If someone wants to unsubscribe from your list and they hit the dreaded “THIS IS SPAM” button, instead of the innocuous “UNSUBSCRIBE” button, it can cause big problems. But do you know why?

When you send an email that originates from your domain name, you should always provide the recipient the opportunity to opt-out of your list by clicking on an “UNSUBSCRIBE” button. If you don’t have an opt-out button or text attached to your email, you’ll want to place it there immediately.

When someone opts-out of your list by clicking on the “UNSUBSCRIBE” button, the communication takes place directly between you and the person on your list. You will be instantly sent a message from them requesting removal from your list. And, as long as you respect their request, everything will be fine.

Unfortunately many people have been conditioned to avoid the “UNSUBSCRIBE” button. They know that spammers often times use this button to confirm that an email address is valid. If a spammer sees that you clicked on the “UNSUBSCRIBE” button, they know that your email address belongs to a living, breathing human being. Once they have this information, they can sell your email to other spammers.

Legitimate email marketers would never use the “UNSUBSCRIBE” button for that purpose. They prefer that you use it to notify them directly so that they can remove you from their list immediately.

Unfortunately, many people will opt-out of your list by clicking on the “THIS IS SPAM” button, and it can cause problems if you’re not prepared. When this happens, it’s the equivalent of the recipient complaining directly to the Supreme Court without advising you of the problem.

When someone clicks the “THIS IS SPAM” button, it starts a chain of events that are put in place to stop potential problems before they grow out of control. The keyword here is “potential” problems.

It could very well be that a spammer has hacked into your server and discovered a way to send their spam to your list. When someone clicks on the “THIS IS SPAM” button, it can provide an early warning of a bot infestation, a compromised web form or another source of spam abuse.

It can also be from someone who just doesn’t want to receive email from you any longer. In either case, here’s what happens.

The first thing that happens is that the recipients’ computer will be reset to no longer accept email from your domain name. If you try to send them another email, it will either be sent directly to their spam box on be rejected out right.

The next thing that happens is that the email service, (let’s use Gmail in this example) will be notified that the recipient has marked the email from your domain as spam. The email service sees this as a complaint and it can handle it in one of a variety of ways.

1. Gmail can choose to do nothing, seeing the complaint as insignificant because this was the first time anyone has marked an email from your domain as spam.

2. Gmail can stop sending your emails to everyone on your list with an @gmail account. This is the last thing you want to happen.

3. Gmail can inform you that someone marked your email as spam and give you the opportunity to remove their name from your list.

The best choice by far is number three. You want Gmail and all of the other email services to inform you when someone clicks on the “THIS IS SPAM” button. If they don’t inform you, you will never know that one of your subscribers has asked to be removed from your list, or that they is potentially a much bigger problem.

The “THIS IS SPAM” button does not work like the “UNSUBSCRIBE” button, which informs you of their decision immediately. If you don’t tell Gmail and the other email services that you want to be notified when someone clicks the “THIS IS SPAM” button, they have no way of letting you know what happened. This is why you want to fill-out the feedback loop registration form for each email service provider.

It’s important that you register your feedback loop address, usually abuse@yourdomain, with all of the major ISP’s and email service providers. This is a manual job and it can be a time consuming process, but it is critical that you do this immediately.

You can find the feedback loop submission forms for these major providers by searching for terms like “Road Runner Feedback Loop,” “Yahoo Feedback Loop” and “Comcast Feedback Loop.” You’ll need to do this with all of the email companies where you intend to send email.

Once you’ve registered your feedback loop address with these companies, they will be able to alert you when recipients mark your messages as spam allowing you to unsubscribe them from your list and stay out of spammers jail.

Get instant access to the most popular email feedback loop forms on http://www.RecognizedExpert.com and participate in a lively targeted email marketing forum with email marketing expert Bob Sommers.

[tags]email feedback loop, mail feedback loop, spam feedback loop, feedback loop email address[/tags]

Spam emails are emails that are essentially junk emails. They have no real purpose, other than to amuse the spammers who send them and to cause frustration and annoyance to people who receive them.

