What is spam?
The modern sense of the word "spam" references to repeat. Spammers usually focus on e-mail addresses and the terminology moved with them. Nowadays, "spam" is the common term for "unsolicited commercial email", or "UCE".
Why Does Bad Spam Happen to Good People?
Chances are, you have been spammed before. Somehow, and usually no one knows exactly how, your e-mail address has found it's way into the hands of a spammer. Soon, your inbox is suffering the consequences. How does this happen? There are really several possibilities. At least one of these you would find familiar.
Backstabbing Businesses
Businesses often keep lists of email addresses their customers. This is perfectly legal and normal, and usually nothing bad comes of it. Sometimes, however, the temptation to make some quick money is too great, and these lists are sold or rented to other business, companies or advertisers. What happens then? The poor customers start receiving many unsolicited e-mail. This constitutes to a breach of trust.
Random Address Generation
There are computer programs, called random address generators, of which only task is to "guess" and "generate" email addresses. For example, more than 100 million addresses are available on the hotmail.com domain. How difficult could be to guess some of them? Unfortunately, many unsuspecting Internet users use simple email addresses, and this is really not that hard to guess. Many spammers also guess at standard email accounts, e.g. standard addresses like "support@somedomain.com", "info@somedomain.com", "admin@somedomain.com", etc
Web Spiders
In today's internet age, there is a new species of spiders. Not living creatures, but programs called web spiders. All major search engines search and scan the web extensively. This is called spidering the web. They save information about each page the spider comes across. Spammers use tools that also spider the web, but instead of saving general information, their specialised spiders save any email address it encounters. Does your personal website contain you email address in plain text? Well then, prepare to be attacked by spammers!
Chat Room Harvesting
Many ISP (Internet Service Providers) offer popular chat rooms where users are known only by their screen names (also known as handle or nicknames). Of course, spammers know that your username is the first part of your email address. Why waste time guessing email addresses when a couple of hours of lurking in a chat room can net a list of addresses in use?
The Poor Man's Bad Marketing Idea
Some spammers retain their own friends and family email lists. Based on the addresses of other known spammers, friends who send them email, or close family relatives, these friends and family lists are still considered illegal. Why? Because only you can give someone permission to send you email.
Stop The Flood to Your Inbox
Constant attack by spam? Try to use spam filters in your email client. May clients provide a way to block spam email. Every time you receive spam, block the address of the sender. Spammers skip from address to address, and you can be on many lists by the time you receive your first spam email. At least, this method will decrease the number of spam you receive, even though by just that little.
Use more than one email address, and maintain a "clean" one. Many netizens believe that this method will reduce spam drastically. Use a single address for spam-safe activities like email to/from your friends, or signing/registering for services from reliable companies. Do not use a clean address on the web in plain text! Get a free address from one of the many free email providers to use on-line and in chat rooms.
If the situation gets very bad and there's no saving it, consider changing screen names or opening a new email account. When you do, you start with a clean slate, free of spam. And this time, keep it clean!
Stay Off Spammed Lists in the Future
Want to surf the web without getting sucked into the spam-flood? Prevention is your best policy. Don't use an easy-to-guess e-mail address. Keep your address clean by not using it for spam-centric activities. Don't post it on any web pages, and don't use it in chat rooms or newsgroups.
Before you give your email address to a specific company, check out the company. Are sections of its user agreement dedicated to anti-spam rules? Do you have a privacy policy that explains exactly what will be done with your address? Some companies also publicly publish their anti-spam policy. With this, you can be sure that you will not be getting into any nonsense.
Think You're Not a Spammer? Be Sure.
Many first time marketers would have unknowingly spammed his audience. The first several hundred complaints and some nasty phone/email messages would usually wake him up. But by then, it would have been too late. He may be billed by his ISP for cleanup, and his reputation would have gone down the drain.
The best way to avoid this situation is to have a clear understanding of what spam is. If someone receives your mass email but did not specifically asked to hear from you, then you are spamming them. Use your senses. Do not buy a million addresses for $ 10, no matter how much the seller swears by them! If something does not cry, just say no. You can save a lot in the end, instead of ending up with a lawsuit.
Use email marketing providers that have good and strong anti-spam policies and processes. They are many email marketing providers on the internet, like Aweber, iContact and such. Doing so ensure that you too will abide by anti-spam laws.
The Final Blow
The online world is now going against spam. Eventually, people will stop sending spam because it no longer works like how it used to. Play your part: never buy from a spammer. When your company is looking for other companies to work with, only select from those with strong anti-spam approach and policies.
If you do email marketing, instead of sending emails manually, look for services from email marketing providers that have strong anti-spam policies. As part of their processes, they will help you abide by any anti-spam laws in effect.
