How to Setup Spam Blockers
Because this is such a hot topic, we made a page about it, however, it should be titled How to PREVENT spam not How to BLOCK spam. Once you have hundreds of spammed emails in your box, you are likely already on the lists! Below are several ways you can staff off of most lists though.
Use Disposable Email Addresses
Realize that you do not always have to give people your real address. When signing up for accounts, surveys, contests etc. we usually give a bogus email, or an email address that receives email, but immediately deletes it. Below is a list of disposable emails services if you are required to give your email address out. You can just sign up, get the mail you need ( usually it will contain a password, which is why you had to give them a valid email address ), then never check it again.
- ZoEmail - restores email as it must have been before spam. Unfortunately, ZoEmail is only accessible via the web, and the spam-free existence comes at the price of a bit of management.
- Emailias - Create disposable email addresses for use on the Web with Emailias, a flexible and feature-packed disposable email address service, and reduce the amount of spam you get.
- Spamex - Spamex provides a solid, useful, and almost feature-complete disposable email address service.
- Spamgourmet -Before you choke on all that spam, try the feature-rich and flexible disposable email addresses from Spamgourmet for protection.
- Mailinator - Mailinator lets you use any email address @mailinator.com and pick up the mail at their site. Since there's no connection to your real address, you sure won't get spam from using Mailinator addresses.
- Jetable.org - rovides easy to use disposable email addresses that auto-expire after a certain time. Useful when you need an address just once, it's not an all-around disposable email solution.
- NetMails.NET - NetMails.NET provides a well-rounded disposable email address service. The aliases can forward or accessed via the Web, and NetMails.NET offers more protection through SpamAssassin filtering, HTML stripping, and more.
- Yahoo! Mail - Yahoo! Mail is a comfortable, reliable and secure email service with a reasonable amount of storage. A pretty good spam filter (including disposable email addresses) keeps the junk out.
- Sneakemail - Sneakemail is a nice and useful disposable email address service.
Hide Text Email Links
Many people like to put their email address up in a mailto: link where visitors can click it. The problem is that robots ( programs ) that spammers have written will go through web addresses and find your email. They then compile it into a spam database and sell it to people or spam it themselves. The better way to display your email is to make a picture that looks like text. An example can be found on our contact page. Humans can read the picture, but it can't be read by the robots as easily. Another solution is to use javascript, as most spam robots are not smart enough ( today ) to read a javascript generated text link. If you don't understand this, that's ok. Your webmaster should if you have them read this page!
If you are interested in the Javascript technique http://www.dynamicdrive.com/emailriddler/ provides a free javascript tool for webmasters to help hide your email address.
Use Form Contacts Instead
One simple solution to the contact problem and harvester spam bots is to use a form script to collect information. The form script interacts with the server to send mail to you, without revealing your email address to the spammers. This is something that we can setup for you on any website should you desire it. It is professional and blocks spam effectively.
Do Not Subscribe to Newsletters
Some newsletters ( not many ), sell your email address or allow it to be copied by others. The fewer newsletters you are on, the better your chances of NOT recieving unwanted email. Not all newsletter people ( like us ) will spam you, but many will. It is helpful to read their privacy policy. Usually if a site has taken the time to post a privacy policy, they will adhere to it. Just make sure you read the privacy policy, it may say blatantly that they will share your address!
Do Not Give Out Your Email Address
Your email address is a valuable thing to have. Because of this reason, many people will try to get it, especially marketers. You may be lured any of a hundred ways, but the basic idea is the same, get your email address and send you junk mail. Don't give your email address out and you shouldn't have much of a problem. When you send an email to someone though, they will automatically have it. If you are running an online business, there is no way to avoid this. If these are the only people who have your email though, you shouldn't get much spam.
Make Sure You Are Not Listed
Some of the larger and more popular email services like yahoo and hotmail give you the option of being listed in their directories when you create the account. If they don't ask you during creation, they may have options in the setup somewhere. Basically they are saying there is a public directory and anyone can look up your email and send you junk mail. They say "your friends" can find you, but really, it will be the spammers that hunt you. We advise unlisting yoursel from these types of directories.
Don't Use Dictionary Email Names
Some spammers try to use a dictionary type attack on the larger email services ( like yahoo and hotmail ). They will try every possible word@yahoo.com and send emails to all of them. The only way to avoid this kind of attack is to use a unique name that cannot be found in the dictionary. Individual site owners will also have some problems with this kind of attack ( sales@my-gift-shop.com for example ), but it won't happen as frequently as the big services.
Do Not Forward Email Chains
It is a disturbing trend for people to forward junk mail they think is funny or interesting to others. Personally this is quite annoying and we usually send a polite letter back at the first forwarded email we get to stop them from sending more. The problem is that most people include your email address in a list of all of their friends in the FWD header. Eventually one of these emails could get to a spammer or in a spammer's database. When this happens they simply pick out all the email addresses and then add them to the spam database. Please do not forward junk emails, they are not cute and only add more spam to deal with.
Turn off Images In Your Email
Clever spammers can use the images in your email to see if you are reading their spam. If you are, they know it is a good idea to send you more. By turning off images or reading your emails in text only, you ensure that they cannot tell if you opened their spam.
The more malicious spammers can even hide code inside of html based emails that will install trojans or viruses just for opening the email, even if you don't click any links. They can also attach viruses to links! This is a security precaution that we recommend setting up, it only takes a few seconds and saves a ton of headache.
Read Email as Text Only
As with images, reading your email as text only makes sure that spammers cannot tell if you opened their email. You can click on Tools and Options in Outlook Express and setup your read options as follows:
Do Not Send Read Receipts
Some programs are set to send read receipts automatically. These receipts tell the other person you've read the email by sending them a small message back. Spammers can use this to see if you read email, and then send you more. To turn off read receipts, click on tools, options, and follow the settings below:
Do Not Open Attachments
Unless you trust that the person you are getting an attachment from could not possibly of every possibly had any possibility of even remotely getting a virus ( see the sarcasm? ), do not open an attachment from them. Most attachments are viruses or trojans which technically do not give you more spam usually, but usually send the virus out to everyone in your address book. Follow the settings below to dis allow attachments:
Keep Your Virus Scanner Up to Date
If your virus scanner does not have the latest updates it is nearly useless. You can get a free virus scanner from www.grisoft.com or you can buy a year subscription for less than $15 to Mcafee from www.pricewatch.com.