Spam, the email equivalent of junk mail, is overloading our inboxes. Once viewed as a minor nuisance, spam is taking a serious toll on companies large and small. And the costs are significant. Spam chews up valuable messaging stores, saps user productivity, strains IT resources, and exposes businesses to potential liability issues. A recent report by independent research company Nucleus Research states that spam costs U.S. companies $874 per employee per year in lost productivity.

While the government enacting legislation to try to curb spam on its end, there are also some things you can be doing at your business to stop spam from infiltrating your inbox.

Legislative attempts
The CAN-SPAM law took effect on January 1, and targets mass email spammers. It requires labeling of unsolicited commercial email messages, as well as clearly defined opt-out instructions and the physical address of the sender of the email. It prohibits the use of deceptive subject lines and false headers in such messages. State laws that require labels on unsolicited commercial email or prohibit such messages entirely are pre-empted, although provisions merely addressing falsity and deception would remain in place. CAN-SPAM also authorizes the Federal Trade Commission to establish a “Do not spam” list, much like its “Do not call” list.

But businesses hoping for a quick legislative fix to the spam problem shouldn’t get their hopes up too high. FTC Chairman Timothy Muris recently told businesses executives and government officials that no new law by itself will make a “substantial difference” in the anti-spam effort. Muris even warned that some of the proposed legislation could actually make it more difficult to prosecute spammers. Calling spam “one of the most daunting consumer protection problems the FTC has ever faced," Muris is asking ISPs to help consumers more easily report spam and said that the commission would continue to investigate new technologies to fight it.

Keeping spam at bay
So what steps can you take to curb an unwanted influx of junk mail? Security experts recommend the following:

1. Use spam filtering or spam blocking software.

2. Do not respond to suspicious emails or to palpable spam. A response only confirms the accuracy of your email address, and may result in even more messages filling up your inbox.

3. Never submit credit card details or other personal information to non-secure Web sites (there should be a locked padlock icon that appears in yellow, or in a yellow box, on the bottom bar of the order form Web browser).

4. Never send your email address through chat rooms, instant message services, or Internet bulletin boards and newsgroups.

5. File a complaint with the FTC about any spam email that you have received. Visit the FTC online to file a complaint or forward the email to the FTC for investigation.

6. Do not give out your primary email address for online registration or on e-commerce sites. Have another free email address to use more publicly.

7. Put your company's policy on email in writing and make sure employees read it. Provide instructions on how to deal with inappropriate email. The policy should specify whether employees can sign up for newsletters and Web sites that require email addresses. Have all employees sign the policy.

8. Don't post clear links to your employees' email addresses on your Web site. Instead, display them in a way that a machine cannot read. So-called “spambots” crawl the Web looking for anything with an @ sign. One way to do this is to publish them as John_Doe[at sign]company.com.

9. Make sure your firewall is configured to block all unrequested traffic.

10. Encourage employees to be taken off mailing lists, as these are often just a way for spammers to confirm that an address is real.

Off with their heads
One of the most frustrating aspects of spam is that spammers go to great lengths to hide their true identity so as not to be shut down by their ISP. That’s why the name found in the From: field of a piece of spam email is rarely the real sender of the message. To find out where a message really originated, you need to read the email’s full header. Armed with this information you can contact the spammer’s ISP and file a complaint.

How you view an email header depends on the email client. For example, if you’re running Microsoft Outlook, right-click on the message and choose Message Options.

Conclusion
Spam continues to pose an onerous challenge to consumers and businesses alike, and no ready solution appears on the horizon. But that doesn’t mean spammers can expect to declare victory anytime soon. Following the behavioral tips recommended above can significantly cut down on the amount of incoming spam at your business. Also, with the introduction of the CAN-SPAM law, there may ultimately be less spam being mailed. Hopefully spam will soon become a thing of the past.