How to stamp out spam

20 November 2008

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Spam messages are malicious email messages usually designed to sell you something, scam you, or infect your PC. The term comes from a Monty Python sketch that pokes fun in a noisy and incoherent way at nothing in particular. Unfortunately, these emails are not remotely funny but pointless, annoying and potentially dangerous to your business.

Every day spam messages are sent in their thousands by individuals hoping to con you into revealing personal data or sending them money. By managing spam emails you can save yourself a lot of time and possible damage to your IT systems and even prevent financial loss.

Why do spammers spam?

The principle behind commercial spam is simple. Sending email is virtually free. So, even if only a few people place an order as a result of sending thousands of emails, the effort is still worthwhile.

The principle behind malicious spam is the same. If just one or two people;

Infect their PCs.
Send money in response to a scam.
Log on to a corrupt website to con you out of your money.
Pass on a hoax Email.
Spammers think it is worth sending the other many thousand that do not get through.

Why is spam a problem?

It infects your PC with malicious software.
It attempts to defraud you or entice you to buy fake products.
It's a burden on your email connection if you have to download it.
It obscures useful email with the result that you might miss an important message.
It's a major drain on the internet. The majority of all email messages travelling on the internet are spam.
Some spam contains offensive material or links to offensive web sites.

It can often be hard to distinguish between spam and genuine emails. As quickly as people come up with new ways to detect them, spammers come up with ways around them so anti-spam filters can never be 100% effective.

They will always let some spam through and falsely label some genuine messages as spam. However, filters are becoming more efficient, email users are more vigilant and legislation is beginning to reflect the threat posed by spam.

How to spot spam

If it looks too good to be true, it probably is. For example, you can't win a prize for a competition that you never entered.
Consider any request for money as a possible scam. Even if it appears to be from an authoritative source.
Don't trust what you read. A common scam is to invoice you for a product or service you never ordered. You might even be threatened with being put on a debtor's black list if you don't pay.

How to manage spam

It is important that you learn how to manage spam:

Think before opening suspicious emails. If you recognise a message as spam, don't be tempted to open them, delete it.
Don't reply to spam. The message might give you an email address or a web site to 'unsubscribe'. Don't use them unless you know who the originator is. Replying to a spammer validates that you have a properly used email address and will encourage more spammers.
Don't react angrily. You might be tempted to send a rude email to the originator but chances are their email address has been appropriated by the spammer and they are already getting hundreds of failed email messages already.
Never pass anything on. You may get official looking messages warning you about viruses or telling you how to get free money and will ask you to pass it on. It's almost certainly a hoax and you are perpetuating it if you pass it on. Also, passing it on to business contacts will appear particularly unprofessional.

Protect your email address

Spammers trawl websites and forums looking for email addresses they can add to their databases.

If you need to publish your email address on the web, consider making it difficult to read so that automated scanning tools do not get your email address. For example, display your email like this: name [at] address.co.uk.

Recent email programs have an option that suppresses pictures in emails. This is because spammers embed your email address in the picture. Displaying the picture will tell the spammer that their message got through to you and will encourage them to send more.

Filtering spam

Your email provider will do some filtering on your behalf. However, filtering at this level cannot take account of individual needs. You might therefore find it is rejecting too much genuine email. Make sure you can:

tailor it to meet individual needs; or
identify and mark suspect mail in a way that can be overridden by an email server or email reader (the most common way is to add an attachment with a standard name).

Your email software should include the option to filter spam and yur PCs should, of course, have virus checking installed as standard.

About the author

This article was first published as Eliminating spam in the Business IT Guide, part of e-skills, the Sector Skills Council for IT and telecoms. The Business IT Guide has been developed in collaboration with industry experts to help small businesses find the right IT solutions for the issues that affect them.

How to stamp out spam

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