A Top Strategy on Fighting Back Junk Email

Here are some rules which solely are less effective but in total sum up all of my experiences which I made in the last couple of years. And all of this rules apply to every Internet user, from occasional to power user.

Rule 1

Never print your proper address online. Never ever. Post your address in MySpace, Facebook or your own web site and you’ll be flooded with junk email within minutes.

Whenever possible, try to hide or obfuscate your address with java script and generate a picture out of your address. Encrypting it like namedomaincom is not enough.

Rule 2

Forget about all filters and tools. Don’t trust your ISP’s junk email filters.

From complicated regular expression filters and black listing of known bad mail server, to semi intelligent Bayes filtering, none of them keeps its promises. They are always behind the current fashion in spamming.

The problems with filtering are not the spam mails that are not detected but the good mails which are accidentally hold back or worse deleted.

Rule 3

Use disposable addresses that can be erased if they begin to attract spam messages. Try finding services which let’s you create those addresses by a finger tip. Every of this fake addresses is redirected to your main address and you can even reply to them, while your real address is always obfuscated.

This is by far the best way to communicate with machines, newsletters, shopping sites, etc.

And when you get spammed? No problem, just erase the targeted address and that’s it.

Rule 4

Never answer junk email UNDER NO CONDITIONS WHATSOEVER, just erase it. Never confirm that you read and even answer such mails.

Rule 5

Never even open spam mails. They might infect you with a computer virus or confirm your address automatically in the background. Try to delete the suspicious message right on the mail server.

Rule 6

Never click on the links in junk e-mail messages, including unsubscribe links. This will only lead to more spam. Also it is best to not open mails from unknown senders in HTML modus.

Rule 7

Never buy anything from a company that spams. Don’t reward those guys for molesting you. Don’t visit their sites or ask for more information.

Rule 8

Use multiple email addresses for different intentions. This assists you to identify different sources and senders, and lets you separate out more effectively.

Rule 9

Use products where unknown human senders have to identify themselves before their mails go from quarantine to your inbox.

Rule 10

Use automatically created throwaway addresses for writing to machines (e.g. web2.0, shops, newsletters)

Rule 11

Check to see if your e-mail address is open to spammers by typing it into a search engine.

Rule 12

Try using a more complicated address, that is less likely to receive junk e-mail than one that can be easily dictionary-attacked. Chose a entirely at random created addresses.

Rule 13

Stop using betrayed addresses. You will never be cleaned from a spammer’s list.

Rule 14

Never give out your log in details to anyone. Not to your wife, not to your best friend and of course not to your co worker.

Rule 15

Always defend yourself the best way possible. New windows patches, an up to date virus protection and a working firewall are a total must.

Rule 16

Don’t use MS Internet Explorer, Microsoft’s Outlook or Outlook Express. They are buggy and constantly an attacker’s first potential prey.