It is estimated that worldwide around 100 billion spam messages are sent everyday. This causes people to waste time by opening up spam, only to find that it is of no relevance to them and it can potentially slow down internet traffic. If we could get rid of 100 billion messages being sent everyday, it is likely that we would all find that the internet was just that little bit quicker. Dealing with spam emails also costs organisations money, since a business has to pay people to deal with emails and many have to deal with spam emails, which costs that organisation money in terms of staff costs and lost productivity when dealing with the unwanted emails.

When the internet was originally launched, no one had any idea of the real potential for success. Consequently there was little regulation in terms of what went on the internet, indeed, to a large extent, there is still very little regulation in most countries.

However, this was viewed as a golden opportunity by spammers, who realised that they could send out block emails, with details of products or just with meaningless messages. Sometimes the spammers use software that simply takes a guess at email addresses, but sometimes the emails are generated as a result of a virus. Some companies even sell email addresses and then spammers use these to spread their word.

Some spam is actually a front for people to try and obtain money through fraud. Spam mails will arrive that are set up to look like they came from your bank or Paypal, so that you will reply with details of your accounts. This is usually referred to as phishing. All internet users need to be aware that reputable banks and organisations such as Paypal will not ask for your account details over the internet, they already have them and there is no reason for you to provide them; so dont!

Spam can be reported to the Information Commissioners Office in the UK and many Internet Service Providers also encourage users to report spam to them. Sadly most of the legislation refers to UK produced spam and most spam received in the UK is generated outside this jurisdiction, but if enough people keep complaining then eventually the issue may be resolved!

David Sprake of email.biz hates Spam email and looks at reducing spam to new email addresses. Find out more at http://www.email.biz

[tags]spam email, new email account[/tags]

Receiving junk emails which are either silly, or making some fantastic claims about products may not seem like a big deal. After all, arent there more worthy causes to get uptight about, rather than receiving the odd junk mail? Well, in some ways this may be true, but for people to understand the problem with spam emails, they have to understand some facts behind spam.

For a start, spam emails costs us all money. People who receive spam emails at work lose time due to dealing with junk emails. This in turn costs the business they work for money.

In addition many people are distressed by spam. Many people have been defrauded of money, due to spam emails being received from a spammer who purports to be their bank or building society. Some people have even fallen prey to spammers who pretend to be sick, or who have been left money and need a UK bank account to be able to transfer funds etc. Whilst it is easy with hindsight to look back and think that people were gullible to fall for these kind of scams, at the time, many people were simply unaware of spam, so they didnt think there was anything to fear.

So spam is not some innocent and harmless inconvenience. It can literally clog peoples inboxes and cause distress, so it should be stopped. But it is actually quite difficult to prevent spammers getting hold of your address, although increasingly more and more software is becoming available to ensure that all spam mails are filtered out.

One thing you can do to stop spam by yourself, is to use a slightly different email address when you are on a social networking site, such as MySpace or Facebook. Instead of using the @ symbol before your service provider, use at or better still AT, so you would be jane.smithAT (then service provider) rather than jane.smith@ then your service provide.

Since some email addresses are targeted by guesswork, you can reduce the chances of being found by using an underscore or a number. Thus jane_smith79_2@ service provider will have a lesser chance of being guessed correctly by software.

You can also report spam to the Information Commissioners Office or to businesses such as google or yahoo who are all working to reduce the amount of spam on the internet, but there is a long way to go before it is completely eradicated.

David Sprake of email.biz hates spam email and looks at reducing spam to email addresses

[tags]spam email, email addresses,[/tags]

With a thesis on money laundering, a certain law student frequently used Google to find her online references. This easy tool was extremely useful to the student in her writing process. A couple months after beginning her project, the student became distressed to discover that her trusty search engine began leading her to a web page unrelated to money laundering.

Because the problem refused to go away, the law student could no longer cling to the hope that it was simply a problem with Google or the internet and had to reluctantly acknowledge that her computer had been bugged. Defending ourselves from bugs that are human in nature is an easy task. Unfortunately, the student had the misfortune of being infected with adware and spyware, which are far harder to get rid of than human annoyances. The student does not have advanced technology training and like most average students, she uses her laptop only for basic research and the writing of her papers.

Each year, spyware and adware become the root of many stories just like that of the law school student, who face harmful computer bugs caused by spyware and adware. Though it did not gain popularity until 2000, the term ’spyware’ was first introduced in 1995. This is a computer software program or script innocently infiltrated onto a personal computer to be able to access personal information of the user.

