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Recent events concerning the abuse of the sendmail facility, its subsequent disabling and the
introduction of our free Web-based email service led me to write this article.
For those of you that don't know, spam is a slang word for unsolicited email - in other words,
the sending of email to strangers without gaining their consent first. It is also used to
describe the act of sending more mail than was asked for.
This is becoming more of a problem as more people begin to use the Internet. As with many of the
problem areas of the electronic community, it grows because of the bad examples set by others. If
new users believe that it is acceptable to inundate others with mail, they see no reason why they
cannot do the same.
Is It Really A Problem?
If there are any new users out there that don't believe this is a problem, then I have a little
information to impart to you.
I have an email account, that I have never given the address out to more than two people at most
and which I deliberately asked to be kept off email directories when signing up for it. It currently
receives between 50 and 150 emails a day from complete strangers.
Most of these strangers don't even have the decency to use a real username - I very much doubt
anybody who is acting responsibly would have a username like 678234.
Why they do this is a mystery, as they cannot really expect more than a handful of people to do
anything other than send it straight into the trash folder. They also aren't likely to get
many replies as their email account would be closed rather rapidly by any half-decent provider.
Worst of all, if the recipient is on a metered connection and downloads the emails to their own
system before reading them it becomes extremely costly. In Outlook Express and its rivals,
even mail sent to the trash folder is usually downloaded first.
Alternatives To Sending Spam
There are much better ways of advertising sites and/or services than sending spam. The most
obvious of which is adding the URL to search engines.
Other slightly less obvious ways include:-
- Starting an opt-in newsletter
- Banner exchange schemes
- Searching for relevant link directories to register with
- Word of mouth
The value of that last option should not be underestimated, and it works both ways. If your
site is genuinely useful or entertaining, your visitors will advertise for you. If you annoy
people, or try to deceive them, word will get around.
Alternatives To Receiving Spam
For those on a metered connection, using a Web-based email account will save you a lot
of money as you can delete unwanted mail without having to download or open it first. Most
decent providers also have some sort of filtering system to redirect bulk mail into another
folder.
The most drastic measure you can take is to send all email to the trash folder
unless it comes from someone in your address book. Obviously this is not practical
if you use your account to receive mail from visitors to your site.
One way around this is to only allow visitors to contact you via a form, as you can then allow
mail through that has the correct subject or send address for that particular form.
What To Do About Spam
First of all, never reply to spam! All that does is let the sender know that your
account is active and you'll end up on even more mailing lists.
Forward a copy of the offending email, with full headers if possible, to the abuse section of
the provider concerned. Most providers have a special abuse@ address for this very
purpose.
You may need to keep a copy of the original email - at least until the provider gets back to you
about it.
I don't suggest that you try to do this with every piece of spam you receive unless you either
have a lot of time on your hands or feel very strongly about it, but if enough of us do it
on a regular basis we will make a difference.
The main reason that so much unsolicited mail is sent is that it is relatively easy to do so
because few people complain about it. Making life difficult for the senders by helping to get
their accounts closed more quickly will go some way towards discouraging them.
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