Spam - What it is and how to block it!

eMail Spam (Unsolicited Bulk eMail)
Spam is the sending of unsolicited bulk email messages to lists of recipients who have not given their permission to be on the mailing list and usually do not want to receive the junk email messages.

Spam Facts
Spam email can reach a great number of recipients with very little cost to the sender. Spam costs are low because it uses resources that are already paid for by the recipient and ISP (Internet Service Provider) carriers. Spammers are tempted by this readily available inexpensive way to reach large numbers of people, but it is looked down upon and is now illegal in many countries. Spam email abuse is so despised that anti-spam groups have formed and developed complex systems to identify and fight spammers. Spam email is therefore typically only used by unethical businesses to promote scams, illegal products, and "get-rich-quick" money making schemes. Spammers can avoid being caught and shut down by using off-shore mail servers, forged email headers, and by high jacking email programs such as FormMail (a popular free program which posts form submissions to an email address) in order to use somebody else's domain and mail server to send their spam mail.

Spam Lists And How To Avoid Them
eMail spam is the sending of unsolicited email messages directly to individuals from lists of email addresses. Spam email address lists are populated in many ways. Spammers often use software to scan or "crawl" the Web to harvest email addresses from web pages and postings. Mailing lists, are often sold, traded, and stolen. The spam problem is so pervasive that if you use email, it is almost certain that your email address will eventually get on a spam list. Once it gets on one spam list, it will spread to other lists. It is only a matter of time before something must be done to stop the spam or it will overwhelm your inbox, which takes time to clean out, exposes your machine to potentially malicious content, and wastes resources.

Web Site Contact Form
eMail addresses should NEVER be posted on any web site! It used to be common practice for commercial web sites to have a "Contact Us" email address link on the web pages. This is a big mistake. Do not include your email address in text, links, comments, or any other place on your web site if you don't want it to be harvested by spammers. Use a web contact form instead. The web contact form should use a posting method that does NOT list your email address in the source code of the page. Ideally, the contact form should have a random number security check or some other method to prevent automated form postings by sophisticated spammers.

Be careful who you give your email address to.
You can avoid spam lists for a while by being careful where you submit your email address. For instance, you might only give out your email address to family, friends, and reputable businesses that have strict privacy policies.

Filter Spam or Block It?

Spam Filter (sometimes referred to as a spam blocker)
Spam filters typically use complex rules and formulas to analyze incoming messages. Spam filters have been around for a while and there all kinds of them everywhere. They can be installed on your local computer or on a server. Spam and bulk email filters are often included for free with webmail services. Some spam filters work better than others. Spam filters have a tendency to block messages that should pass and to pass messages that should be blocked. Many spam filters subscribe to black lists of known spammers and block messages from specified servers and hosts. Black lists are often outdated and inaccurate. Spam filters have to be continually be updated and improved as spammers keep finding ways around them.

Permission Based Spam Blocker
A permission based spam blocker only allows messages through if the sender is on your contact list. Permission based mail is simple, effective, and requires very little maintenance. Permission based email depends on running a program, which works with their contact list and directs messages to be accepted or bounced. AShopMail service includes a permission based spam blocker, which only allows messages into your inbox if; the sender submitted a message through the AShopMail contact form, the sender is in your contact list, or the sender is in your list of accepted domains. The accepted domain list is maintained through the configuration menu.

Block and Bounce (option can be turned on/off)
Bounced messages are returned to the sender with a message. Spammers usually use forged reply addresses so most of the bounce messages will not be received. Spammers who use real reply addresses will receive a failure message, which is designed to trigger automatic removal of your email address from their list. Legitimate recipients who are not on your contact list will receive the bounce and see instructions at the top of the message with a link to use your web contact form.

Spam is easy to manage in AShopMail. The only messages that get into the inbox are messages from known contacts, accepted domains, and the AShopMail spam-proof contact form. Spam is dumped into the spam bin where it can be browsed and then deleted.

If a message that is wanted is found in the spam bin, it can be moved to the inbox with a click on the save icon.

To delete spam with most other webmail systems, you must go through a tedious process each time; select messages, choose delete action from a drop-down box, submit the action, and then purge deleted. In AShopMail the spam is in one place and the bin is emptied with one click.