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commercial e-mail (UCE) or "spam" is a real problem and the bogus text
helps keep my address off junk mail lists. All e-mail programs I
have seen will allow you to enter or edit an e-mail address. To send
me mail type "jmacbops" followed by the "@" sign
followed by "yahoo" then a period then "com" in the
address field. It's easy if you say "jmacbops at yahoo dot
com" out loud as you type.
Because I am a webmaster and have e-mail
addresses posted, I receive more than 1,000 junk e-mail messages every
day. The daily batch of garbage includes dozens of virus infected
messages. (If you don't have anti-virus
software, stop reading this and download some THIS INSTANT!)
Spammers use robots ("webbots" or "bots") to harvest e-mail addresses from
the HTML code in web pages. My spoofed e-mail address is to fool the robots.
Spam wastes a lot of the internet.
Spam accounts for more than half
of all e-mail. Who is paying for all that spam? YOU
ARE! We all are. Spammers pay a little and we all pay the
rest. And if the quantity alone wasn't enough, what about the
content? I don't know about you but I am sick of being bombarded
with ads for herbal viagra, Nigerians eager to shower me with money, and
graphic pornography.
Here is how you can help:
- PLEASE VISIT CAUCE,
JUNKBUSTERS,
OR OTHER SITES DEDICATED TO ENDING SPAM AND SUPPORT
THEM. See my links page for links to
groups that can help you help end spam.
- NEVER EVER buy anything
advertised in spam. Spammers keep flooding the internet with
spam because there are still people stupid enough to believe it.
If most everyone stops responding to spam messages it will become
commercially unviable. Spam exists because it works on a few dim
bulbs.
- Use filters and client software that
deletes spam. Use a spam blocking service like
My Privacy Policy.
- NEVER respond to a spam message, even to ask them to remove your address.
They won't - that is a trick to validate your address. Telling a
spammer to remove your address will result in more spam sent to
you.
Spammers flood the internet with junk mail
because it works. Only when it costs more than it brings in will
spam go away. Please do everything you can to help that day arrive
sooner.
The Federal CAN-SPAM act went into
effect on January 1, 2004. Are you receiving any less spam
than before? Didn't think so. Me neither. According to
ClickZ and others that measure Internet usage, the amount of spam has
increased since the CAN-SPAM act became law about a year ago.
The CAN-SPAM act is a nice idea but all it does is give politicians a warm
and fuzzy "See? I did something for you!" lie to tell. Like most
of Washington's antics, it accomplishes nothing useful. I'm afraid we
will have to kill spam on the client side. Yahoo added some nice anti-spam features such as
blocking the embedded HTML graphics that spammers use to validate your
e-mail address. Your ISP may have anti-spam services too. Sign
up and use these features.
If you want to be entirely spam free, try using
a whitelist. A whitelist only allows mail from senders on your "okay"
list to get through. Some whitelist apps give you the option of
receiving email from unknown senders (in a separate folder) and others allow
you to delete it. Get the software, use the
services, and NEVER buy anything or patronize a company that is advertised
in spam. Spammers will not stop until sending UCE is a waste of their
money.
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