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 By The
Crabby Office Lady
If you have an e-mail address, it's just about
impossible for you to eliminate spam completely. However, there are steps
you can take to reduce that pesky, unsolicited commercial e-mail. Here are
my 10 favorite methods for hitting spam where it hurts.
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Applies
to
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Microsoft
Office 2003
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Microsoft
Office 2000 and XP
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"Spam": The word alone strikes
terror in the hearts of e-mail users (although not necessarily in lovers of
the processed pork luncheon meat by the same name, and to which this
columnist bears no ill will). It has no manners, knows no boundaries, and
takes no prisoners. It makes you wring your hands in frustration, shake
your fist with rage, and wear out your DELETE key and finger.
What is spam?
No one I talked to is really sure what the letters in
"spam" stand for:
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spam: Stupid
Pointless Annoying Mail?
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spam:
Stymieing Practice of Altering Minds?
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spam: Scrambled
Pieces of Asinine Marketing?
Actually, it stands for nothing — it's just unsolicited
e-mail (commercial or otherwise) that comes to your Inbox in droves. How it
was named "spam" is debated in countless newsgroups and Web sites
on that oracle of misinformation we call the Internet. In other words, no
one is really sure. (Yes, folks, I'm aware of the Monty Python skit but the
connection between that and e-mail seems rather coincidental. Who was using
e-mail then?).
How can I avoid spam?
While you can spend lots of your hard-earned cash on
spam blockers, spam butchers, spam SWAT teams, spam sharpshooters, and spam
spammers, you can also take a few steps yourself to reduce your daily spam
rations. Ready? Let's get crackin'.
Method #1: Use Outlook to manage junk e-mailers
Now that you have Outlook 2003 on your desktop (and if
you don't, what I'm about to lay out for you might just get you on your
feet, out the door, and off to get it), you may have noticed a folder
called Junk E-Mail. (No, we didn't pre-populate it for you with spam.)
This new folder is the embodiment of the Junk E-mail
Filter — soon to be your new best friend. This filter basically scans
messages before they get to your Inbox and annoy you. It decides whether a
message is junk based on several factors, including the time of day it was
sent and the content of the message. While the filter doesn't initially
single out any particular sender or type of message, here are a few steps
you can take to customize this filter to be your very spam bodyguard:
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You can add message senders to the Safe Senders List so
that their messages will never be treated as junk e-mail.
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Contacts are automatically trusted by default, so
messages from people in your Contacts folder will also never be treated as
junk e-mail.
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You can configure Outlook to only accept messages from
the Safe Senders List, giving you total control over which messages reach
your Inbox.
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Conversely, you can easily block messages from a
certain e-mail address or domain name by adding the sender to the Blocked
Senders List.
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If you belong to a mailing list, you can add the
address for the list to your Safe Recipients List so that messages sent to
the mailing list will not be treated as junk e-mail.
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If you are using a Microsoft Exchange Server e-mail
account, messages from within your organization will never be treated as
junk e-mail, regardless of the content of the message. (I live in such a
world, and I want to take this opportunity to thank all my coworkers and
higher-ups for their warm regards, pointed remarks, and misplaced
aggression.)
By default, the Junk E-mail Filter is set to a low
setting that is designed to catch the most obvious junk e-mail. Any message
that is caught by the filter is moved to a special Junk E-mail folder,
where you can retrieve or review it at a later time.
If you don't have Outlook 2003 installed yet, here are
two solutions in the interim (the very short interim) for previous
versions of Outlook or Microsoft Outlook Express:
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Add senders to the junk e-mail list. You can add whole
domains this way, too.
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Create rules that can recognize spam, such as a rule
that flags or deletes e-mail messages with certain words in the subject
line or body of the message.
You can also create rules to color-code these messages (instead of deleting
them automatically), so that they're easily recognizable in the Inbox. That
way, if your Great-aunt Bessie sends you e-mail that for some reason has
the words "HOT HOT HOT"
in the subject line (one can only speculate why: pies? Great-uncle Sol?
Vinyl seats in the Buick?), it won't get deleted until you see it first.
To learn how to add senders to the junk mail list or
how to create rules, press F1 for Help
in Outlook 2002, Outlook 2000, or Outlook Express.
Method #2: Avoid replying to the sender
When you reply and type REMOVE in the subject line,
this is a great way to let spammers know that yes, your e-mail address is
up, running, and being used right now. It's like waving a white flag that
says, "I read unsolicited e-mail. Please send more."
The best way to "opt out" of a spammer's
mailing list is to pretend you never received the e-mail message. Put your
hands over your ears and sing, "La-la-la-la...I can't HEAR you!"
