Spam-proof your inbox

Avoid annoying unsolicited e-mail

By Sharon Oosthoek

Every day Toronto-based communications professional Madelyn Herschorn takes time from her busy schedule to clear spam from her e-mail program. If she didn’t, she’d soon find the folders in her inbox unmanageable.

So, like many Canadians, Herschorn has been forced to develop strategies for dealing with spam. “I generally give out my Hotmail address when I think my information is being tracked for marketing follow-up,” she says. “My Hotmail must get 10 pieces of spam a day, minimum.” But Herschorn’s unlisted e-mail address only gets approximately two pieces of spam per day.

What is spam?

Spam is unsolicited commercial e-mail — usually designed to get you to buy something. It’s also a growing source of viruses, scams and pornography.

Spammers sometimes use harvester programs to search the Internet and grab e-mail addresses from public places, such as message boards, says Miles Libbey, Rogers Yahoo!’s mail anti-spam product manager. Spammers then use those addresses to send out mass mailings.

Although Internet service providers have built-in filters designed to stop spam from getting to your inbox, no filter is foolproof.

Why should I be concerned?

“To put it simply, spammers are very creative,” says Jennifer Witham, associate director of Sympatico service quality and service delivery at Bell Canada. “A spam filter can only be effective to a certain degree, short of blocking all incoming mail. When a new filter is put into place, it isn’t long before a spammer finds a way around it.”

That’s why various technology companies are constantly updating filters. Microsoft’s SmartScreen Technology, for example, which is incorporated into various spam filters, uses probability-based algorithms, which adapt to identify characteristics of spam.

“Since Hotmail deployed it, SmartScreen has been blocking more than 95 per cent of all incoming spam — an average of nearly 3 billion messages every day,” says Michael Eisen, vice-president of law and corporate affairs at Microsoft Canada. SmartScreen Technology also provides a significant benefit to users of Windows Live Messenger, MSN Premium, Windows Live Hotmail and Outlook.

SmartScreen Technology is also available free to all users of Exchange Server (typically used in large business and office environments) via a download of the Exchange Intelligent Message Filter from Microsoft Exchange Server.

How can I avoid spam?

In 2004, the federal government’s Special Task Force on Spam launched an Anti-Spam Action Plan for Canada. The task force had a mandate to address several issues, including technological solutions and consumer education. One of its recommendations was to install and regularly update anti-spam software “to protect against virus-laden spam e-mails and attachments.”

The task force also echoed Herschorn’s strategy of reserving an e-mail account for uses that might attract spam and making sure the e-mail you accept in your inbox is only from trusted sources.

There are other ways computer users can try to avoid receiving spam in their inbox.

1. Don’t sign up for free services from companies whose legitimacy you are unsure of.
2. Always read a site’s privacy policy to learn about its information-sharing practices.
3. “Take advantage of an e-mail program’s built-in spam filter,” says Witham. Most e-mail programs have a help function that will tell you how to filter spam. In Outlook, for example, go to the toolbar, click Actions > Junk E-mail > Junk E-mail options and then select the options you want and click OK. In Windows Live Hotmail, click Options > More Options. Then under Junk e-mail select from either Filters and confirmation or Safe and blocked senders.
4. Use an e-mail address consisting of a combination of letters and numbers, suggests Eisen. “By choosing a more complex e-mail address, you are making it more difficult for spammers to randomly discover and fill your e-mail account,” he says.
5. Never reply to spam or open attachments from unknown or suspicious sources. Just delete it. Any reply, even a request to unsubscribe, can confirm your e-mail address and bring even more spam into your inbox.

Beware of spam and identity theft

Spammers use a practice called “phishing” to reel in your personal information and use it to access your bank and credit card accounts.

“It’s called phishing because spammers lure unsuspecting users by replicating the e-mail or web site of a trusted brand to fool the user into submitting personal, financial or password data,” says Libbey. “They essentially ‘fish’ for people’s sensitive information, which is then used illegally.”

Libbey says you should never reply to an e-mail request for personal information, even if the request is urgent. No reputable company will ever ask for these details via e-mail.