Spam
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This article ideally needs updating!
Spam involves sending nearly identical messages to thousands (or millions) of recipients by E-mail. Perpetrators of such spam ("spammers") often harvest addresses of prospective recipients from Usenet postings or from web pages, obtain them from databases, or simply guess them by using common names and domains. By popular definition, spam occurs without the permission of the recipients.
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Spam filtering
There are spam filters available in the cpanel. The main one uses is SpamAssassin.
Here are some tips and ideas for eliminating spam (some techniques are fairly rigorous and some could be for desperate measures).
Spam filtering
- SpamAssassin filtering configuration can be set to 4 or 5.
- Spambox can be used to direct spam into an account you check less regularly.
- Upgrade or purchase a commercial mail filter that has extensible learning rules (such as Norton).
Unsolicited mail blocking
- BoxTrapper Spam Trap requires that a human reply to an e-mail to get on your "whitelist".
- The catch-all account can go to :fail: No Such User Here or redirect to a spam account.
- Keep track of where spam is being sent in the TO field and individually setup forwarding or blocking rules for these accounts.
Spam tips
- Turn images off in your mail client so you don't download images that verify your account exists.
- Do not open or read suspect e-mail and certainly do not click "Unsubscribe" or any other link.
Pre-spam tips
- Never give out your e-mail address when signing up for something. Eg. When you sign up for Google ezine use google@yourdomain.com When signing up for elmosworld ezine use elmo@yourdomain.com. The catch-all account directs this mail to you or separate accounts and you can soon see if those e-mails are targeted with spam and hence can be blocked.
- Never display your full e-mail address on your site, external forums or guestbooks, disguise it as an image or split it up using JavaScript.
- Never use your e-mail for your domain whois info, use something generic like domainmaster@mydomain.com.
- Protect your web forms from form Post Hijacking.
Hiding your e-mail
Spam usually comes from robots going through sites and ripping out e-mail addresses. Here's an image generator to protect your e-mail addresses from being picked up: http://www.domaintools.com/domain-privacy/email-protection.html
Don't be a spammer
In most countries it is illegal to send, or cause to be sent, 'unsolicited commercial electronic messages'. Most countries under law, to avoid being defined as spam messages must meet 3 criteria:
- Consent - recipients must give express or inferred consent to receive them
- Identity - must contain accurate info on who it's from
- Unsubscribe - must allow recipients to opt out
The first criterion ("Consent") is the tricky one. In practice of course, if nobody complains then it's not a problem.
For further information, see External links below.
