Have you had it with email that
promises to make you richer, healthier, lustier, or somehow magically
free of debt? You’re not alone. 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 new report by independent
research company Nucleus Research states that spam costs U.S. companies
$874 per employee per year in lost productivity.
While no one has devised a silver bullet to stop spam, developments
on several fronts are offering grounds for hope.
Legislative activity
The early September conviction of two Ohio-based spammers, who were
slapped with a $250,000 judgment by a Washington state court, was
the latest signal that the battle against spam has moved from the
realm of “blacklists” and content-filtering devices
to the courts. In August, Internet service provider EarthLink filed
suit to shut down spammers in Alabama and Vancouver, accusing some
100 people of bank fraud and credit card theft. EarthLink had earlier
won a $16 million judgment against a man known as the “Buffalo
Spammer.”
The U.S. Congress has also taken note of the problem, and several
bills are currently being debated. Two of them – CAN-SPAM
in the Senate and RID Spam in the house – call for email marketers
to clearly label their messages as marketing and to use valid return
addresses. They would also force marketers to allow consumers to
opt out of additional messages. Another bill calls on the Federal
Trade Commission to enforce 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 should you be taking 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. And don’t
give up on legislative remedies. Press for strong sender authentication
mandated by law. If we do all these things, we may ultimately make
spam a thing of the past.
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