This can be done through studying keystrokes, logging web browsing activities, and perhaps most worrying of all, the contents stored on a user’s hard drive. Though spyware employs the kind of methodology that sounds like it came out of a James Bond movie, anyone can be a victim. Calling people affected by these attacks victims is accurate, as no one wishes to have their online activities monitored. Spyware can understandably be used to spy on criminals because such use is beneficial to society but how about the use of this type of program to intercept credit card details and the like’ Using spyware to spy on criminals might be beneficial to society, but using this program to steal credit card information is criminal in and of itself. Including good anti-spyware programs on your computer system only makes sense.

As protection measures, ordinary people can block spyware and similar programs, such as adware and malware. Helping in these tasks are the many blocker programs designed for adware and spyware. Though they are not self replicating like viruses or worms, spyware, adware, and malware can be equally annoying to computer users who do not like their interferences with their daily routines. After being infiltrated, computers typically experience a noticeable decline in their speed. Unfortunately for many computer owners, spyware programs can and do hide on their systems, causing havoc while being undetectable as the root of the problem. Blockers keep the computer safe from invasion and the personal information private.

Michael Hehn is a specialist in computer. If you want more information about computer, visit computer info.

[tags]computer, IT, internet, spam, adware[/tags]

O.K., before I get into any trouble, what I am about to teach you does not break any spam laws. This is a completely legit way of inviting people to learn about you and your business, and it is also a very creative way of doing so. If you do this the right way, people will actually thank you for what you have to offer them. But with the pros come the cons: if you do this the wrong way, then you can seriously damage your own reputation as well as the reputation of your business, and this is because if you do this the wrong way, people will view you as a SPAMMER.

This whole concept of “legal spam” stems from the idea of inviting people to get to know you as a friend. This is made possible in today’s online world through the growing popularity of social networking websites. You are going to be able to “legally spam people” by actually becoming a more social person, instead of a hungry businessman just looking for the sale. You will contribute to the better good of our online community by sharing your expertise with others. You are going to initially share your expertise for free, and naturally, people are going to want more. Lucky for you, you will then have an opportunity to sell to these new found friends of yours.

Out of all of the social networking sites on the web right now, MySpace and FaceBook are your easiest ways to target a market and start growing your list of friends. I personally find that doing this on MySpace is much easier to do, but I have also dabbled with FaceBook and found some success.

Here’s a quick explanation of how you would “legally spam” people on MySpace: You will first need to create a “normal” MySpace account. You can mention your businesses, but you want to keep the focus on yourself as a real person. You will want to tell your own personal stories, put up pictures of yourself, and include interesting facts about yourself. Believe it or not, many people like to get to know a person before they do business with them.

After creating your MySpace page, you will then need two important things in order to successfully accomplish your MySpace marketing: a target market, and an “offer.” Depending on what you have to sell, you will need to search the MySpace groups, blogs, and friends of “important” people in order to invite people in your target market as your friends. There is software that you can use for free that will automatically allow you to invite friends within your target market. I suggest inviting no more than 100 friends per day on MySpace because if you invite too many friends, then MySpace will think that you are a real spammer and will shut down your account. But, with the “offer” that you are about to create, you will see how what you are doing won’t be viewed as spam to many of the people that you extend a friend invitation to.

So, here it is, the all important offer. You are going to need to craft the perfect offer (reason) for people to want to be friends with you. I enjoy inviting people in a target market to contribute to a blog. For example, if I was targeting people who want to save money on groceries, then I would tell people that I have a blog in which I talk about great grocery deals and even some grocery items that they can get for free. I would say something to the effect of “Hey! Let’s be friends and when you find great grocery deals, add that deal to the blog. Before we know it, we will have our own little community of grocery savers!” In some of my blog posts I could then mention additional free resources that I offer on my website. When they click from my MySpace page or blog to my website, then that is 100% free traffic.

Other examples of great offers could include: Offering a free mini course or free eBook to everyone who becomes your friend on MySpace, sharing informative videos for free with your target market on your MySpace page, or you could even just say something like, “Let’s be friends and we can occasionally swap ideas with each other.” Before you know it, you will be driving free traffic and obtaining free leads for your business, because you have learned how to “spam” or approach people the right way.

