On the other you have the risk of computer virus through communicating unsolicited messages. In 2003, President Bush signed the 'Can Spam' bill, in December of 2003 which is the first national standards around bulk unsolicited commercial e-mail. The bill was naturally approved and voted by the Senate by a vote 97 to 0 and in essence stops a sender from sending unsolicited bulk commercial emails using tools like dictionaries for generating such mailers and hiding their identities via false return addresses. An opt out provision is a must-have inclusion and the email can not carry any subject line which misdirects the recipient. The law bars senders from gathering addresses from sites and any violation is considered as a punitive criminal offence with imprisonment of up to one year.
We ought to remember that large numbers of spam are now arriving from other countries. These emails are harder to fight, because they come from outside our country's laws and regulations. Because the internet has thrown open all geographical barriers, these laws can not erase the problem. Are there any rules which can save you from the situation? Use these 5 rules for protection against spam?
Number 1: Never put your email address on the internet. There are products called 'spam spider' which is used for scanning the internet for collecting e main addresses to build a mailing list. In case you want to know more, search 'spam spider' on the net and the results would leave you dumbstruck. The internet rogues like 'spambots' and 'spam spiders' are controlled very effectively by a site called WebPoison.org which is a open source project as they send them bogus web pages which carry equally bogus email addresses.
Number 2: Get spam blocking software. It is likely that you might want the professional series of this software but whatever you do, get the software as it could save you hours. It must be noted that the software is not capable of preventing all that is going wrong and some manual set up might be needed to block some specific types of emails.
Number 3: Take the approach of having many email addresses. Getting a free and new email address should not be a problem and each one can be used for varying communication needs and keep the other ones as back ups. Imagine giving your private mobile number to your friends and your business number to all others.
Number 4: One of the biggest problems with spam is the attachment which is an usual feature and these attachments could carry the viruses. While large corporations may use spam filters which do not allow the spam to reach you, personal emails are the places where spammers have a field day. Look for filters is your second job.
Number 5: Did you know that email service providers are now offering 'bulk mail' baskets? If your current vendor can not provide you with this service, change the vendor. Upon receipt of emails from strangers just put them in the bulk pile and then let them in to your circle. Any spam blocking software would also run with the same principles but there is nothing like having a couple of extra precautions - so it is worth looking into.
