Do ya think that Spam, the meat in a can that can be found in stores everywhere, is pissed that they share their name with something as distasteful as electronic spam. I am sure that when Hormel registered the SPAM trademark in 1937, they never seen this coming. Either way, both the food and the junk mail have been frowned upon by many of us who have experienced them. I bring this up because of some recent unwanted activity in my email account. That's right, spam! I have lived a pretty good spam free existence for several years. I thought that I was being careful in protecting my email address. I mean, I thought so anyway. Previously deployed anti-spam measures include:
1. Having multiple email addresses.
- The intent being that I would use one for personal and social purposes. This was for communication with friends and family. A different email would be business. It would be used to contact employers, distribute resumes, make appointments, and converse with business associates. Any business correspondence is conducted using this email address. Finally, I have an email account that is solely used spamming scapegoat purposes. It is used when taking part in insecure activity that will likely make the account vulnerable to spam attacks. It is a sacrificial account of sorts.
2. Identifying questionable activity.
- I feel that being identifying an email scam or spam attempt is extremely important. This means that I avoid emails with general and nonspecific subject lines, emails from unrecognized contacts and businesses, and spotting poor grammar and spelling errors. Who falls for that anyway. Some spam that I have seen in my "sacrifice" account has the worst spelling and grammar ever. I know 2nd grade students who have a better understanding of the English language. I do not open forwarded emails content that is not for the purpose of communications. I don't care to receive jokes, political or religious stories, or random pictures. These often go straight to the trash folder for deletion. Sure I may miss out on a good laugh or touching story, but I will avoid spam, which is my main goal. If I get something that is questionable or looks interesting, I can always forward it to my sacrifice folder and open there. Most times the emailed tidbit ends up being a complete waste of time.
3. Surf intelligently.
- Seek out and view popular videos from unaccredited sources. When you hear of a video online of a shocking footage of some sort, be aware that these video may contain malicious code. These could be human accidents involving cars, trains, or animal attacks. Rock star falls off stage. Actress on drugs video... and of course the ever popular celebrity sex tapes. Which leads me to my next guideline for avoiding spam.... No internet porn. The internet porn industry is a huge source of generated spam and distribution of malicious code.
So , there you go. These are the methods that I have deployed to protect my email accounts from spam. It has been effective to a certain extent, but the system is not perfect. Spam is a real pain in the butt to deal with, and even harder to avoid completely. I feel that these guidelines should be enough to guard from spam, but it is not. In the upcoming posts, I will discuss spam further.
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