(No one likes to be ignored.)
Method #3: Alter your e-mail address when you post it
You might post your e-mail address sometimes to a
newsgroup, chat room, or bulletin board. But you don't have to post it
correctly. The funky term for this is "munging"
your address. This means adding a character, number, or symbol (or two)
that has to be taken out for your address to work (for example, "cr@bby@mi(rosft.com").
It really throws those automatic "address harvesters" (yikes,
what a term!) off balance, and they just slink away from whence they came.
Method #4: Don't give out your primary e-mail address
Create a "disposable" Web e-mail address
(such as one from an MSN® Hotmail® account) that you can give when
registering for free software or shareware, or even when ordering from a
company online. In fact, Hotmail can help you avoid getting spam. I like to
give my primary address to friends and family, and then I have another one
I use when I'm ordering some new rhinestone glasses or hair coloring.
Method #5: Make use of laws against spam
While anti-spam laws have not been enacted yet on the
federal level, many states have adopted some sort of anti-spam legislation.
A few examples:
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Colorado The Colorado Junk E-mail Law prohibits the sending
of unsolicited commercial e-mail that uses a third party's Internet address
or domain name without permission, or contains false or missing routing
information.
Method #6: Don't post your address on your Web page
Again, you can munge it or
not post it there at all. Then those nasty spam weevils can't find you.
Method #7: Review Web sites' privacy policies
I know that you're an Internet expert and that you can
blaze through those online forms at lightning speed. But slow down,
Cha-Cha, and make sure that you're checking all the privacy options you
need to check. Sometimes these are hard to find, but they're there. And
sometimes there is more than one box to check. Some sites assume the right
to share your information; responsible sites will give you a way to opt
out.
An example:
Let's say that you're in the process of purchasing a
fabulous new pair of rhinestone glasses. You've filled out all the
pertinent information: Size, style, shipping and billing info, and an
e-mail address to receive the order confirmation. Now before you click the
"place order" button, look around.
Are there any check boxes or tiny form fields on that
page that are checked to indicate that you're fine with this company
selling or giving away your e-mail address to "responsible"
parties? Make sure you uncheck (or check, whichever the case may be) where
necessary. In fact, backtrack through the pages and make sure you didn't
forget to indicate your "don't-you-dare-sell-this-e-mail-address"
preference.
And here is a tip:
Even if you did all the right things and found all the
sneaky little boxes, make sure you check those boxes again if, for some
reason, you have to backtrack through the form. Sometimes sneaky vendors
will set the pages to go back to the default setting, thereby tripping you
up again. Good grief, it takes such vigilance, doesn't it? (Yes, but it's
worth it.)
Method #8: Don't list yourself in Internet directories
This is a tough one. If you're in the regular phone
book, chances are you're in one of the big directories such as BigFoot, AnyWho, InfoSpace, Switchboard,
and Yahoo!. Look yourself up, and there you'll be.
There is probably a place to add your e-mail address (for free, can you
believe it?), but my advice is: Don't.
Method #9: Ditch that clever profile
From an informal poll I took among friends, they told
me that after they cleared their profile from a certain Internet service
provider (that shall not be named), the amount of
spam they received was drastically reduced.
Method #10: Do not forward chain e-mail
This is my favorite one, and I'm pretty sure I've lost
some friends after telling them to cease and desist. Here's a good example:
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On NPR's Morning Edition last week, Nina Tottenberg said that if the Supreme Court supports
Congress, it is in effect the end of the National Public Radio (NPR), NEA
& the Public Broadcasting System (PBS)...."
Sound familiar? This is a hoax. Don't forward it to
friends. Your first clue is that Nina's last name is misspelled. Not
familiar? You don't listen to public radio? OK, here is one for you:
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My name is Bill Gates, and I need your help...
It's a pretty good bet that if you don't know Bill
Gates, he won't be sending you any sort of e-mail, because chances are he
doesn't need your help. He's never even sent me e-mail. (I'm still waiting.
I still have hope.)
Some others I've received concern needles in theater
seats, free software from my boss, free cases of champagne, free trips to
Disney World, a request for money for a little girl dying of a tropical
disease, the Hawaiian good luck totem, caution using cell phones at gas
stations, and my personal favorite: a virus warning about e-mail messages
with "How to give a cat a colonic" in the subject line.
About the author
The Crabby Office Lady gets her column ideas from your
far-out suggestions and demands. If you're feeling far-out or just have
something to say, send her some Feedback.
While she can't answer your mail, you may see a solution to your problem in
a future column.
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