E-mail Don'ts

Cyber-Sierra Workshop 2002: E-Mail Power

Avoiding Spam:
| Start | Do's | Don'ts | Manage | Outreach | Spam |

What is Spam

Spam is unsolicited e-mail. Be it an ad for a used PC, or an urge to vote on a proposition; if you didn't ask for it, didn't sign up on a mailing list related to it, and didn't leave your e-mail address on a web form asking for more information on it, it's spam!

Is spam legal? According to Spamlaws.com, a number of legislative bills to halt spam have been introduced at both federal and state levels but none have been enacted to date. As a basic rule, don't send out unsolicited e-mail. Nearly everyone with an e-mail address gets spam and everyone hates it.

How do they find me? Spammers get your email address in several ways. If you give out your e-mail address while surfing, participating in online forums that post e-mail addresses, or otherwise handing out your address you'll get spammed.

The other way that spammers get your e-mail address is by sending robots and spiders to your web site. You probably have your e-mail address on your web site as a handy link. Unfortunately, this an open invitation for spammers to collect the addresses for mass mailings of junk mail and other unwanted materials. The good news is that there are several ways to outwit the spammers.

Don't encourage spammers:

"Under no circumstances will I ever purchase anything offered to me as the result of an unsolicited e-mail message. Nor will I forward chain letters, petitions, mass mailings, or virus warnings to large numbers of others. This is my contribution to the survival of the online community."

Spam-proofing Your Web Site

Use an Image
The simplest, most effective way to hide your e-mail address is to make it into a graphic. There are no spambots that can read gaphics. Detail your address in the image's text alternative attribute i.e. alt="Email mtnplanner at my domain, cyber-sierra.com"

Use a Feedback Form
As an alternative to email, consider using a feedback form, i.e. a guestbook program. Not only do you avoid giving out your email to spambots, but allow an easy way for people to reach you, without clogging up you mailbox. This may require a little more knowledge of servers to implement since most forms use a cgi script.

Use Specific E-mail Names.
Often when you have a domain name you can set your domain e-mail to a catch-all default. Such a default routes all mail no matter how addressed to one box as long as the domain name is correct. Spammers then send e-mail using anyname@toyourdomain.com to reach you. By using just a few specific names, you derail this broadcast spam tactic, and reduce the trash in your inbox.

Use a table
Tables are a great way to show your email without revealing it to spambots. Nowadays, you'd be hard pressed to find a browser that does NOT support tables, so this trick should work almost everywhere. Turn off the table borders (set to zero), and it will look just like a regular mailto address.

Border set to 4

jean @ cyber-sierra.com

Border set to zero

jean @ cyber-sierra.com

Spam-proofing Your E-Mail Habits

Read messages offline.

Set your email to read only ASCII or plain text messages.

Disable javascripting in your email messages.

Use an online viewer to delete unwanted mail before downloading.

Use Bcc: (Blind Carbon Copy) instead of Cc: (Carbon Copy)

Protect your main e-mail address from 'friends'

Use a second e-mail address for 'strangers'

Never reply to a message from a stranger

Use an online viewer to delete unwanted mail before downloading.

Reference Sites

Hide from Spiders
http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol4/design_no21.htmNet Mechanic has a great article on how to hide from the spam bots. You can sort through the techniques and find one for your skills level.

When Spies Hitchhike on an E-Mail
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/mar2001/nf2001031_841.htm With a few extra lines of hidden code in an HTML email message, anybody can emotely instruct Web servers to notify the original sender, once the message is read or is forwarded to others. The code can even capture any text added to the forwarded message -- and send that back to the original sender, as well.

Spambot Beware
http://www.turnstep.com/Spambot/index.html The spambot blocking solutions are very good, giving a wide variety of choices to webmasters.

Stop Spam
http://www.scambusters.org/stopspam/index.html Scambusters now provides information on how to stop spam.