The 4 Ws of Junk Email

The 4 Ws of Junk Email

by: Niall Roche

Junk email or spam has become the scourge of the modern computer world. It eats bandwidth. Spam is like a disease. It doesn’t care about age, religion, wealth. It doesn’t discriminate. Junk email affects us all.

There are 4 keys to the junk mail question – Who, What, Where and Why.

Who they are

The typical profile of a junk mail sender is as follows. Male, 18 – 30 years of age, single, technically competent and with little regard for their status as a public nuisance. There are female junk mailers out there but, unfortunately, this is predominantly a male preserve.

What they use to send spam

There are many tools available to the spam merchant. The main ones are email extractors, newsgroup harvesters and CD lists.

Email extractors are programs which wander around the Internet gathering email addresses from websites and often from web based forums (unprotected forums). A ขgoodข email extractor can gather 15,000 email addresses per hour.

Newsgroup harvesters are programs which search through newsgroups for valid email addresses. Most newsgroups users are aware of this and take measures to counteract these harvesting programs. Despite these measures a newsgroup harvester application can gather 20,000 – 30,000 email addresses in an hour.

CD lists are one of the worst sources. 90 million email addresses available on a single CD for as little as $20. A lot of the addresses on these CDs would be junk (many would no longer exist) but an equally large number of these addresses would be valid. A CD like this is a junk mailers dream.

Where they do it from

Those involved in sending out bulk email are ขentrepreneursข or at least they think so. The vast majority of those involved in the spam business are selfemployed and work from home. Sending spam is almost the ideal home based business. You name your hours and the business itself is almost automatic. Maximum gain from minimum effort.

Why they do it in the first place

Their motivation is money. Considerable amounts of cash actually. Each spammer who sends out 1,000,000 junk emails is certain of approximately 100 sales. Many of the products they sell are worth $50 $100 dollars to them in commission. Yes. Shocking isn’t it? The average bulk mailer earns in excess of $100,000 per year! Maximum return for minimum effort. Unless of course you get caught and get jail time.

About The Author

Niall Roche is the content administrator for www.spamsite.com. For more information on ways to fight spam check out http://www.spamsite.com/spam_filter_reviews/spam_filter_reviews.htm

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 24, 2003

by Niall Roche

Don’t Let Them Take Your Money and Run!

Don’t Let Them Take Your Money and Run!

by: Denise Hall

The Internet is full of scams and fraud. Many are in the form of กincome opportunitiesก and กinvestment programs.ก Sometimes itกs hard to tell if a company is legitimate or not. Unfortunately, many of them aren’t and people get scammed into losing hundreds, even thousands, of dollars.

The Internet gives bogus companies the opportunity to ‘take the money and runก with less chance of getting caught than in the offline world. Itกs fairly easy to hide behind a website and an, oftentimes fake, email address.

I recently came upon this program, Invest With Gold, (http://www.investwithgold.com) when asked by one of my newsletter subscribers to try and find out whether it was legitimate. It only took me about 5 minutes to make my decision on this one.

Hereกs a direct quote from the main page:

กWelcome to InvestWithGold.com, Consistantly paying out our investors since 1998! The only site on the internet utilizing the currency exchange markets for our investors, and making them money. We offer you up to 800% PROFIT in 2 weeks, GUARANTEED, and completly hands free! And best of all, you are NEVER in danger of losing your investment capitol!ก

So they invest their clients money into foreign currencies and make a profit. The profits, less a 1% service fee, go back to the clients, thus earning money on their investment.

It sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? 800% profit in 2 weeks? What a deal! And theyกve been in business for 6 years, so they must be good, right?

Not so fast! Keep reading before you hand over your money.

The second paragraph on the page invites the website visitor to กJust look what our investors have to sayก which is a clickable link to a message board for investors to add their comments.

The problem is the message board is empty! Iกd assume happy clients would post *something* there. (Well, maybe they’re working on that page. Iกll give them the benefit of the doubt.)

I continued reading the main page and saw this:

กAlthough we can not กlegallyก say you will never lose any money, we can tell you that we have NEVER LOST MONEY in over 6 years! If you’re interested, take a look at the tracking section, to see how other peopleกs investments are doing, and then read the message board, and comments from our clients.ก

Iกd venture to say that ‘theyก probably haven’t lost any money, but their clients, if they have any, probably have. I already knew the message board was empty, so I decided to check out the tracking section.

