Stalked By SPAM?
Stalked By Spam? Harassed by home loan offers? Stricken by solicitations for every credit related company imaginable? Persecuted by pornographic junk? Help with coping with SPAM and any of its "adult" offers.
Is your Inbox always filled with offers from companies you’ve never heard of? Web sites offering the most uninteresting, or illegal, material possible? You aren’t alone
Junk email, or SPAM, has clogged up more servers than any other type of correspondence. This material is annoying in the mildest forms, however can offer services and products which are both offensive and ridiculous.
When you check your email, spam is always a terrible surprise. However, what you don’t know may encourage such correspondence.
A Word On "Adult" Spam:
When it comes to the pornographic spam, it would seem there is some legal haven for consumers. This is the worst kind because all too often there are both graphic language and images involved. The opportunity for minors to access these sites booms with this type of spam. It seems as though the companies could be criminated for contributing to minors and a host of other charges. In some cases, these emails can even cause marital discord when one spouse suspects the other has been visiting such sites.
Many times, these companies use the clever ploy at the bottom of the email. It reads "someone has signed you up" and it always says, "This is a subscribe-only e-mail. To unsubscribe click&ldots;."
Wait before you click the "unsubscribe" link!
Unless you or someone you know signed you up, use caution! This message, can be a "subscribe only," con.
There is no subscription. They did not find you name on their message board, your profile was not submitted to them by you or someone on your computer. There is no magical, "the form you filled out..." or "...based upon your requests, here is the information on adult sites."
Before you suspect a member of your family of dubious behavior, wait a moment. It is a pornographic solicitation from a company who has no regard or respect for computer users, would it really be "against their ethics," to make false claims?
First Note: They don't even have a name to send their material to! If it was an actual request, there would be a name or "username," not just an email address!
How do these companies have your e-mail? Most importantly, what do they know about your address?
In truth, these companies have no information aside from e-mail addresses. They don’t even know if your account is a valid. That is- Until You Respond.
By clicking the "Unsubscribe" button, you do more harm than good. You verify your account is used, is up-to-date, and you check your e-mails enough to respond to unwanted spam. This is a final rule for spam, pornographic or otherwise.
These companies purchase lists of e-mail addresses from other companies that collect them. You are correct if you assume your e-mail address will be sold from the company you unsubscribe from. You will unsubscribe from that list, but quickly entered into countless others.
Consider This:
1. In nine times out of ten no one has, "signed you up," for that email. Period. End of discussion. It is a blatant lie used to encourage replies and verify valid email addresses.
Simply delete it. While many are uncomfortable with having such material in their "trash," or "Recycle Bin," you can remove it from there, as well.
2. Don’t respond at all! Don’t send nasty letters to the company. They won’t reply or respond. They will probably have a good laugh at your outrage.
3. Don’t bother with contacting the e-mail address domain company. When someone sends you a SPAM e-mail from a domain such as Yahoo™ or Hotmail™, don’t bother contacting the administration. They can’t help. The mail has been sent and none of these soliciting companies keep their e-mail addresses. By the time you receive the letter, the account will have been closed or abandoned.
Because most of these "Free Email" companies have a "no spam" policy, they investigate, however it will do no good with the original owner gone. Most of these companies initiate accounts simply to send out a single wave of spam. To use an old adage, "the damage is done."
5. If the spam is too frequent, you can invest in a e-mail program to "screen" your mail. One popular company is "Postini," this is our very own spam filter company. A very legitimate and reputable company, they screen your email for everything from computer viruses to explicit junk mail. All scams and spam is filtered from your account before it can reach your Inbox. You may then visit their site and examine what mail was trying to reach you. There, you can delete it from the site, without it ever reaching your home computer.
The other option when you have an abnormal amount of solicitations is to check the activity of other users on the computer. First, are there members of your household giving your address out to others on the Internet? Second, how many times have you clicked, "unsubscribe" on SPAM emails? Remember you verified your address each time you did.
6. If your children have e-mail accounts, screen them before they get on the computer. The Internet has many advantages however this is another reason unsupervised children shouldn‘t be on the Internet. Their accounts will be bombarded with the same pornographic and/or illegal material your account is.
Most authorities on Internet crime and criminal behavior state it for a reason: don’t allow your children to have an e-mail account unless you screen the material coming in.
Spam of this nature is just part of such a vast world of information. It is best if you approach it with patience, confidence, and savvy. While we will always deal with some form of spam, with a few precautions, you can reduce the amount coming into your account.
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