Family travelers under siege?
Tuesday July 22, 2003
Is your Inbox under attack by spam? One spam-blocker service reports more spam in July than in all of 2003! Here's some self-defence for travelers who rely on the internet.
First, though, two interesting measures of how spam has increased: the MessageLabs spam filtering system has just announced it "intercepted more spam in the last month than in the whole of 2002." Or put another way, "spam accounted for 50 per cent of all email again during July." Read more about the spam epidemic.
A few easy tips to reduce spam:
-the more you sign up for travel newsletters (from travel sites, resorts, etc.) the more likely it is that your email address will be sold to mailing lists. Always check a web site's privacy policy before you sign up.
-sometimes junky-looking emails invite you to unsubscribe so you won't receive yet more junky emails. Best option is probably not to reply: by replying, you're indicating to the spammer that yours is a bona fide email address, in good working order, that can re-sold with confidence.
-consider creating a new email address that you use only for subscribing to travel newsletters. Most mail systems (Outlook, Eudora, etc.) make it easy to use multiple email identities. Ideally, all junk and spam will be delivered to only one email address, while you can keep another email address relatively spam-free.
-The dual-email address idea is especially useful if you need to check email while traveling: when you're in a situation with limited internet access, you don't want to waste time getting 1000 pieces of spam delivered. (Final note, for family travelers: you can easily access your home email by using www.mail2web.com.)
For more help in handling spam, see Anit-Spam Tools and Services at About's E-Mail web site. More and more people these days are using spam-filters (such as MessageLabs, above.) Sometimes these are available from free from your ISP.
One caution, though: some spam-filtering services get over-zealous and delete legitimate emails-- perhaps even important replies that you've been awaiting. If you fail to receive a reply that you're expecting, go ahead and send another email asking if a reply was sent. Another tactic is to quickly scan all emails pegged as "SPAM" before deleting them.
First, though, two interesting measures of how spam has increased: the MessageLabs spam filtering system has just announced it "intercepted more spam in the last month than in the whole of 2002." Or put another way, "spam accounted for 50 per cent of all email again during July." Read more about the spam epidemic.
A few easy tips to reduce spam:
-the more you sign up for travel newsletters (from travel sites, resorts, etc.) the more likely it is that your email address will be sold to mailing lists. Always check a web site's privacy policy before you sign up.
-sometimes junky-looking emails invite you to unsubscribe so you won't receive yet more junky emails. Best option is probably not to reply: by replying, you're indicating to the spammer that yours is a bona fide email address, in good working order, that can re-sold with confidence.
-consider creating a new email address that you use only for subscribing to travel newsletters. Most mail systems (Outlook, Eudora, etc.) make it easy to use multiple email identities. Ideally, all junk and spam will be delivered to only one email address, while you can keep another email address relatively spam-free.
-The dual-email address idea is especially useful if you need to check email while traveling: when you're in a situation with limited internet access, you don't want to waste time getting 1000 pieces of spam delivered. (Final note, for family travelers: you can easily access your home email by using www.mail2web.com.)
For more help in handling spam, see Anit-Spam Tools and Services at About's E-Mail web site. More and more people these days are using spam-filters (such as MessageLabs, above.) Sometimes these are available from free from your ISP.
One caution, though: some spam-filtering services get over-zealous and delete legitimate emails-- perhaps even important replies that you've been awaiting. If you fail to receive a reply that you're expecting, go ahead and send another email asking if a reply was sent. Another tactic is to quickly scan all emails pegged as "SPAM" before deleting them.
Comments
No comments yet. Leave a Comment