Computer Security News

E-mail protocol and Spam filtering

 

By  Stephen Speregen
Managing Editor


This section is about E-mail netiquette and Spamming.
Please don't take this wrong but most of you are trying, but the rest need to go back to school if there was one for this! (email).

Don't you just hate when you have to click 4 or 5 levels or more deep to get to the joke that was sent by someone who could have just as easily cut and pasted it in a new email. This should be done every time to break the chain of email lists that are being made behind our backs.
I don't know about you but I get mad when I see my name (email name) among 40 or 50 names being sent out with a forward.
I tell my friends to put me in the BCC area (blind carbon copy) if they have to send me some type of joke.
I get way to much spam already and this is one of the prime cause's.

                                                Now with that said let's look at Email netiquette.

  1. Emails are regular letters and should be done with the same format as any letter you would receive by snail mail.
     

  2. We do not type everything in capital letters.
    CAPITAL LETTERS ARE FOR SCREAMING!
     

  3. Don't forward jokes learn how to cut and paste them into a new email.
    By forwarding emails you build a list for spammer's and it's a pain to open 10 emails to get to the joke.
    (takes the fun out of the joke you are sending if it is a choir to open and then close out the message thread!)
     

  4. Learn to use BCC in your email instead of forwarding or CCing somebody or all your of your friends, this cuts down on spam and list sellers, which I might add are worse than spammers!
     

  5. "List sellers" nail you when you surf the internet by stripping out email addresses from website you are on without the knowledge of the website owner or it's visitors. Programs like Extractor Pro are cheap or free and it is designed to see who else is at a site by IP addresses or domain name.
     

  6. Your email address is worth anywhere from 10 to 15 cents apiece for general names with no affiliations or habits. Now if you know that here are a bunch of surfers, bike riders, car buffs, dog or cat enthusiasts or what ever they can be worth a buck to 5 bucks a name.
     

  7. Message Receipts are for important emails when you need a confirmation they (person or company) got your email .

More to come

E-mail hoaxes

A place to find out if it is true or a hoax!
 http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/HoaxBustersHome.html

More urban legend debunk sites
 http://www.snopes.com

Back

Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 ComputerSecurityNews.Org
All rights reserved.

The web site for FREE PC Tech Support and news you can use!