How do I Protect Myself from Spam?

This article is for anyone who's new to owning websites and is interested in protecting themselves from unsolicited emails.

First up is the distinction between spam emails and marketing emails. A lot of people get the two confused. Basically if your on a lot of businesses mailing lists, the likelihood is that your going to get a lot of emails. You might not want to receive them, but that doesn't make them spam. To stop yourself from receiving these you must unsubscribe from the mailing list!

So then, what is spam? Spam emails typically offer services like online pharmacies or fake degree certificates, the key to what makes them spam, is that you never gave your email address to them in the first place. You might also consider emails with viruses as spam emails, or those that try and get you to enter your bank details or passwords - these are called fishing emails.

To prevent spam there's actually quite a lot to consider, in broad terms the advice we give is centred around a few key points:

• Is your email address published anywhere on the web.
• Do you have any spam protection software running and is it up-to-date.
• How well known is your website and how long has it been online.

Unfortunately if your email address gets published online, the chances are that no matter what you do - you wont be able to take it off. That's because once your address has been identified by spammers, they can republish it, sell it or share it with other spammers.

As for the popularity and long standing of your site - I'm afraid you will be a victim of your own success.

So what does that leave you with? Spam protection software. This software comes in many different forms and each have their own unique ways of identifying and preventing spam. Examples of this software include SpamAssassin and SpamBlocker. Each of these need to be configured to your specific setup. There is a trade off that must be considered with spam blocking software, you must find the right level of protection; not so much that you block genuine email, but not so little that its barely effective. Its generally accepted that no matter what your setup - you will always receive a small number of spam emails.

Sadly its also accepted that even as technology progresses and gets better at preventing spam, the spammers continue to get better at spamming. It's a never ending battle to keep spam at an acceptable level. Here at E-rizon we are prepared to do battle on your behalf - we regularly monitor our spam software and keep it as accurate as possible.