Daniel Pereira is an expert at driving free traffic to your website. For 2 free eBooks, free weekly conference calls, and a free mini course, just head on over to www.TheFreeTrafficFormula.com . You can also visit “The Free Traffic Blog” at www.TheFreeTrafficFormula.com/blog

[tags]legal spam, social networking, lead generation, myspace marketing[/tags]

Have you ever received an email with the subject of like this: Paris Hilton Free Video. This has happened to me and to a ton of other people.

What’s interesting to notice is the links inside the email. The links called: Microsoft | Unsubscribe | More Newsletters | Privacy… all link to Microsoft websites. Those links are safe, and the spammers (persons who send the spam email) put those links there so the email sounds more realistic, so more folks get tricked that it is an actual real, genuine email from Microsoft.

Why this email contains viruses?

How do I know it. Apart from the fact that it’s rare that Microsoft will send an email about Paris Hilton there is something else. This other thing is the big bolg title inside the email: “Paris Hilton Scandal Home Video!” which links to a website. If you click that link, it takes you to a website which automatically infects your computer with a virus.

The link ends up with a exe extension. You can place your mouse above links inside any email (without clicking) and then in your web browser (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, etc) at the bottom you will see the actual link address. Try this technique on any link inside any website or email.

Links with exe extensions in emails are the most dangerous, these are not websites, or web pages but a downloadable file.

Never click links inside emails that have that exe extension in the end of the website url. So if the email looks really suspicious first check out the links inside the email. Check that they do not end up in exe

I always ask myself the question once I check my emails: Who can the person who sent me this email be? In the case above I instantly got the feeling it’s not someone I know or any newsletter I am subscribed to.

If in doubt do not click the links, just check them first. Extreme care and understanding is required with emails that look suspicious.

That’s the most common way to get infected by a virus from emails. The other way is through attachments, by opening attachments that are send to you by spammers. These attachments contain viruses. Attachments are simple files/pictures or anything else attached through emails. Your email client like Hotmail, Yahoo Mail etc notifies you when an email has attachments.

Use a popular email client, they have more safety features. Some automatically block spam, sending to junk folder, a common feature nowadays. Other display warning messages when they detect something suspicious. Plus these web based email clients are free.

Get more tips directly from people like you have have found the solution. Check out Karl Sultana’s FAQ on Spyware and Adware.

Ten or fifteen years ago, we didn’t need any fancy anti spam software, we got most of our lottery scams by snail mail. If all that dead paper was not so bad for the environment, I might wish we still did; because the lottery spam that sneaks past my anti spam filter and into my inbox is the pits. At least those Publisher’s Clearing House “You have Already Won!” letters used to be sort of entertaining. They were brightly colored, and even came with fun stickers you could play with or give to your kids. I always enjoyed sticking that big “NO” stop sign sticker you know, the one intended for those who did not include a magazine subscription with their entry on the back of my brother’s head. It was a much more innocent time.

Today’s lottery spam is pretty similar to its low-tech cousin. It begins with that all-exciting email: You’ve won! or, if they’re going for a business like tone, “Regarding Ticket Number 127289-56-8938.” When you click to open it, hands shaking in excitement, you read:

We at EuroLotto are happy to announce that you are one of the winners of our recent Euro-Asian International Lottery draw, held on 24 June, 2008 in Stockholm, Sweden. Your email address was attached to an entry ticket numbered 123289-56-8938, which is being awarded a prize in the Third Category, in the amount of $1,000,000.

At which point you break out the champagne, hug your husband or wife, and promptly follow the instructions given. You have to pay $500 for processing fees in order to get your prize? Who cares! You’re a millionaire!

Dealing with Lottery Spam

You don’t actually do any of that, do you? You’re smart enough to see the lottery spam that sneaks past your anti-spam filter for what it is: a cheap scam that plays upon our most sacred desires, namely, money. But while you’re probably pretty adept at recognizing most lottery spam (”send to me email for to claim your money” is a pretty obvious indicator, after all), with the bazillion versions of this email out there, there are still a few that might catch you off guard.

Has a “Congratulations, you’ve won!” email sneaked past your server’s anti spam software? First, keep this in mind: if you haven’t bought a ticket for something, you can’t have won anything. Traditional lotteries work when people buy tickets in order to be entered in a drawing for a pool of money. But if nobody buys, where does the pool of money come from? A fifth dimension that’s brimming over with money trees? Probably not.

