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5 Tips to Protect Yourself From the Spam in Your Inbox
You will inevitably receive some spam in your inbox - there is no getting around that fact of life. How you handle this unwanted junk mail will go a long way toward reducing or increasing the amount of spam you will receive in the future. It may also protect you from viruses, credit card fraud, identity theft and other forms of cyber-crime. Next time you log into your inbox, keep these 5 tips in mind to stop the spammers dead in their tracks.
Do not Preview
If you are able to preview your entire email messages in your inbox, you should disable the message preview pane. This is important because some spam email contains code that is specifically designed to compromise your computer and leave you vulnerable to viruses, Trojan horses or worse. Review the options offered in your email program and change the settings.
Do not Fall for the Phisher's Hook
Many spam emails are cleverly designed hoaxes, which are intended to get you to unwittingly divulge private information. They claim to be from your credit card company, bank or other financial institution, and attempt to fool you into divulging personal information such as your social security number, bank account number, password or other private, identifiable information.
This fraudulent practice is called phishing. Responding to this form of spam would leave you vulnerable to identity theft, credit card fraud and other financial cyber-crime.
Friend or Foe?
Just because an email has been sent to you by a friend, do not assume that it safe for you to open any attachment that comes with it. Contact your friend and verify that they did indeed send it.
Very often, spammers will attach a virus to their spam, which, if opened, will hijack your email program and mail itself out to every email address in your address book. This fraudulent email will appear to the recipients to have been sent by you. If they in turn, open this email attachment, the same malicious cycle is repeated.
Read your Email in Plain Text
Spammers often use Javascript to embed malicious code in their spam. It may, for example, be designed to infect your system with a virus that can install itself in your computer, and give a hacker or other scammer access to your private and financial information - without your ever knowing it. You can protect yourself against this by changing the settings to display the email messages in plain text. This effectively disables many harmful scripting features
Never Respond
Do not click on any banner advertising or send a reply to a spam message. Doing this lets the spammer that yours is a "real, live" address, which will only result in a deluge of even more spam. Unless you have specifically subscribed, do not click on any unsubscribe messages contained in junk mail. Most of these are only intended to fool you into confirming your address as valid. Also, do not forward any junk chain letters you may receive.
Above all else, common sense is the most important form of spam protection you can have. Be vigilant when you check your mail - even the most advanced anti-spam filter available today cannot keep 100% of all spam out of you inbox.
Spam has become an ever-increasing problem in recent years, costing legitimate businesses a great deal in both time and money.
In response to the growing threat from spam, new legislation was enacted in 2003. it was called: Controlling the Assault of Non Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM act). This act created some requirements for all companies who are sending bulk commercial email, as well as those companies whose products are offered for sale in the spam emails. It also instituted penalties for violators, as well as giving the client or consumer the right and the means to request that the emailers cease the spam efforts.
CAN-SPAM was enacted in January, 2004. The act covers any email which have as its purpose advertising or promotional efforts for any service or product, including those whose contents reside solely on a web site.
The legislation also covers "transactional or relationship messages," meaning those emails which help a web site to deal with any transaction, even those which are agreed on, or make updates to any customer whether new or exisiting. None of these may contain false or spoofed routing information.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the United States agency for consumer protection, was granted the authority to enforce the act and the DOJ, or Department of Justice is additionally charged with the enforcement of the CAN SPAM act. It also provides that Internet Service Providers who are hurt by the spam may in fact sue the violators of the legislation to recoup losses to their own business.
Other Major Provisions of the Law
-It bans any attempt to falsify the information in the header or subject line.
These must correctly identify what the message is about, and accurately display routing information as well as "To" and "from" information. The email must accurately indicate the identity of the sender and recipient. It must accurately portray the domain from which the email originates as well as the senders real email address.
- It bans misleading subject lines
The subject line must not mislead the recipient to open the email under false pretenses. It should clearly indicate the actual subject matter of the email.
- Emails sent in this fashion must offer the recipient a legitimate means to get out of receiving the commercial email in the future. Any such requests to opt-out must be honored by the spamming company, and the email address deleted from its sending list. The commercial emailer will have 10 days to after the request to cease sending messages to that address
- Commercial bulk email should easily be identified as an advertisement or solicitation. It must also include the sender's actual physical postal address
- The recipient must be fore-warned of any sexually explicit information the email may contain. This warning must be displayed in the email's subject line.
Each and every violation of this law or the aspects of the law subjects the sender to strict fines that can go as high as $10,000 per incident and, for certain violations, the commercial emailer will face possible jail time.
Another legal initiative aimed at fighting spam is the "Digital PhishNet" (DPN), which was established in 2004. It is a collaborative effort between the Internet industry and criminal law enforcement. Its purpose is to identify and to prosecute spammers who break the law through phishing. Online auction sites, financial institutions, ISPs and other groups within the industry are all involved in this imitative. Important data and information is forwarded in real time to law enforcement.
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