Foreword:

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Email: What You Dont Know, What You Should Know, And What
You Dont Want To Know is copyright 2003, Online Wealth. All
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First edition May 2003.

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Email: What You Dont Know,
What You Should Know,
And What You Dont Want To Know


1. Introduction in which I briefly describe what this ebook
is all about.

2. A Brief History Of Mail in which I provide a
comparison of your experiences offline with those that
you are now experiencing online.

3. Email in which I describe what it really is, what an
email address is, how to construct and use it, and how
to protect it.

4. Spam in which you learn a lot about what dont want
to know, including why spam will inexorably increase.

5. Fighting Back in which you find out about the two
essential methods used to fight spam, and about the
one that really works (mostly).

6. Concluding Remarks in which you reach a decision
point about what you want to do about spam.


You can go to any one of those sections individually, or you
can proceed in a sequential fashion; thats your choice.

Now, please do read on




Section 1: Introduction

Hello there

Thanks for taking the time to download this free ebook about email.

Not just about email, of course. As I indicated on the title page, email has a nasty
side, and its called spam.

There are two meanings, in case you dont know: (1) theres SPAM, which is a
prepared meat product thats been around for a zillion years or so (or so it
seems) and (2) then theresspam, with small letters (some people wont even
give it a capital S at the start, no way). Its this second one, only, that Ill be
discussing in this document.

Its sad that the internet started out as such a useful and informative
communications tool but, in just a few short years, its been reduced to a
seemingly endless stream of commercial and pornographic drivel that keeps
growing daily.

Now, if this is your first foray into the online world, you have much to read and
absorb. If, on the contrary, youre an old hand at getting around on the web and
using email, then youd be far better off doing something more profitable than
reading this ebook. Not that Im ungrateful that you are reading it, its just that
you probably wont find anything new for you to learn here. Besides, you might
find what I have to say as being disagreeable, and we cant have that, can we
now?

NoIm really talking to you, the beginner on the World Wide Web, before you
have gained too much knowledge, which, as you know, can be very dangerous
especially for the unwary. Im not suggesting that you are unwary, not at all. By
the mere fact of reading this, you have proved yourself to be very aware of the
need for information arguably the most important commodity on the whole of
the web (porn comes in a very distant last, yknow, when all is said and done).

Fortunately, I will not be providing any detailed technical information about
SMTP, POP, routers and such like. If you want to know how it all works from that
perspective, there are many manuals in libraries and on the web to which you
can refer. Besides, although I have a basic understanding, Im not qualified to
discuss the technical aspects in depth; I leave that to others.

But, I think I am qualified to present an overview of what Ive read and observed
about email and spam since 1995, when I first went online to the web. In doing
so, Im presenting to you a schema for the proper management of your venture in
email and, let us hope, your continual avoidance of all things spam.

By the time you have finished reading this -- exposition, shall I say -- youll have
a better understanding of the things about email you really need to know. Youll
find out some other things about email that, in all probability, hadnt occurred to
you some good, some not so good. And, unfortunately, Ill have to tell you
about some aspects that you really dont want to know about. Really

Nuff said here. You can turn the page, now







































Section 2: A Brief History Of Mail

When did it all start?

Well, I suppose thats like asking, How long is a piece of string? Nobody knows,
of course, but everybody has an opinion.

It might have started with a caveman throwing a rock at a cavewoman (or vice-
versa), perhaps, you know, something like the first love letter? Later, rocks
became stone tablets, which in turn morphed into sandstone, soapstone, slate et
al giving a big boost to chalk production, just quietly all of which were used
for written communication, of one kind or another.

At some point along the way, some bright spark (no pun intended) used a piece
of carbon, a burnt stick maybe, to put some crude symbols on a piece of bark
from a tree. Maybe it was just doodling, but of course, it was much more than
that.

A few too many thousand years later, paper and ink was being used in many
societies, for all sorts of documents and letters. But, a true mail service was still
way outside of their terms of reference. Written communications were still very
much the province of the very rich and very privileged within all known societies.

Around six hundred years ago not long at all everything changed: the printing
press was invented. Newspapers made their debut, books became available for
many to read, and the accompanying social changes held in check by the Dark
Ages exploded over the next four hundred years. Gradually, the education of
the masses began with the written and printed word. And, the rest is history

You were born into a system that takes a mail service for granted. You grew up
with it. You know it. Perhaps, you were even educated at school about it? That
last probably doesnt happen much today, within education systems around the
world. But, fortunately for myself, I was exposed to a system that educated its
pupils about the use of mail. And, its abuses, too

Lets conduct a very simple thought experiment, for just a few seconds: what if
the mail service had never been invented? Can you even imagine a world
without a mail service? Well, for starters, how on earth would you have received
your birthday cards? Or, those love letters? And, what about your paycheck?

No! A world without a mail service is just an absurdity, isnt it? It doesnt even
warrant thinking about

But, lets push the envelope (and make a terrible pun in the process) a bit further
shall we, with another thought experiment? What if postal addresses had
never been invented? Hang on there, youd say, without a mail service, a
postal address is pointless, and vice-versa.

Exactly

The two are interdependent, as you know. The efficient functioning of the whole
system is directly proportional to the degree to which each member of society
maintains a proper, accurate and fully functional postal address. For a price, the
system guarantees delivery of your letter; the real price you pay is the
maintenance of that postal address, so that you can receive mail directed to you
from others.