Hereกs where it got *really* good. I went to the page and, lo and behold, I found a list of email addresses of this companyกs clients! They didn’t list the complete extension (.com, .net or whatever) but the rest was there.

Wait a minute! Don’t they have a privacy policy? I wouldn’t want to have *my* email address plastered there for the whole world to see. How unethical!

I slowly scrolled down the page and certain things caught my attention. I recognized 1015 names as Internet business owners, several of whom are quite wellknown. So I emailed 8 of them to ask if theyกve really invested money with this company and, if so, whether or not it was a good investment.

I wasn’t surprised to learn that, of the 4 people who have replied to me so far, *none* of them has ever heard of this company, much less invested money with them. (I emailed them less than 48 hours prior to this writing, so hopefully the remaining 4 will reply to me soon. But I don’t expect their answers to be any different.)

I also noticed as I scanned the listing of กclientsก that approximately 75% of the email addresses looked like this:

admin@

info@

support@

subscribe@

webmaster@

comments@

orders@

sales@

newsletter@

unsubscribe@

Hold the boat! Why on earth would people use their website contacttype email addresses for their investment program? It looked like the website owner bought or harvested email addresses to use as his กclientก list.

A lot of the addresses were for the same domain, but with a different กnameก i.e. admin@business, contact@business, help@business, etc. And many of the addresses listed were autoresponders to subscribe to newsletters or receive other information.

Here a few email addresses that I got a real kick out of:

[email protected]

someone@nowhere

[email protected]

comments@scambusters

abuse@verisign

But the absolute *best* one is …. (drum roll please) …..

dateline.consumeralert@nbc

Now, what should I do with that one? You guessed it! Iกm sending them a copy of this article. I wonder what theyกll think when they see that they supposedly invested in this program? What I really wonder is how fast theyกll get it shut down so people don’t lose money to such scam artists.

In all fairness, I looked at the contact information at the website. Hereกs what it says:

กUnlike many กbusinessesก on the internet, we do not กhideก behind our website. You are free to contact us at any time, even the CEO if need be. All the information is listed below, or use our Live Help chat on the left.ก

Unfortunately, the live chat was ‘temporarily downก so, of course, I emailed the CEO with several questions and Iกm waiting for a reply. (But I do find it strange that his contact address is a hotmail account.)

At the time of this writing, I checked the list of กclientsก again. Theyกve updated it and the email addresses I saw 2 days ago are no longer there. Neither are the domain names for those that have taken their place. And most of the addresses now appear to be personal addresses, not those of business websites.

Theyกve also posted this message:

กSorry, but we had to remove the ending of the email address because we received a ton of complaints about someone spamming our investorsก

I wonder if thatกs the *real* reason. My guess is that at least one of the people I wrote to contacted them, probably threatened legal action, and the website owner bought a new list of email addresses to post as his กclients.ก

But wait! Thereกs more! I decided to check the domain registration information at WhoIs.com. And *that* gave me yet another clue that something might be rotten in Denmark.

The website name, InvestWithGold.com, was registered on April 19, 2004 a mere 10 days before I discovered the website and 12 days before I wrote this article. And yet the company claims to have been in business since 1998!

The dates the กclientsก supposedly earned huge returns on their investments were from April 9th through 16th the first time I visited the site. Todayกs update shows profits for April 17th through 23rd.

So, unless the owner changed the name of his company and/or registered the new name with a different domain registrar, his กclientsก made money *before* he even had his website!

Granted, he could have had his business offline until recently. But the copyright at the bottom of the site says ก20012004ก which indicates that heกs had the website since 2001.

Alas! A scammerกs work is never done! Theyกll always find a new scam to run and con as many people as they can. They have no integrity and they don’t care who they rip off.

Always do your homework before investing in any income opportunity. Don’t let yourself get caught up in the bogus กget rich quickก aspects that can sound so good. You don’t want to learn the hard way that they aren’t what they claim to be.

