Canadian Pharmacy Spam Tips
1. If possible, filter out the spam email already in the server. A function called ‘reverse lookup’ verifies that the sender server is what it claims to be. Otherwise, the email will not be released. This way, the sender will also receive a message that the address will not work, which hopefully results in your address being removed from the mailing list.
2. Set requirements to your ISP so that they set up their email servers to not forward emails from outside, so-called relay mail. This feature is exploited by spammers who can hide their identity and exploit another company’s addresses to send from.
3. Acquire the habit of just giving out your ‘real’ e-mail address to people you trust.
Never use it when you:
- Register on public web sites
- Set an email address on a website
- Registering a domain (there you must use one you read)
- Have contact with people or companies you do not know well
- Posting in public forums, web chats and newsgroups
4. Get a special email address to use online, for example, when network services require registration with a working email address, or if you want visitors to be able to email you from your website.
5. Filter the emails. In most e-mail programs, you can create filters that send unsolicited e-mail directly to the Recycle Bin. For example, filter out emails containing three dollar characters and subject lines starting with ADV. If you often receive spam from the same sender, you can filter all emails coming from there.
6. Report spammers. Forward the message to abuse @ and the domain from which the message came. You can also forward US spam to the FTC. The address is uce@ftc.gov. SpamCop is a service where you can notify spammers. Another such service is Spammotel. There you can register the address you use to subscribe to mailing lists. If you then get spam to that address, they can track where the spammer has received it.
7. Turn off features like Active X and the like in the email client, which allows email viruses to spread. Often the virus spreads by forwarding with your address as a sender, which means you lose control of where your email address is located.
8. Be careful joining mailing lists with your personal address. Open chat lists are often intercepted by people and programs that harvest addresses that are later used by spam programs.
9. If you are using Hotmail, you can set the security level to High, so much of the spam is filtered out at once. You can also block senders directly – it can accommodate 250 addresses in Hotmail barring file.
10. Never answer to spam. It only confirms to the spammer that your address works, and there is a risk that you will receive even more spam, even if you clicked a link saying you should be removed from the mailing list.