Unsolicited e-mail messages sent in bulk is known as junk mail. A junk mail promotes some product or service that is usually provided from a website. Junk mail is always unsolicited and sent in bulk. The amount of junk mail that is being sent has increased exponentially over the years and has become seriously disruptive. Junk mail fills up inboxes. E-mail users spend a considerable amount of time deleting unwanted messages. Sometimes, the inbox overflows and legitimate mail gets bounced off. E-mail filters, which are used to weed out junk mail in an automated manner, are not 100% effective and sometimes delete non-junk messages. Junk mail also ties up mailservers and are known to spread hoaxes and viruses. Spam can be wasteful, embarrassing, annoying and stressful. Children can also taunted to visit undesirable websites.

Junk mail was mainly used to promote pornographic material and websites. But, that's only because the adult industry has been the pioneers of innovations in information technology. Today, they have been joined by drug retailers and outfits dealing in credit card, debt and financial services. While a big majority of companies whose products or services are promoted via junk mail are of a dubious nature, many big and respectable companies also use junk mail. However, few of these companies send junk mail directly. Instead, they utilise the services of a third party known as the spammer.

Spammers collect e-mail addresses from a variety of sources and by using a variety of means. Many websites offer free services for some time and, when they close down, sell their e-mail database to a spammer. Sometimes, customers databases are also stolen by employees. Lapses in security have put many offline databases online. Spammers also employ spambots, which are computer programs that search web pages on the Internet for e-mail addresses. They also use viruses that steal e-mail addresses from infected computers. Many enterprising spammers are also using virus-infected machines to act as mailservers for sending out spam. Forwarded messages (usually joke e-mail) and chain mail accumulate e-mail addresses over time and end up with spammers. Most of the time, your e-mail address ends up with a spammer because you or one of your contacts has used your e-mail address in an irresponsible manner. Millions of email addresses have found their way into such databases. Every day, an unbelievable amount of unsolicited email is sent to these hapless people. Despite all the methods used to combat this menace, the deluge of spam continues to grow by the second.

Thus, spammers build huge databases of e-mail addresses. The addresses are organised in categories such as students, businessmen, office workers, government employees, retirees, etc. Other categorisations such as sex, religion, age, salary, interests, etc., are also done. A spammer/junk mailer will typically offer to send messages on a particular category or on the entire database for a fee. Because these databases have millions of addresses, even if one or two percent of the messages result in enquiries it is still a successful promotion. And, once the spammers has built up a huge database, his operational costs because it cost very low to run a mail server (the computer on the Internet that is used to spew out spam). Because the same database can be used for potentially innumerable clients and the same client may use several promotions, junk mailing business is an incredibly profitable business venture. Besides, bulk mailing is not a brick-and-mortar operation. It is a purely online business. Many of them don't even have a post box number, they accept payments via online credit card transfer.

Spammers are sustained by companies that use their services for promoting products and services. They are the main culprits. Strangely, people who are the sponsors of junk email are ignored in the fight against spam. By exposing these sponsors to the menace of spam, you can give them a taste of their own medicine. I have decided to call this Reverse Spamming. Here is how it works.

1. Visit the websites of the companies whose products or services are touted in the junk messages.
2. Find their e-mail addresses - the ones used for marketing, sales, support, etc.
3. Submit these e-mail addresses to websites that can be expected to send a lot of spam.

This way you turn spammers against spam sponsors; their allies are now their enemies. There is nothing wrong or unethical about this. Commercial companies say they have a right to advertise and many lawmakers and judges have sided with them. If it is all right for them to send junk mail, then obviously there is nothing wrong for them to receive some junk mail. Surely, they can benefit from spam if you can. You are only returning them a favour. How can they say no?

• Almost every junk email has a URL (website address). Check if it is a simple address.
  • If it is a simple address like http://www.sanfarm.info/, then put this address in a list. This is the list of spam sponsor websites.
  • If the address is very long and complicated like
    http://www.sanfarm.info/index2.htm?db=hotmail.com&e=johndoe, then quite possibly your email address has been encoded in it. In case you click on it, the spammer will know that yours is a valid email address and he will send you even more spam. In such a case, you remove that part that identifies you and keep the rest - http://www.sanfarm.info/index2.htm.
• Take this list to an Internet Cafe and visit the sites of the spam sponsors. You don't want do this in your home or office PC. It will be difficult to prove to your employer you are not really interested in penis enlargement.
• When you reach the sites, search for their email addresses. They are usually found under the links for contact, feedback, support, marketing, sales, etc.
• Put these email addresses in a text file.

• Some spammers might not encode your email address in an easily recognizable manner.
• HTML messages should not be previewed (in the e-mail client) when the Internet connection is on. If previewed, the images will get downloaded, which will again enable the spammer to get a confirmation that your email address is a valid one. Many e-mail providers like Yahoo! and HotMAIL do not download images in HTML messages.
• Spammers fake their From and Reply-To addresses. These addresses can be forged and might actually belong to ordinary people like you and me. So, PLEASE DON'T USE THE FROM AND REPLY-TO ADDRESSES FOR REVERSE SPAMMING.

To fight spam with spam, you need to find a good spammer.

