Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2003 01:16:22 -0500 (EST) From: BCPL.NET SysAdmin To: BCPL.NET News Subject: BCPL.NET NEWS: Keep Your E-Mail Address Out Of The Hands Of Spammers ------------------------------------------------------------ HOW TO KEEP YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS OUT OF THE HANDS OF SPAMMERS ------------------------------------------------------------ We continue to receive a large number of complaints from BCPL.NET customers and BCPL staff about unsolicited e-mail, commonly called "spam". Spam, or "UCE" (unsolicited commercial e-mail), is an increasingly serious problem all over the Internet. Nobody knows exactly how much spam is out there, but it's generally believed that a year ago spam accounted for about 10% of all e-mail being transmitted across the Internet at any given time. Today most experts say it has increased to at least 35%, and is increasing rapidly. In two earlier BCPL.NET News messages I discussed spam and what we do about it. If you didn't see those, you'll find them on our Web site at the following URLs: http://www.bcpl.net/news/news.20020426a.spam http://www.bcpl.net/news/news.20020530a.ordb You'll also find a discussion of spam, what we do about it, what you can do about it, and a lot of links to other spam-related information in the BCPL.NET FAQ at the following URL: http://www.bcpl.net/faq/#spam The most important thing you can do to stay relatively spam free is to protect your e-mail address from the "harvesting" techniques used by spammers. If the spammers don't know your address they can't send you their spam, but once a few spammers get hold of your address you'll get a steadily increasing amount of spam. Spammers trade and sell lists of addresses, so it doesn't take long for your address to become known to a large number of spammers. Below are some of the "harvesting" methods used by spammers, and what you can do to protect your address against them. Spammers use "trawler" software (sometimes called "spambots") to automatically scan Web pages for e-mail addresses. If you have your own Web page, don't put your address on it either in plain text or as a mailto: link. Instead consider creating a small graphic that displays your address (but don't make it a link). Or disguise your address something like this: "jdoe at bcpl dot net" instead of "jdoe@bcpl.net". Or utilize one of the free java scripts that will disguise your address (for an example see http://www.joemaller.com/js-mailer.shtml ). The spambots can also harvest your address if it is in a web-based directory, for example an online directory of members in a professional or trade organization, or a directory of your high school graduating class, or similar. If your e-mail address appears in such a directory, have it removed. Spambots can also harvest your address from Web-based bulletin boards and discussion groups. If you participate in a Web-based forum of any kind, and if it displays your e-mail address, contact the person in charge of the forum and ask if your address can be hidden. If not, stay away from that forum. Spammers also use trawler software to harvest e-mail addresses from Usenet newsgroups and e-mail mailing lists. Set up a "throw-away" e-mail account with one of the free Web-based mail services like Hotmail, Excite, or Yahoo, and use that address in newsgroups and mailing lists. When you start getting a lot of spam at that address, discontinue the account and get a new one. If you buy merchandise from an online store, you'll probably be required to enter your e-mail address as part of the ordering process. Reputable online merchants won't share your e-mail address with other online merchants without your permission, but not all online merchants are reputable. Look carefully for a checkbox or button that lets you specify that you don't want the merchant to give your address to anyone else. If there is no such option, search the merchant's web site for a published privacy policy. If you aren't satisfied that your e-mail privacy will be respected, either don't buy from that company, or use a "throw-away" address as described above. If you receive a spam message that includes instructions for removing your address from the spammer's mailing list, don't be tempted to follow the instructions. Doing so will only verify to the spammer that your address is valid. The result will be more spam, not less. Those tips will help keep your address out of the hands of spammers, but what if it's already too late? What can you do if you're already receiving tons of spam? Most recent versions of PC and Mac based e-mail programs (Outlook Express, Eudora, Netscape Mail, Apple Mail. Entourage, and similar) have spam filtering capabilities. See the documentation for your mail program for instructions on how to use filters. However keep in mind that filters that block spam will also block some legitimate e-mail. This is because there is nothing in most spam that differentiates it from valid mail, making it almost impossible to create filters that will block only spam. There is only one way to get completely out from under spam, at least for a while: Change your BCPL.NET username (the part of your address in front of the "@"), then protect the new address as described above. If you want to do that, decide what you want your new username to be (plus a second choice in case your first choice is already taken), then contact the BCPL.NET Accounts Desk at 410-887-4172 or accounts@bcpl.net. Give it careful thought first, though. If you change your username, you will have to change it in your BCPL.NET login window, and in your e-mail program. You will also have to notify everyone from whom you want to receive e-mail of your new address, and you'll have to resubscribe to any e-mail mailing lists you're on. It's a lot of work, but it may be the only way to get out from under an unacceptable spam load. -- BCPL.NET INTERNET SERVICES 320 York Road Towson, MD 21204-5179 U.S.A. CONTACTS: -------- Web Site: http://www.bcpl.net Administration & Policy: ispadmin@bcpl.net 410-887-6180 Sales, Renewals, Account Status: accounts@bcpl.net 410-887-4172 Technical Support (Help Desk): help@bcpl.net 410-887-3297 Usenet News Newsgroup Requests news-admin@bcpl.net 410-887-6180 E-Mail & Newsgroup Abuse Reports: abuse@bcpl.net 410-887-6180 Domain Name Service Issues: dnsadmin@bcpl.net 410-887-6180 FAX: 410-887-2091