Everbody hates spam! I am sure spammers
hate getting spam too, but they still continue
to dish it out. Why? Because it is still
effective. Believe it or not, many of us
still click on the links or follow-up with
the spam message. As long as we continue
to do this, spam will exist. If everybody
understood this and paid no attention to
spam, the spammers will eventually give
up because it costs them realy money to
send out emails. It is hard to quantify
what the cost of sending out one, two or
fifty emails is, but 1 million or 5 million
emails certainly has a cost that is not
negligible. When the payback starts to get
so small that the spammers cannot make a
decent living, they will find something
else to do. This day will come and I cannot
wait for it to arrive.
In the meantime, what can we do about it.
Well, I am not going to tell you that there
is a perfect solution that will stop all
spam, but what I will tell you is that there
is a way to reduce the problem and manage
it effectively using the 7 steps outlined
below.
Step #1: Get Your Own Domain Name
Fighting spam effectively starts with getting
your own domain name. For example if your
name is Andy Williams, you would purchase
a domain name called andywilliams.com, which
is of course already owned by the famous
singer. This has some unique advantages
over using an ISP given domain name or a
webmail service such as Hotmail or Gmail.
It also has some minor disadvantages. Let's
examine these.
One major advantage is that you control
the entire email address. You could create
emails addresses like andy,
info, sales
and so on. This is in stark contract to
an ISP assigned name like andywilliams
If you wanted another one, you'd have to
open up another account or pay extra for
each additional ISP assigned address. If
you ever decided to switch ISP's, you would
lose that email address and have to start
over using a new one, and inform everyone
you communicated with about it - a very
messy proposition.
Many get around this problem by getting
a Hotmail, Yahoo Mail or Gmail account which
you can access from anywhere as long as
you have internet access. These types of
email accounts definitely have a place in
your email toolchest, but do not suffice
as your primary personal email address.
One reason is that you do not have access
to your email messages and address books
when you are not online, like during a long
flight. Anotehr drawback is that they do
not allow you to export the online address
books making portability very tedious.
I prefer owning my own domain name which
I call my permanent email address. I will
always have this email address as long as
I renew this domain name every year. The
cost of registering a domain name varies
from $4 to $8 per year for most common ones.
This is a small price to pay for the advantages
it brings you.
The one minor disadvantage of owning your
own domain name is that you need to manage
it yourself, or have someone do it for you.
This in my opinion is far outweighed by
the advantages mentioned above.
Step #2: Create Private Email Adresses
A private email address is one that nobody
but your inner circle knows about. Every
person that you give your personal email
address to is someone that you trust and
want to receive email from.
Setup one private email address for every
person who is going to need to receive messages.
This could be you and 5 other members of
your family or 12 employees that work for
you. This part is quite straightforward,
you simply login to your email control panel
and create new accounts for each email address
that is going to be used to receive email.
Step #3: Create Public Email Addresses
As Aliases
A public email address is generally known
to the public. It can be specific like andyw
or generic like receptionist
A public email address is created as an
email alias. An email alias is not a real
email address, but an address that gets
redirected to a real email address. For
example, you setup receptionist
as an alias that redirects to mary
Whenever some sends an email to receptionist,
it will end up in Mary's inbox. If you change
receptionists, you simple modify the redirect
for a very elegant solution. You can then
publish this public email address on a website,
in a brochure, on print advertising, business
cards etc. without giving away your personal
email address and without having to make
much changes if Mary leaves and a new receptionist
is hired. This is a huge benefit and maintains
your privacy as well as those of others
you have created email adresses for.
How does this help with spam, you ask?
By using email aliases in a smart fashion,
you could very easily shut down any spam
that starts coming in. Let's examine how
this can be done.
Step #4: Setup the Default or Catch-all
Email Address
Your email control panel will have something
called a "default address" or
it is also sometimes called a "catch-all
address". This is a valid email address
that all unresolved emails go to. If you
set this up to be your personal email address
for example, then you will receive all emails
that are addressed to <anything>,
this includes sales, joe,
andrew etc. Herein lies
the secret to combat spam.
Step #5: Create Specific Named Public Email
Addresses As And When Required
When you are forced to register on a website
where you want to get some information from,
you are usually asked for a valid email
address. Well guess what, you now have an
unlimited supply of valid email adresses.
I usually use a specific format when registering
at websites - it is <websitename>
So if I am registering at a website called
www.get-rich-quick.com, I would use the
address get-rich-quick
as my valid email address. When the site
sends me an email, it gets redirected to
my personal email or whatever the default
or catch-all address is.
Step #6: Send Spam Back To Where It Came
From, If Possible
Here comes the real bonus, if you subsequently
start receiving spam addressed to none other
than get-rich-quick, you
simple create an email alias for get-rich-quick
and redirect the email back to exactly where
it came from, for example georg-bush
You will then never get another email from
anyone using that email address ever again.
This is cool and is my favourite part. Bear
in mind that spammers usually send email
from an address that is not their own, so
if you see an address like noreply,
then you would redirect it somewhere else,
for example a Hotmail address that you setup
just for redirection purposes. Please exercise
some discretion here because spammers often
use the email addresses of real people and
we don't want these innocent people getting
redirected email.
Step #7: Be Diligent In The Ongoing Management
Of Your Domain
If you do this diligently for each website
where you register by identifying the website
name, you will very quickly know which websites
are selling email addresses and which ones
honor their promise not to share your information.
ALl this while, nobody by your personal
inner circle knows your private email address.
A real-life example in my case: I use a
specific email alias for my Paypal account
which nobody but Paypal knows. I have never
ever received spam on this address, but
I have received hundreds of spam messages
on other email aliases that I have created.
All of these emails supposedly come from
Paypal and address me as "Dear Valued
Paypal Member" or something similar,
warning me that my account is going to be
closed or suspended unless I click on their
link and update my credit card information.
I hope that I have given you some food
for thought on how to manage the ever growing
spam problem by protecting yourself by taking
some initiative and getting your own domain
name. The added benefit is that you now
have a permanent email address no matter
where you choose to live or which ISP you
use to connect to the internet.
There are many other ways to fight spam
which I will perhaps address in future articles.
About the Author
Balraj Dhaliwal is an Internet Consultant
for BSD Register. He helps customers with
whatever they need to achieve their goals.
BSD Register is well respected and liked
by its customers because of its no nonsense
simple approach to getting things done.
Visit BSD Register at http://www.BSDRegister.com
|