Remember this: nobody gives anything away for free.

You can also identify lottery spam by examining the email. What kind of email address did the email come from? If it’s a free Yahoo or Hotmail address, you can guarantee that it’s spam; reputable companies do not use free email providers. It’s also spam if it mentions fees anywhere in the email, or requires you to give personal details.

So you’ve used your highly evolved powers of deduction to determine that a particular email is lottery spam. You’ve put away the champagne glasses and put down your checkbook. What’s next? Generally, you should just delete the message. Never reply to it, as this will tell spammers that they’ve hit upon a valid email, and you’ll be overrun with spam. But there is one more thing you can do if you’d like to be a good Samaritan.

While lottery scammers work hard to sneak past even the best anti spam programs, they also depend upon their victims’ ability to email them back in order to ‘obtain their winnings’ (spam-speak for ‘get scammed’). If you report any lottery spam to the free email provider from which it originated, the email provider can pull their account. Try it; it’ll feel great to do your part to stop (or at least slow down) a lottery spam operation; sort of like an anti spam superhero.

Then you really should break out the champagne: you will have earned it.

Jesmond Darmanin is a freelance writer whose main interest is in corporate email security, for other related articles visit his business anti spam blog

Are you worried about getting spam email? I sure am. But you can dramatically decrease your vulnerability by using a spam filtering service. This kind of service can provide you with email filtering spam solutions that keeps your inbox clean from unsolicited junk mail.

First, what is spam email? It may be described, as unethical mass emails of a commercial nature that has no valid email header information, no opt out method, performs involuntary tracking when opened or spreads viruses and spyware.

A spam filtering service can save you or your company money by delivering effective spam protection. You are able to buy new components, separate software or even complete systems that filters or blocks spam mail. This can save you or your company time and money. Make sure that the service is dedicated to providing quality and value to you with their services.

A spam filtering service can be like a technology partner. They work with you to ensure your future success in your online endeavors. They may also be able to provide you with custom designed software and technical advice. It stops junk mail from stealing your time and resources.

Spam filtering services have a knowledge of many products, software and virus problems which they may share with you. You cannot get that kind of advice easily. They work with small systems as well as highly complex environments. You get a good return on investment.

A spam filtering service can provide you with their hard won technical and business advice when it comes to spam protection. They also have practical knowledge of spam software, blockers and filters. You also have access to their anti-spam database and anti-spam services.

A spam filtering service may also provide you with a way in which to report suspected spam emails to them. They can then study it and add it to their database in order to block it. Usually you will need to have an account with the service before you are able to login and report suspected spam mail.

When you sign up for an account at a spam filtering service, be sure to read their privacy policy as well as the terms of service statement. If you have any questions, you may contact them and ask your question before joining. They will require some basic personal information to create your account and to provide a better service to you, the client.

Hackers and spammers are a constant threat to productivity. They try to exploit vulnerabilities and gaps in order to send their commercial messages or steal personal information by sending viruses to personal computers. Your spam filter needs to cope with a constantly evolving set of parameters and problems. You should implement steps and strategies for dealing with spam prevention before it becomes a liability to your email addresses or the company network.

Spam email and virus attacks have increased in volume and complexity during the past year or two. Individuals and businesses of all shapes and sizes are looking for better spam protection. A specific approach is needed to protect yourself or your online business against the threat of unsolicited junk mail. A spam filtering service may provide you with the resources, options, technology, knowledge and anti-spam software to filter or block spam effectively.

Spam can be stopped from reaching your inbox but that would also mean that your emails in general will also find it difficult to reach you some times. For easy instructions on setting up an anti spam filtering service visit http://how-to-stop-spam.com/

How much would you like to eliminate spam from your life? Most people hate spam emails. Here are a few suggestions for you.

Using your primary email address — I have recently stopped using my primary email address for signing up to receive newsletters, e-courses or free reports. I now use my Google Mail or Yahoo Mail accounts for that. I have not had a big problem with spam emails, but it is better to be safe than sorry.

Revealing your email address online — Never type your email address in a blog or forum post where spammers can see it and swipe it. To check if your address is displayed anywhere on the internet, just enter it into a search engine and click search. If there are no search results, your email address is safe. If not, then try to remove it from the web pages where it can be found.