About The Author

Denise Hall is the publisher of Home Business on a Budget Newsletter, a weekly publication dedicated to helping business owners succeed without spending an arm and a leg. It includes her column, Put the Slam on Scams, written to help stop scam artists dead in their tracks. Subscribe today at: http://www.HomeBusinessonaBudget.com

This article may be reprinted in its entirety with this resource box intact.

[email protected]

This article was posted on May 02, 2004

by Denise Hall

Build or BuyShould You Build Your Own Optin Ema

Build or BuyShould You Build Your Own Optin Email List?

by: Mohamed Rabea

The easiest way to acquire an email list for your ezine or email marketing is just to buy one. They’re not too expensive, and they provide you with a long list of names and email addresses.
But if there is one thing Iกve learned as the owner of an ezine, it is that the easy road is not always the one that brings you the best results. The problem with buying an email list is that none of the people on that list know who you are. When they receive an email from you, most likely they will just delete it without bothering to open it.
That is why it is so beneficial to build your own optin email list. Yes, creating a list from scratch is the more difficult and timeconsuming solution, but at least it is a solution. Email lists rarely bring the desired results, so the money you spend on them might as well be flushed down the toilet.
Email marketing and ezine distribution isn’t about blasting a bunch of strangers with sales pitches and information they don’t want and didn’t ask for. If you really want to achieve results with your email list, you need to build your own.
Here is a list of questions you need to ask yourself when building your email list:
*Who is your target audience and what do you have to offer them?
*What kind of relationship do you want with the recipients of your emailings?
*What method or methods will you use to collect email addresses? Web forms, registration or subscription forms, trade shows, telephone contacts and sales calls are all viable ways to get the email addresses of people who will be interested in what you have to offer.
*Will your emails come in the form of ads, newsletters, deals and specials, company announcements and press releases, or discussion lists?
*Will you handle the creative aspects of your mailings, such as copywriting and editing, or will you need a little help?
Once you’re ready to start building your list, use outside lists to help you get started. You can recruit optin list members by renting an optin list to send out an announcement. You could also try taking out an ad in a targeted email newsletter or discussion list.

About The Author

Mohamed Rabea is the owner of one of the Internetกs most popular home based business and marketing websites, available from http://www.bizpeak.com & http://www.bizpioneer.com

This article was posted on June 28, 2004

by Mohamed Rabea

How DO Spammers Get Your Email Address?

How DO Spammers Get Your Email Address?

by: Rosalind Gardner

As much as I try to stem the seemingly endless flow of spam, the crap just keeps arriving my Inbox.

For example, this week I received กNew affiliate programs from 20040210 to 20040214 :: Subscription from http://WeAreBlahBlahBlah.netก.

Iกd never heard of WeAreBlahBlahBlah.net, let alone subscribed to the newsletter. But the address used explained exactly how the spammer reached me.

Iกve set up numerous กspecialก addresses for customers, affiliates, subscribers, merchant partners and others.

For example, if I join XYZกs affiliate program, I might set up [email protected] and give that address to them to contact me. If I suddenly start to receive spam at that address, then I know EXACTLY who the กleakyก culprit is.

Here are other ways spammers get your address.

Web Pages

Spammers use scavenger bots, programs that กharvestก email addresses contained in กmailto:ก HTML tags. Those are clickable email links that open your email program with the address already placed in the ‘toก field.

Web Forms

Some sites request various details via forms, e.g. guest books & registration forms. Spammers get email addresses from these because the form is publicly available on the web, or because the webmaster sells the list.

Paper (Offline) Forms

Some companies sell lists of addresses obtained from convention participants or contest entrants.

Whois Searches

Unless the domain registrant has paid an additional fee to make their registration private, a simple Whois lookup reveals the registrantกs address.

Although most registrars have enhanced the security of their WHOIS databases, by requiring a special code be entered before information is displayed, many spammers take the time and trouble to grab addresses this way.

>From Web Browsers

Some sites use various tricks to extract a surferกs email address from the web browser, sometimes without the surfer noticing it.

Chat Rooms

This is another major source of email addresses for spammers, especially as this is one of the first public activities newbies join, making it easy for spammers to harvest กfreshก addresses.

Sending Test Messages

Have you ever sent a message to an invalid address? You get an กundeliverableก or กfailureก notice back.

