|
Not Getting Enough Spam?
Here's 10 Ways To Get More
How E-mail addresses attract spam
shouldn't be news to IT and security administrators, but company workers
often need reminders. In that vein, FrontBridge, an E-mail protection
vendor, released its top 10 list of ways spammers find people.
Based on its evaluation of hundreds of millions
of messages, FrontBridge distilled the characteristics of filtered spam to
identify how spammers obtain, or in some cases, guess, E-mail addresses.
Put an E-mail address on a high-traffic Web site.
Post (or reply to a post) on Usenet.
Post (or reply to a post) on a public Web-based discussion group.
Register the address with a Web site that goes out of business and
sells its list.
Register the address with a Web site that sells its list.
Subscribe to a porn site with the address.
Reply to an opt-out E-mail or click on an opt-out link in a
message.
Use an address with a common name that can be easily guessed (such
as bob@company.com).
Register a domain name.
Post an E-mail address in a chat room.
Reminding employees of these bad habits, said
FrontBridge, will reduce the risk of having workers inundated by spam.
Avoid spam by following this simple rule:
Treat your email address like your home phone number. Only give it
to people you want to contact you.
If a web site requires an email address, give
them a fake one. Simple and effective. If you need to receive
correspondence from a company then use a valid address. Or better
yet, use an alternative address. It's nice to have a "main" address
for people close to you or for business. Get a free Yahoo or Hotmail
address for the 'less important' contacts.
|