You
have probably seen an increase in the amount of "junk mail" which shows
up in your email box, or on your favorite newsgroup. The activities
of a small number of people are becoming a bigger problem for the Internet.
ISP Monsters has
taken a number of steps to reduce the amount of junk mail or Spam that
crosses our network. These include security restrictions and heavy fines
for users choosing to abuse our service with Spam.
There are some steps you can take to help reduce the amount of junk
mail reaching your inbox. You can configure your email program to
filter your email as you receive it. email filters will place unwanted
email into your Trash folder. In order to do this, you need to identify
key words within the unwanted email and then have your email program
filter all messages containing these criteria to the Trash. The next
time you check your email, your email program will search each message
looking for the words that you have specified and move the offending
message to the Trash. Although this feature can be extremely useful,
you need to be very careful in selecting specific words for your filters,
as you may unknowingly filter out mail from your family, friends or
business contacts.
One of the most important ways is to NOT reply to spam messages.
Spam programs are intelligent. They are programmed with standard dictionary
languages and even understand last names. Therefore, if you use your
last name in your email address these programs can easily find you.
What these programs don't know is whether the address to which they
are sending is valid. Once you reply to a spam, you have confirmed to
the spammer that your email address is real and is actively in use.
Use discretion when giving out your email address while
visiting other sites or registering for on-line contest prizes and other
promotions. You should use the same judgment that you use when providing
your home address and consider how it may be used. Finally, you need
to watch out for the opt-in check boxes. These boxes are usually placed
next to questions that ask if you would like to receive information
from the Web page owners or their partners. By leaving the box checked,
you are agreeing to receive promotional emails from the promoter and
possibly other parties.
For more information on junk mail and how to stop it, visit http://spam.abuse.net/.