Some spammers use this to guess email addresses by sending test messages to a list of madeup or guessed addresses. They know theyกve got good addresses for those that did not result in failure messages.

Online Yellow Pages

What could be more alluring to a spammer than a directory of names and email addresses filed by category?

Chain Letters

These are ingenious. I tell five friends, and my friends each tell five of their friends, and so on and so forth. The email addresses all build up in the cc field and are a spammers delight.

Buying Lists

Spammers buy lists of email addresses usually passed off as those belonging to people who optedin to to obtain information in a specific category.

Letกs put spammers out of business.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Use ‘throwawayก addresses whenever you’re not sure of the source, and don’t sign up unless there are clear กPrivacyก statements on the site.

If worse comes to worse, and you’re fighting your way through a mountain of spam, install antispam software on your computer.

© Copyright Rosalind Gardner, All Rights Reserved.

About The Author

Article by Rosalind Gardner, author of the bestselling กSuper Affiliate Handbook: How I Made $436,797 in One Year Selling Other Peopleกs Stuff Onlineก. To learn how you too can suceed in Internet and affiliate marketing, go to: http://NetProfitsToday.com.

This article was posted on March 30

by Rosalind Gardner

Learn Simple Strategies That Will Stop Spammers Fr

Learn Simple Strategies That Will Stop Spammers From Bombarding Your Inbox!

by: Per Strandberg

Spam filter is the solution that most people resort when they try to steam the flood of junk mails and spam.

However, there is a problem!

First: Some spam will still get through.

Second: Some legitimate mails will be stopped as spam.

And that legitimate messages get caught in the spam filters is a big problem. It is a big problem for both the sender and for the receiver. If you use POP accounts on your ISP or use free email accounts like Hotmail you will sometimes be forced to use their spam filters. You are often not even told that legitimate messages may be deleted.

Why will they get stopped?

There are several reasons!

Spam filters may give red flag to an email simply because it contains words which the filters also find in spam messages.

Often newsletters you sign up to get blocked because too many messages are sent out at the same time or some subscriber have complained accusing the sender of spamming. The rules of the spam filters changes over time as this is an ever going arms race between the spammers and the anti spam filter manufacturer.

So how can you stop the flood of spam hitting your email account?

Simple, you have to go stealth!

Look at email spamming as a war.

Using spam filters is like putting on armor. It gives you protection, but it will also cost you and give you less flexibility.

The spam sending gangs, there are estimated to be fewer than hundred worldwide, machine gun bombard only email accounts which they can find.

This means that if they can’t find your email address they can’t spam you.

So how do they find you?

Contrary to popular beliefs they don’t find your email address because you sign up to a newsletter or to legal product information.

Instead they collect or harvest email from web sites using spam boots. The spam boots works in a similar way as web content collecting search engine spiders except they only collect email addresses. They also collect email address from address books found inside email software like Outlook or Eudora. They do this by using viruses and spywares.

Your solution to avoid getting on their lists is to go stealth and become invisible to the spammers!

What do I mean by that?

Simple you hide your email address or addresses from the email harvesting spam boots. But at the same time if you have your own web site you want your viewers to be able to read or click on your contact email.

One common solution is to rewrite the email address on the web site.

Letกs say you email is: [email protected]

You can rewrite the address as [email protected], info @ mysite.com, infoATmysite.com or something similar. The email address is then readable by human viewers, not by the spammers. The downside of this method is that the email address is not clickable from your web site.

Another method which is preferred by commercial web sites is to use a contact form that also hides the address from the spammers.

One solution which I use and have found to work well is to hide the address from the spam boots with java script. The address then becomes clickable for the viewers. You can learn how to use java script and hide your email addresses from the spammers at http://www.databackupandstorage.com/stopspam.html

You should also use firewall and anti virus software as a protection so that spammers don’t get access to the email addresses from within your computer. As an extra precaution you should also use spyware removal software. This will remove possible spyware from your computer. All this measures should protect you from spammers and their spying eyes.

However, be careful! With this method in order to work you should adopt a strict email discipline and limit the number of people with access to your email addresses and not spread them around.

But, what if your emails already have been spread into the spammers mailing lists?

It is important to understand that the spammers want new and fresh email addresses.

Therefore they continuously harvest the Internet for addresses.

