you something from a website, have it go to your shopping email account that you set up free someplace on the internet and not to your inbox.
OH! It’s a greeting card from your best friend. You open the email, and without your knowledge, your email address is verified through a script attached to the email. Now the website knows they have a valid email address, or you go and view the card. Since the card is personalized, they have your email address in their database and again, by opening the card, you have validated your email address. In a week or two, you start receiving lots of spam soliciting you to send cards to all your friends.
Ever look for an apartment or house online? How about automobile or car insurance? What’s one of the first things these sites want? You guessed it. Again, you have just given your email address to a person who will possibly sell it to a spammer. Ever notice how you all of a sudden get all these great offers from spammers in your email box?
Well... You just won’t use your email address at home. You’ll do this from the comfort of your office at work. Oops! Next thing you know is that your email at work is plagued with spam. You don’t understand how it happened. Just gave your business email to a friend and asked them to email here. That way, you could keep in touch at work. Those cards they sent you were really cute, and just because you did your apartment hunting at work, you don’t see why your email is plagued with all these apartment ads.
Once again, you broke the cardinal email rule. Remember how we talked about keeping your private email account private. Well, the same holds true for your business account. Your business account is strictly for that, “To do business for your company.” This holds true if you’re the owner or just an employee.
People complain to their ISP, hosting company and employer how terrible SPAM is, but they inflict the spam on themselves. If they kept their personal and business accounts strictly for the intended purpose, SPAM would never be a major problem in their email.
As a hosting company, today I have blacklisted over 5000 spam sites to try and keep my clients’ email boxes clean. I subscribe to 15 blacklist databases to also create the same effect. As I also work as a network manager in Milwaukee, I am faced with the same challenges on a day to day basis. The most time-consuming part of my week is playing SPAM Cop. The spammers are very good; as quickly as we block them from sending SPAM one way, they adapt and get it through another way. The best way to keep SPAM from reaching your inbox is to use your head when using electronic mail.
Corporate America spends thousands upon thousands of dollars each year to prevent spam and viruses from entering our computers. If the end user would spend 60 seconds to think prior to giving away their email address, it would reduce the effectiveness of spam.
To sum things up:
- Keep your private email box Private.
- Encourage friends and family to do the same.
- Only use business email for business. That’s why your employer allows you to have it.
- If you have to give an email address, set up an email account for that purpose, so it gets the spam and not you.
- THINK! THINK! THINK! before you give out your email address. It’s your identity. You wouldn’t be that quick to give out your social security number or your driver’s license. Do the same with your email address.
Biography:
Ellen Kozel works as a Network Manager for the 16th Street Community Health Center in Milwaukee. She is owner and CEO for Badger Web Hosting, supplying hosting services to greater Milwaukee and beyond. She is also webmaster for AllWriters’ Workplace & Workshop in Waukesha, WI, First Congregational Church of Watertown, WI and The Wisconsin Cream City Chorus of Milwaukee, WI. She has over 15 years experience working for such companies as Nortel Networks, MCI, Verizon and her website can be found at http://www.badgerwebhosting.com .
Permission to reprint to the general public is given by the author if printed as is. Commentaries on the author’s views and opinions are acceptable, and if published in a periodical, a copy should be sent to Ellen Kozel, CEO, Badger Web Hosting, 2229 N62nd Street, Wauwatosa, WI 53213-1507.