JP\/18\/DEFEND<\/p>\n
Defend your mail from spam<\/p>\n
Arnawa Widagda, Contributor, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Today, junk mail comes in two varieties -- the hard-copy
\nadvertising rubbish and the more insidious on-line variety
\notherwise known as spam.<\/p>\n
And getting rid of spam is not as simple as posting a \"no junk
\nmail\" message on your letter box. Spammers are cunning creatures
\nand if they get your email address you will soon find yourself
\nburied under a deluge of unwanted emails. Outsmarting the
\nspammers, will then quickly become your No. 1 priority -- a bit
\nlike taking out the garbage, it's a dirty job but someone's got
\nto do it.<\/p>\n
The first line of defense for spam is your e-mail client.
\nUsually, clients come with a tool to separate e-mails containing
\na specific word in the body or subject or a certain address.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, bulk mailers usually randomize their addresses,
\nso you're better of trying to separate their e-mails by subject.
\nYou can also use this to separate e-mails from mailing lists,
\nmoving them into a special folder, so they wouldn't clutter your
\ninbox.<\/p>\n
There's also a way `whitelist' spammers. Instead of using a
\nblacklist to filer out junk, you can create a filter that blocks
\neverything it doesn't recognize.<\/p>\n
This is a strong filter and shouldn't be used lightly because
\nit can block a perfectly innocent mail from someone not on your
\ncontact list. It's a good idea, therefore, to move all
\nwhite-listed mail to a special folder where it sits in quarantine
\nbefore it is restored or deleted.<\/p>\n
Both of these methods, however, still require you to download
\nall mail, spending time and using up valuable bandwidth.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, there's a way around this problem. Most mail
\nprograms have an option that allows you to only download the mail
\nheaders, the subject lines of the mail, and not the whole
\nmessage.<\/p>\n
These headers contain information such as the sender's
\naddress, the mail subject and its size. These information is
\nenough for our filters to work, so you can download only the mail
\nyou want. You can also use them with POP and IMAP mailboxes.<\/p>\n
The second line of defense is to be careful about giving out
\nyour email address. Most people are careless, putting their
\naddresses on the web, forums and mailing lists.<\/p>\n
Bulk mailers are known to harvest addresses from the web,
\nusing special software to catalog mail addresses online. When
\nyou're subscribing to forums and mailing lists, check their
\nprivacy policies. This should also apply to websites that require
\nyou to register.<\/p>\n
A good privacy policy will assure you that you have the option
\nto not receive mail that you don't want and tell you that your
\naddress will not be shown or sold to anyone else.<\/p>\n
If you have to put up your address for some reason, you could
\nalways use a prefix like 'no-spam' or change the `@' with a 'at.'
\nA person will then just remove the prefix, while software will
\njust ignore the address because its not valid.<\/p>\n
Another trick you could use is having a 'buffer' mail address.
\nInstead of receiving mail directly, you put up this buffer
\naccount and not your primary mail address.<\/p>\n
This is extremely useful if you have to put up your contact
\ninfo on the web. You can set them up to filter unwanted mail and
\nthen forward them to your primary mail address, keeping it clean
\nfrom most bulk mailers.<\/p>\n
If you're using service such as Yahoo! or Hotmail, they
\nusually offer some protection against bulk mailers. However,
\nsince these services don't offer customizable filters, some will
\neventually get through but thankfully not much. Deleting them is
\nquite easy, just delete them from your mail list.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/jp18defend-1447899208",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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