• Sites dealing with sex are the best. Sites that have their ethics intact are bad choice because they will stop sending spam if requested. Again, do this in an Internet cafe. Convincing a family member that you are not into major mellons is not going to be easy. Also, you can browse anonymously in an Internet cafe.
• See if the site has a form where visitors are asked to submit their email address for receiving mail daily.
• Make sure the form is not very complicated. Ones that ask only the email address are the best. Avoid those that ask you to choose an username, password, etc.

Open the e-mail submission page in Internet Explorer. Press Ctrl+N several times to open the same page in as many windows. Copy an e-mail address from the text file, paste it in the e-mail box and submit the form. While the website process the submission, go the other windows and submit the remaining e-mail address.

Some spam sponsors, realising that they too might be targeted for spam, don't put their email addresses on their pages. Instead, they have a "feedback" page. On this page, you will find a form. When a user fills up this form, an email will be sent to the company. What you have to do in these cases is simple. Just fill up some junk data. Next, press Ctrl+N several times. (Works only in Internet Explorer.) Now, the same page with the same junk details will be opened in each window. Go to each window and submit the forms. The company would have a lot of the same but useless messages.

Have no appetite for reverse spamming? Happy if you can just avoid spam? Here are some neat message rules that you can implement in Outlook Express to weed out junk mail.

1. Open Outlook Express and create two folders in your mail client - Filtered Inbox and Spam.
2. Create the following four rules (Tools » Message Rules » Mail).

Mail Rule #1: Mail From Known Contacts
Where the From line contains 'friendname' or 'contact@emailaddress.com'
Move it to the Filtered Inbox folder
  and Stop processing more rules

Mail Rule #2: Mail Not Addressed To Me
Where the To or CC line does not contain 'my@emailaddress.com'
Move it to the Spam folder
  and Flag it
  and Stop processing more rules

Mail Rule #3: Word filters on From, To, & Subject lines
Where the From line contains 'debt' or 'enlargement' or 'teens' or 'viagra'
  or Where the Subject line contains 'debt' or 'enlargement' or 'teens' or 'viagra'
  or Where the To line contains 'debt' or 'enlargement' or 'teens' or 'viagra'
Move it to the Spam folder
  and Stop processing more rules

Mail Rule #4: Suspect Mail
For all messages
Move it to the Filtered Inbox folder
  and Flag it
  and Stop processing more rules
       

In the first rule, add all your contact names or their e-mail addresses. In the second rule, add YOUR e-mail addresses. In the third rule, add words that usually appear in the From, To, Subject parts of the bulk messages. You can use the bulk messages you have received in the past as your guide when picking these words.

When you use your e-mail client to receive messages, the message rules will get to work and categorize the messages accordingly. Check the flagged messages in the Spam folder every time. Someone whom you haven't put in the rule 1 may have sent you a mail via bcc (blind carbon copy). Check the other messages in the Spam folder once in a while just to see that there are no non-junk messages that have been inadverdantly classified as spam. Check the flagged messages in the Filtered Inbox to identify spam messages and use them to update the word list in rule 3.

Unlike postal letters, e-mail is free, very easy to use, and lightning fast. This makes it very dangerous and you cannot be too careful with it. What you think as personal might appeal to a friend or a co-worker as funny. When a racy mail gets forwarded, a chain reaction might follow and scores of unknown people might be reading your mail. You might end up as a laughing stock.

There is a simple yet elegant way of telling your contacts to be responsible with e-mail. I use an e-mail signature where I have enumerated some e-mail best practices.

V. Subhash.
http://www.vsubhash.com
 
E-MAIL BEST PRACTICES

1. Use the blind carbon copy (BCC) option when sending a message to many contacts. (None of the recipients will know who the other recipients were.)
2. If you do have to forward an e-mail joke, delete all names and e-mail addresses from the message before sending it. Respect others' privacy.
3. Do not blindly forward e-mail messages. Stop the spread of hoaxes, chain mail and other forms of viral marketing. (They can grow exponentially and may go on forever.)
4. Never use someone else's e-mail address without his/her permission on any website. (Spammers harvest e-mail addresses by providing some free service.)
5. Add these points to your e-mail signature.

Use a similar one for your messages. In Outlook Express, you can create a mail signature via Tools » Options » Signature » New. The signature gets automatically inserted in all your messages without any special effort from your part.

Some people just don't get it. No matter how many times you explain it to them, they keep sending you chain mail and ask you to circulate it. Here is a off-colour but effective way to make them understand.

LAWN CARE

This mail is being sent to you because I know you are critically interested in your front lawn. You are invited to join the Fertilize Your Lawn Club and it will not cost you a cent. Upon receipt of this message, go to the address at the top of the list and $hít on their front lawn. You will not be the only one there. So, do not feel embarrassed. Remove the name at the top of the list and add your name to the bottom. Then, send the message to five of your friends who appreciate good lawns. You will not get any cash or checks, but within one week, if the chain is not broken, there will be 9,915 people $hítting on your front lawn. Your reward will come later this summer when you will have the greenest lawn in your neighborhood.

DO NOT BREAK THIS CHAIN! One man didn't give a $hít and lost his entire lawn.