| It is reported that 60%+ of internet traffic | | | | delivered to the root email account. Many |
| on mail servers are spam messages. If you run | | | | webmasters don't realize this and the webmail |
| a website, you can be sure that you are (or | | | | for the root account never gets checked - I |
| will be over time) receiving a tremendous | | | | came across an account with 75 pages of |
| amount of unsolicited email messages. If you | | | | unrouted email messages (roughly 14,000 |
| haven't started a website yet, remember that | | | | messages) and taking up about 15MB of their |
| an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of | | | | of webspace. Believe it or not, some spam |
| cure. There are safeguards you can use to | | | | software is designed to create plausible |
| minimize the number of unwanted messages you | | | | names (i.e. admin, contact, customerservice, |
| receive. | | | | webmaster, abuse, etc. @yourdomain.com) and |
| | | | just go for broke and hope the account |
| WHOIS data: When you register a domain name, | | | | exists. |
| you are required to provide contact | | | | |
| information for the WHOIS database, which can | | | | If you are using CPanel, you can check your |
| later be harvested by spammers for e-mail | | | | default email account by clicking on the |
| addresses. To protect yourself from such | | | | "webmail" icon from your control panel home |
| unscrupulous people, I suggest using a dummy | | | | page. You can also set what your unrouted |
| account with a free email provider such as | | | | messages will do by clicking on the "mail" |
| Yahoo or Hotmail (don't forget to check it at | | | | icon and selecting "default address", then |
| least once a month) - if you've already | | | | "set default address" - you can then choose |
| registered your site and have listed your | | | | to blackhole unrouted messages (just let them |
| primary email address in the WHOIS contact | | | | disappear into cyberspace - my personal |
| information, it is highly recommended that | | | | favorite), fail messages (bounce them back to |
| you update the information with a new dummy | | | | sender) or you can specify an email address |
| email address. Your host and registrar will | | | | you want them forwarded to. If you are afraid |
| have your primary email address on file - you | | | | someone simply misspelled your email address |
| simply need to remember to keep your | | | | and you want to sift through the unrouted |
| information with them up to date. If this | | | | messages, set up an email account |
| seems like too much work for you, you can | | | | specifically for them (ex: ) and remember to |
| always use a WHOIS privacy service such as | | | | check it every week or so. |
| the WhoisGuard service provided by ($4.88 - | | | | |
| which is a great value). | | | | SPAM filters: I consider spam filters to be a |
| | | | final line of defense if all others fail. |
| Your web pages: One of the first things I do | | | | Currently, I use Mozilla Thunderbird as my |
| when creating a website is create a contact | | | | email application and it comes with a built |
| form with the email address embedded in the | | | | in spam filter which can be trained to catch |
| mailer script such as PHP or ASP. Why? There | | | | unsolicited email. There are also many other |
| is a lot of software floating around out | | | | SPAM filter software out there for email |
| there designed solely to crawl website | | | | clients such as Outlook, Outlook Express, |
| harvesting them for valid email addresses | | | | Eudora, etc. which are worth a look. To find |
| (some will even ignore the robots.txt file | | | | out more information on the available spam |
| completely). Once you've created your forms, | | | | filters, check out (for Outlook and Outlook |
| you can then begin to include your email | | | | Express - free) or do a quick google search |
| addresses in your web pages for those who | | | | for "free anti spam software" for your |
| wish to email you directly from their email | | | | platform. |
| clients - you can write your email address as | | | | |
| and instead of using the 'mailto:' link - | | | | A special note for AOL users: While I have |
| hyperlink it to your contact form. You may | | | | nothing against AOL and they are trying very |
| also include a note for your visitors to | | | | hard to combat spam, they are slowly, but |
| replace the [at] with the @ sign. Make sure | | | | surely losing the battle. I've had two email |
| you remember to do this with all the email | | | | accounts opened with them, and before I even |
| addresses within your site. | | | | had a chance to sign up for anything or even |
| | | | tell my family about it - I received spam. I |
| Newsgroups/forums/subscriptions: It's a hard | | | | do not know why they are so prone to spam, |
| pill to swallow, but these areas are not safe | | | | but something tells me it has a lot to do |
| from email harvesting either and even worse, | | | | with their member directory. My advice, get |
| some newsletter publishers don't even adhere | | | | another email address - just remember to |
| to their own privacy policies (very rare, but | | | | check your AOL email every once in a while to |
| it does happen). Be careful where you post | | | | delete the messages. I've also noticed that a |
| your email address and don't make it a habit | | | | lot of other subscription services are |
| to sign up with every forum you should come | | | | declining to email AOL users due to their new |
| across. Make sure you find the information | | | | "report spam" button being far too close to |
| useful to you and that you trust the website | | | | the delete button and webmasters of |
| first. For extra protection, use a an email | | | | legitimate email lists are getting warnings |
| address other than your primary one for all | | | | from their ISPs. |
| your subscriptions (ex: ). If you wish to | | | | |
| post an email address in the forums for the | | | | In closing, I have managed to keep my current |
| readers to contact you, try to use the format | | | | primary email spam free (literally) for over |
| described in the previous section with a note | | | | a year using these methods, and before that I |
| to replace [at] with @ and hyperlink it to | | | | kept my primary email address spam free for |
| the contact form on your website. | | | | just over two. I will plainly admit that I |
| | | | have no sympathy for spammers, and I make |
| Unrouted email messages: An unrouted email | | | | sure to hunt down anyone who sends me spam |
| message is a message addressed to an email | | | | and report them until their site is either |
| with your domain name that does not exist - | | | | shut down or their ISP is added to a block |
| i.e. , only you never created an account. The | | | | list. |
| default setting is to have these messages | | | | |