ASA & ISPr Tips For Avoiding SPAM
Posted: 03rd Jul, 2003 By: MarkJ
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has today uploaded a brief guide with some tips for avoiding the many varied evils of SPAM (junk e-mail). Weve also added a few of our own and welcome any readers wishing to include their own tips:
To help limit the number of spam messages that they receive, the ASA recommends that consumers:
Avoid displaying their e-mail addresses online.
If it necessary for consumers to display their address (e.g in chat rooms or newsgroups), they may wish to consider having a second e-mail address for this purpose.
Use a unique e-mail address.
The more unusual the e-mail address (e.g. js45c19mith instead of jsmith) the less likely it is that those responsible for sending spam mail will be able to identify it as a valid address when they launch a "dictionary attack" on ISPs or e-mail services.
Read privacy policies carefully.
When signing up for a service, consumers should read the privacy policy of the service very carefully to see how their information might be used.
Never respond to spam messages.
Even a request to unsubscribe from a database, may encourage the spammer to send further messages.
Check their ISP's filter policy.
Most e-mail software has a filter functionality, which can be used to block suspect text.
We'd also like to add a few tips of our own to that..
Disable HTML & Don't Open E-Mails
Most people won't need to enable HTML for e-mails, so unless it's needed you should disable it. SPAM messages are often built with HTML and the moment you open them a script logs your address as active for future junk. Either disable HTML or simply don't open them in the first place.
Webmasters should always hide e-mails behind mailto
If I have to explain then you're not a webmaster =).
Don't use free e-mail providers
Most free e-mail providers are default targets for randomly generated lists of addresses (millions of them), so try to use your ISP or buy your own domain instead.
If youre a member of ISP Review and want to add your own tips then please click the comments link at the top of this news item to do so. Well put it into a future article.
To help limit the number of spam messages that they receive, the ASA recommends that consumers:
Avoid displaying their e-mail addresses online.
If it necessary for consumers to display their address (e.g in chat rooms or newsgroups), they may wish to consider having a second e-mail address for this purpose.
Use a unique e-mail address.
The more unusual the e-mail address (e.g. js45c19mith instead of jsmith) the less likely it is that those responsible for sending spam mail will be able to identify it as a valid address when they launch a "dictionary attack" on ISPs or e-mail services.
Read privacy policies carefully.
When signing up for a service, consumers should read the privacy policy of the service very carefully to see how their information might be used.
Never respond to spam messages.
Even a request to unsubscribe from a database, may encourage the spammer to send further messages.
Check their ISP's filter policy.
Most e-mail software has a filter functionality, which can be used to block suspect text.
We'd also like to add a few tips of our own to that..
Disable HTML & Don't Open E-Mails
Most people won't need to enable HTML for e-mails, so unless it's needed you should disable it. SPAM messages are often built with HTML and the moment you open them a script logs your address as active for future junk. Either disable HTML or simply don't open them in the first place.
Webmasters should always hide e-mails behind mailto
If I have to explain then you're not a webmaster =).
Don't use free e-mail providers
Most free e-mail providers are default targets for randomly generated lists of addresses (millions of them), so try to use your ISP or buy your own domain instead.
If youre a member of ISP Review and want to add your own tips then please click the comments link at the top of this news item to do so. Well put it into a future article.
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