The answer is, use Google!

With Google you will find the web pages on which your email addresses are located. Just perform consecutive searches using Google typing in one of your email address in the search box.

You can then contact the owners of those sites and ask them to remove the email address.

Result:

The spam will not stop immediately, but after a couple of months the flow will start to recede.

Copyright 2004 Per Strandberg

About The Author

Per Strandberg works with computer security and he also manage an information site dealing with data backup technology. Learn working data backup strategies at ==> http://www.databackupandstorage.com/computerbackup.html

Discover different ways to get rid of spam at ==> http://www.databackupandstorage.com/stopspam.html

This article was posted on November 25, 2004

by Per Strandberg

Are Autoresponders An Important Asset To Your Busi

Are Autoresponders An Important Asset To Your Business?

by: Vickie J Scanlon

Autoresponders are an important asset to an Internet Marketer. When I heard that statement, I said, ขOkay – great! What is it!ข For all those new to the Internet arena, I’ll try to explain what autoresponders are, how they can be used, and how it can benefit your online business.

What Are Autoresponders?

Autoresponders automate the process of following up email marketing leads. Email autoresponders are special email addresses that returns a message or set of messages in response to any email that is sent to the autoresponder’s address. When your business is slow or just beginning you may be hesitate to use this tool. But be assured as your business grows, you’ll find a use.

Who Supplies Autoresponders?

Where do you get autoresponders? Well, they are as close as your web host. Yes, most web hosts have autoresponders – it is only limited by the number of email addresses your host provides you. For example, my webhost allows me 100 email addresses. Thus, I have the opportunity, if I so wish, to create 100 autoresponders.

However, there is one small drawback to webhost autoresponders – you are limited only to one message per autoresponder, without the possibility of a followup email to your prospects.

But there are other avenues in which you can consider. Such as:

1. You can incorporate a free autoresponder. Freeautobots.com offers a free service that is free of advertisements, and supplies you with the server to store your leads on.

2. You can purchase the software. This software can be placed on your computer, or again, you can purchase an online service, and all your information will be stored on the server where you purchased the service.

As you can see there are advantages and disadvantages of each. And only you will know which will best fit your needs, circumstances, expertise and budget.

How Do I An Autoresponder?

When I heard the word autoresponder, I didn’t have a clue of how to use them, or if it was relevant to my business. Pretty green, wasn’t I. Well, an autoresponder can be a great automation tool to any business.

Let me give you some examples of the versatility of this tool.

1.Used by people who are away. They use it to notify the sender that they are away on vacation, their desk, etc.

2.Used as a business tool

Gives responders business information – pricing lists, resumes

Collect names and email addresses

Use for training

Give away free reports

FAQ (if appropriate)

Autosend your article submissions

As you can see there are many uses, all of which, keeps you in contact with your visitors and/or prospective leads, and the promotion of your products, services and business. And, as to free or paid – that assessment will be directly determined by the growth of your business – and of course, your budget.

To conclude, the use of autoresponders is only limited by your imagination and your ethics. Yes, ethics. Do not go crazy with this tool – it is to be used to help your business – so be aware of spam – and it’s dos’ and don’ts – and this tool will work for you.

To your success

About The Author

Vickie J Scanlon has a BBA degree in Administrative Management and Marketing. Visit her site at: http://www.myaffiliateplace.biz for free tools, articles, ebooks, how to info, affiliate opportunities, services and products – to meet your budget and needs.

This article was posted on September 14

by Vickie J Scanlon

All About Spam

All About Spam

by: Kara Glover

Spam is annoying. Period. Why people would want to send all of us stupid messages about buying prescription drugs or getting some outrageously good mortgage rate is beyond me. Well, not really.

You might ignore those emails. But not everyone does. And thatกs why they’re sent. Emails cost so little (or nothing) to send. So sending out a million of them could be a cakewalk. Letกs say one out of every 1,000 recipients falls for their ploy. Someone just got 1,000 new customers!

How in the heck did those spammers get your address in the first place? Well, they actually use a variety of techniques. They use programs called spambots to search the web and pick up any email addresses that could be listed on websites. They use whatกs called the กDictionaryก technique, where they take a wellknown email extension (earthlink.net, for instance), and make up all kinds of possible user names to go with it. For example, with me they could try the usernames กkaraก, กkara1ก, กkara2ก and so on, until they can confirm one of those connected to an earthlink.net extension is a valid email address. Kinda like going page by page through the dictionary.

