Internet Tips & Tricks
By MARK DAVIS
General Manager, CommSpeed Internet Service
Vice
President, Prescott Computer Society
Visit the Computer Society Website
www.prescottcomputersociety.org
SPAM
Revisited
Another day, another 14.5 billion unwanted emails.
That’s how many spam messages are now sent each day!
Junk messages waste our time and are clogging up the
Internet.
I
wrote a column about spam last year. It was bad then.
Now, it’s unbelievable! Spam has increased six-fold
over the last 18 months. Industry experts report that
spam makes up from 50% to 75% of all the email messages
sent each day!
For
most people this flood of spam is merely an irritant -
but spam is also received by children. A survey by
Symantec, an internet security company, of net users
between seven and 18 years of age, showed that 47% had
received emails with links to X-rated sites. Although
51% said they were annoyed by such mail, 38% did not
tell their parents what they had seen and 22% said their
parents never talked to them about spam.
What can be done?
The
logical reaction - to reply by asking to be taken off
the emailing list - should be avoided at all costs. It
simply tells the spammer that yours is a “live” email
address and worth exploiting further or selling to
someone else.
Consider using two e-mail addresses; one for your
personal email, one for public use, such as chat rooms,
and ordering products.
Avoid displaying your e-mail address in public,
including Web sites, newsgroups, chat rooms, and
membership directories of online services.
The
good news is that spam has become such a problem that
politicians are waking up. Congress is conducting
hearings on the subject and several bills have been put
forward. Also, the Federal Trade Commission has asked
Congress for powers to secretly investigate spammers and
to track down those who dispatch their wares across
international borders.
Time for a commercial plug :)
CommSpeed provides FREE email spam filtering and virus
protection for all of its customers. Visit
www.commspeed.net
for more info.
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TOPIC: Websites
for Kids
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