Use secondary email addresses — Get one or more free email accounts and use those accounts when signing up for newsletters etc. You should only use your primary email address to receive online mail from friends, family and business partners you can trust. If one of those accounts get compromised by spam, then delete it or create another email address to use.

Computer viruses — They are regularly spread by being attached to electronic junk mail. It is good advice to scan your email for viruses when you download it of before opening any attached files or images. Once the virus has infected your computer it may cause system failures or scan your files for private information. Secure information may then be revealed to the spammer who sent the virus or something similar.

Never click on spam mail or buy anything — When you see unsolicited junk mail in your inbox, do not open it and never buy the products being advertised. You should either delete it, report it to your internet service provider or the correct authorities.

Opt-out address — You should make sure that any newsletter you sign up for does not share your address with other third parties and that it contains a way to cancel your subscription to it. You may start to receive unwanted messages from other third parties when signing up for a newsletter.

Choose a safer email address — This is something I should have done in the past. I did not know that it is safer to avoid using something like ‘myname@mydomain.com’. I usually just avoided prefixes such as ‘webmaster’ and ‘contact’. I will have to remember this for future email accounts. Spammers can use a technique called dictionary spamming to send spam to commonly used address names. It is kind of like using a shotgun instead of a rifle. They hope they hit something and they often do.

Avoid certain web sites — You should avoid visiting adult, gaming and gambling web sites because they can be regular hiding places for viruses and spammers. Rather avoid these kinds of sites when you can.

These were just a few of the many suggestions you can study and practice in order to eliminate spam from your life.

Eliminate Spam: Get a decent anti spam filtering service for free and start to save valuable time and resources. Life is so much more enjoyable without the bulk of junk in your inbox. More useful information at http://how-to-stop-spam.com/

There are laws in place that sets out what can and cannot be done about spam. Spam law attempts to inhibit and prosecute spammers while protecting the rights of legal email senders. You should know what your rights are according to these laws.

The primary spam law in place is the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. It sets forth basic requirements for senders of commercial email, which can be adhered to. Penalties for junk mail and spammers are also stipulated. Consumers are given the right to request email senders to stop sending them junk mail.

The law came into effect on the 1st of January 2004. It regulates the law concerning the sending of emails of a marketing or advertising nature. It states that emails may not have misleading titles. The titles should be in agreement with the content of the email.

The Federal Trade Commission has been given the power to enforce the CAN-SPAM Act. The Department of Justice as well as other relevant authorities may also enforce this spam law where applicable. Companies that provide access to the internet can also pursue legal action against individuals that violate these laws.

What does this act say about email and junk mail? It has a few basic anti-spam requirements and provisions. The rest of this article may explain what you should know about spam law.

1. You must provide your email recipients with a way to opt-out of subscription to your messages. The opt-out address must be included with every commercial email you send. This may be a return address or an automated response mechanism.

2. Your commercial email must be identified as such and must include you physical postal address at the end of every message you send. This is so that angry recipients may put a brick through your window if you should keep on spamming them.

3. Your commercial email must not contain misleading subject lines. Do not try to trick your mail recipients into opening your emails. If it says ‘apples pie recipes’ in the subject line, the email better contain your grandmother’s secret apple pie recipe that is delicious yet easy to make.

4. As a commercial emailer, you may not use email addresses you stole off web pages, forums or blogs. Use only addresses of people who opted to receive communications from you.

5. As a commercial emailer, you may not use automated scripts to register numerous email addresses from which to send bulk electronic mail.

6. You may not use a computer ‘botnet’ or other multiple computers to send bulk mail.

7. Consumers are able to lay a complaint if spam law is violated by going to the
Federal Trade Commission website or by forwarding unwanted junk mail to the Federal Trade Commission’s spam submission address.

Spam law only works if the authorities enforce it correctly and if spammers are reported. Even then, it is a small consolation in relation to the problems that email spam causes all over the world. The best place for spam is in a can.

Online spam tend to leave you with a bad taste in the mouth. Most people never calculate just how much time they spend hitting the delete button. If you are serious about stopping spam, take the spam law into your own hands. Setup your own anti spam filtering system. Free information: http://how-to-stop-spam.com/