Ever fill out a registration form on a website and find a little checkbox, probably near the bottom, asking if you want to receive additional information, newsletters, or something of that nature? Often the box is checked, and in order NOT to receive the info, you have to UNCHECK it (or else). Well if you miss those types of boxes on the wrong kinds of sites, your email addresses may be handed to spammers on a silver platter. Well, almost. Often a zillion email addresses are sold for next to nothing to spammers on CDs. (Couldn’t you almost call those silver platters?)

Many internet service providers (those guys that keep you connected to the internet so you can send and receive email) use a variety of methods to block spam before it ever gets to you. Nevertheless, we all know that some spam inevitably gets through to our inboxes. Thatกs when we need to take a proactive stance and install some sort of software to filter it out!

© 2005 by Kara Glover

Feel free to reprint this article in newsletters and on websites, with resource box included. If you use this article, please send a brief message to let me know where it appeared: [email protected]

URL: http://www.karathecomputertutor.com

About The Author

© 2005 by Kara Glover

For help on installing antispam software, check out this article on Kara Glover’s website: http://www.karathecomputertutor.com. You can also find more articles, tips and tutorials on topics such as Microsoft Word., Excel, and PowerPoint there. Kara is a Computer Tutor and Troubleshooter.

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 13

by Kara Glover

Email Etiquette

Email Etiquette

by: Rose DesRochers

Today we are going to discuss one of my pet peeves, and learn about email etiquette. Those who don’t BCC send, an email nightmare. When you send your friends an email showing all email in the to: or CC line and those people forward that email to their address book of friends, suddenly 500 people now have your friends email addresses.

These email addresses remain in the email, because most people don’t do their part to edit them out. So when you forward an email that has 200 emails in the two field and your friend forwards it on to 300 of their friends. You now have an email with 500 emails.

Today I received just that email and I was able to harvest 500 email addresses from that one email that was carelessly sent by a friend of mine. So now 500 people I didn’t know had my email address. Ever wonder why you receive so much spam, adds to enlarge your penis or adds saying you have been approved for a mortgage? This is one reason. I do not believe for one moment that you would hand out your friends home address or phone number to people that you don’t know? The same consideration should really be taken into thought when sending out email.

You have the resources right there at your finger tip to protect your friends and family from spammers, stalkers, etc. So please use the BCC, instead of To or CC when sending group emails. Don’t ever give out another personกs email address without their permission.

Like I said above an email address should be treated just as a phone number or home address is treated.

So how does on BCC send. I have collected a few resources to help you.

How to BCC send in Yahoo http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/mail/send/send01.html

How to BCC send in hotmail

Example:

If you were to enter these email addresses:

‘to:ก [email protected]

กCC:ก

กBCC:ก[email protected] , [email protected], [email protected]

Each recipient will receive a copy of your email but it would look like this

From: กYour Name hereก .

To: [email protected]

Cc:

How to BCC send in Aol

http://help.channels.aol.com/article.adp?catId=1&sCId=105&sSCId=1051&articleId=217065

How to BCC send in outlook

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;enus;299804

How to BCC in Netscape

http://wp.netscape.com/browsers/using/messenger/autobcc.html

How to BCC in juno

http://www.juno.com/contact/brand.html?next=http://www.juno.com/support/40/miscbcc.html

How to BCC in MSN Explorer

To add Bcc: recipients to a message in MSN Explorer:

• Click on More on the Write Email screen.

• Select Show Bcc:

Then use the Bcc: field like the To: field.

I hope this article was of some help. Now please do your part in helping spam stay out of my inbox, as well as your friends and family inbox by BCC sending.

About The Author

Rose is a published author from Canada Ontario and is also the founder of http://www.todayswoman.net a community for men and women over 18, where writers/poets/columnists meet and exchange ideas, contest, rate and review and help each other succeed in the writing industry. Check out Roseกs first poetry book กShe is like the wind ก here and purchase poetry that is sure to be a world of emotion on a canvas that is her soul.

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 28

by Rose DesRochers