The modern sense of the word "spam" references to repeat. Spammers usually focus on e-mail addresses and the terminology moved with them. Nowadays, "spam" is the common term for "unsolicited commercial email", or "UCE".
Why Does Bad Spam Happen to Good People?
Chances are, you have been spammed before. Somehow, and usually no one knows exactly how, your e-mail address has found it's way into the hands of a spammer. Soon, your inbox is suffering the consequences. How does this happen? There are really several possibilities. At least one of these you would find familiar.
Backstabbing Businesses
Businesses often keep lists of email addresses their customers. This is perfectly legal and normal, and usually nothing bad comes of it. Sometimes, however, the temptation to make some quick money is too great, and these lists are sold or rented to other business, companies or advertisers. What happens then? The poor customers start receiving many unsolicited e-mail. This constitutes to a breach of trust.
Random Address Generation
There are computer programs, called random address generators, of which only task is to "guess" and "generate" email addresses. For example, more than 100 million addresses are available on the hotmail.com domain. How difficult could be to guess some of them? Unfortunately, many unsuspecting Internet users use simple email addresses, and this is really not that hard to guess. Many spammers also guess at standard email accounts, e.g. standard addresses like "support@somedomain.com", "info@somedomain.com", "admin@somedomain.com", etc
Web Spiders
In today's internet age, there is a new species of spiders. Not living creatures, but programs called web spiders. All major search engines search and scan the web extensively. This is called spidering the web. They save information about each page the spider comes across. Spammers use tools that also spider the web, but instead of saving general information, their specialised spiders save any email address it encounters. Does your personal website contain you email address in plain text? Well then, prepare to be attacked by spammers!
Chat Room Harvesting
Many ISP (Internet Service Providers) offer popular chat rooms where users are known only by their screen names (also known as handle or nicknames). Of course, spammers know that your username is the first part of your email address. Why waste time guessing email addresses when a couple of hours of lurking in a chat room can net a list of addresses in use?
The Poor Man's Bad Marketing Idea
Some spammers retain their own friends and family email lists. Based on the addresses of other known spammers, friends who send them email, or close family relatives, these friends and family lists are still considered illegal. Why? Because only you can give someone permission to send you email.
Stop The Flood to Your Inbox
Constant attack by spam? Try to use spam filters in your email client. May clients provide a way to block spam email. Every time you receive spam, block the address of the sender. Spammers skip from address to address, and you can be on many lists by the time you receive your first spam email. At least, this method will decrease the number of spam you receive, even though by just that little.
Use more than one email address, and maintain a "clean" one. Many netizens believe that this method will reduce spam drastically. Use a single address for spam-safe activities like email to/from your friends, or signing/registering for services from reliable companies. Do not use a clean address on the web in plain text! Get a free address from one of the many free email providers to use on-line and in chat rooms.
If the situation gets very bad and there's no saving it, consider changing screen names or opening a new email account. When you do, you start with a clean slate, free of spam. And this time, keep it clean!
Stay Off Spammed Lists in the Future
Want to surf the web without getting sucked into the spam-flood? Prevention is your best policy. Don't use an easy-to-guess e-mail address. Keep your address clean by not using it for spam-centric activities. Don't post it on any web pages, and don't use it in chat rooms or newsgroups.
Before you give your email address to a specific company, check out the company. Are sections of its user agreement dedicated to anti-spam rules? Do you have a privacy policy that explains exactly what will be done with your address? Some companies also publicly publish their anti-spam policy. With this, you can be sure that you will not be getting into any nonsense.
Think You're Not a Spammer? Be Sure.
Many first time marketers would have unknowingly spammed his audience. The first several hundred complaints and some nasty phone/email messages would usually wake him up. But by then, it would have been too late. He may be billed by his ISP for cleanup, and his reputation would have gone down the drain.
The best way to avoid this situation is to have a clear understanding of what spam is. If someone receives your mass email but did not specifically asked to hear from you, then you are spamming them. Use your senses. Do not buy a million addresses for $ 10, no matter how much the seller swears by them! If something does not cry, just say no. You can save a lot in the end, instead of ending up with a lawsuit.
Use email marketing providers that have good and strong anti-spam policies and processes. They are many email marketing providers on the internet, like Aweber, iContact and such. Doing so ensure that you too will abide by anti-spam laws.
The Final Blow
The online world is now going against spam. Eventually, people will stop sending spam because it no longer works like how it used to. Play your part: never buy from a spammer. When your company is looking for other companies to work with, only select from those with strong anti-spam approach and policies.
If you do email marketing, instead of sending emails manually, look for services from email marketing providers that have strong anti-spam policies. As part of their processes, they will help you abide by any anti-spam laws in effect.
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