Sterling Consulting Anti-Spam Page

Spam is a term for Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (UCE). Everyone gets it and most of it is absolutely ridiculous, if not outright illegal. It is more of a nuisance than an actual security threat in most instances. Although there have been a number of really disturbing instances starting in late 2001 where the sleaze bags who send spam are so careless that they are becoming infected with mass mailing worms and thus may attempt to infect you. And, there is very little you can do to avoid getting on a spammer's list. But there are a few things you can do to fight back.

First, if you receive a Spam message which offers to remove you from the list by replying to e-mail or calling a telephone number - don't. In many cases this simply verifies your e-mail address and makes it more marketable to other spammers. Computers can randomly try e-mail and it costs them virtually nothing to have it bounce back to them if it is invalid.

Second, never ever, buy anything from any e-mail advertisement. If everyone figured this simple step out they would go pull legs off of bugs or something instead of pestering us. Remember, if you get an unsolicited offer via e-mail, it is a lie! There are no two ways about it! Actually all advertising in general is a lie, but spam is an extra special vile form of lie - you are paying for it while legitimate "lies", say on television, are something which they pay for.

Third, never post in a news group using your real e-mail address. Spammers use software which scans news groups and "harvests" e-mail addresses. This is the part of the lie they use about "You expressed an interest in....", though most actually just buy lists of e-mail addresses without a thought for what they know about you personally. Once you become advanced in spam killing techniques you can learn to trace down the e-mail addresses of the actual spammers (the ones you see are a lie, guaranteed!). Then you can safely post in news groups using their own personal e-mail addresses and let their harvesting software send their junk to themselves. This one is particularly satisfying, but you do need to become expert at the process to find their real addresses. They are very good liars.

Forth, a very effective proactive method is to report Spam to a legitimate Spam fighting organization. One which we use and recommend is spamcop.net though there are several other good ones out there. They are sincere and do a very good job. You can use them for free or pay a small fee to get even more involved. And they are easy to use. Remember that complaining directly to the spammers is pretty pointless. They already know that they are a nuisance and that you don't want their Spam. The complaint needs to go to the people whose server they are using.

Another very good thing you can do is to join Cauce (Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email). Cauce is a non-profit organization of Internet users who promote legislative solutions to the problem. Joining Cauce is free and easy, just click www.cauce.org to visit their site.

There are other steps you can take as well, but these are a good starting point.

Note that we at Sterling Consulting^™ abhor SPAM. If you ever receive unsolicited e-mail from any of our hosted clients, or which purports to be from us, please contact us immediately at abuse@stercon.com. We will take swift action! Please include the Internet header information in any such situation so that we can verify and trace the source.