Heres the downside: youll always get mail you dont want, from people you
dont know.

I dont have to tell you that; youve known that for as long as youve had your
postal address.

Which brings me to my next question and the main reason for this little bit of
history: how well do you protect your mailing address? Ill lay odds that
youve received a whole bunch of junk mail in your mailbox for a long time. Oh,
you probably call some companies to get off mailing lists, you maybe even
complain to the post officebut you still get junk mail.

Perhaps youve been very savvy and you have taken steps to restrict access to
your address. But, you still get that pesky junk. Well, if you dont know yet, now
you will: the mail services that Ive had experience with (in five different
countries) are all in cahoots with the junk mailers, in some form or other.

Now, that arrangement is sanctioned by government simply because
governments make money from business and marketers who want to send their
offers to you. Your postal address and mine, are on some direct mail advertisers
list somewhere. Were probably on many lists, as you know.

That, unfortunately, is a fact of modern living, but the worst part about it is that
you cannot hide your address from them (in one sense, that action would be
incoherent, wouldnt it?). Youre in the phone book, youre on electoral rolls,
youre on a ton of lists all of them in the public domain or up for sale to
unscrupulous people.

But again, you know all of that.

However, heres something you maybe dont know

If you really want to get rid of that junk mail from your mailbox, dont throw it
out. No, nojust send it back! But, before you do send it back, write in big
letters DECEASED on the envelope and then drop it in the mailbox. Youll get
off that junkies mail list and youll never hear from that company again.
Guaranteed!

Now, isnt that a nice feeling?

However, something is now rotten in Denmarkif I may borrow a piece from the
old Bard: email is with us, but the postal system is just about choking on the
spam.

Its a whole new ballgame, and if you want to survive in it without spam, youd
better know the rules.

So, lets look at what it means to use email































Section 3: Email

I will assume nothing about you, at this stage, so please bear with me if I tend to
belabor a point or two.

First up, let me make it clear that email is short for electronic mail. But, the
term mail is, in my opinion, wrong. The correct terminology should be
electronic messaging. However, common usage dictates otherwise, so were
stuck with email. No big deal

However, electronic messaging was how it all started out about 40 years ago,
when I was sending such messages through the large networks of mainframe
computer systems I worked on. In todays parlance, thats called using an
intranet, being simply a local internet. But, because the term internet is now in
use by the whole wide world, well, they had to think up a new name for it, didnt
they?

Anyway, youre probably not on any intranet. What concerns you the most is
using the internet and using email to do what you want to do, whatever that is.

You should know by now that there are some rules about how to construct an
email address. The one that comes to mind immediately is that ALL email
addresses must have that character @ as the thing that joins your name with
the actual address you are using.

So, common email addresses look like this: thisname@thisURL.com (or .net,
.org, .tv etc). There is probably an upper limit on the length of a name (in
computers, there is always an upper limit), but you dont need to bother with that
because its too long to worry about.

What you must know are the exclusions from email addresses

It would appear, from searching on the internet, that most special characters or
symbols are not permitted in the name portion (nor, in most cases, the URL
portion) of an email address. Such symbols are as follows: ! # $ % ^ & * ( ) : ; + |
? \ = / < > , (Ive separated each by one space, so that you can see them more
easily). Curiously, I could not find any definitive answer about the use/misuse of
obscene names in email addresses. I suppose its up to each individual and the
ISP (Internet Service Provider).

Heres a list of characters you can have in an email address:

All valid alphanumeric characters: A to Z; 0 to 9
The hyphen
The underscore
The period

Okay, you have one or more valid email addresses. So, now what?

Well, obviously, if you have obtained/been assigned/set up email addresses, you
can now send messages to anybody you know, for whom you have their email
address.

You do that by using any one of many email programs. Now, computer people
like to make up jargon, as you know, so they dont call them programs.
Nothey call them clients. You dont need to know why theyre called clients
(thats just a useless detail); just be aware that when you hear or see that term,
think of program.

Before you go online with your email address, just remember this: nobody
knows about ityet.

Unfortunately, that wont always stop spam getting through to you; Ill go into the
reasons for that in the next section.

But, for now, assume that your email address is safe safe from abuse and
misuse by all and sundry. Recall that, in the offline world, your permanent home
address is on many lists, without you being able to do much about it.

When starting out online, however, thats not the case with your email address.

Soits in your best and urgent interest to ensure that you place very tight
security around your email address. Nobody else will do it for you its up to
you to make sure you take the steps necessary, so that nobody will abuse
and/or misuse your email address.

Fine, you sayhow to do that?

Let me suggest that you consider all of the following aspects:

Make sure that you have more than one email address; in fact, sign
up with an ISP that will allow an unlimited number of addresses that
you can setup and use.

If your current ISP will not allow that, go somewhere else that will.
Seriously.

Be prepared to have a short list of addresses that will be bombed
with spam; use those addresses as your public list, some or all of
which may appear on your website, or in a chat-room (should you
indulge in those spam traps), or at websites where you get
information.

Develop another list of addresses (it doesnt have to be a big list)
that are private. These are the addresses that you give only to your
family and close friends etc. You can use simple names, if you
wish, but its better to generate unique, unusual names
interspersed with a few random numbers. Your family and friends
will not be perturbed, but spammers will be.

Do not allow any of your private addresses to be made public on
any website, chat room or wherever. Spammers continually harvest
email addresses from all around the web and those places are
where they get a lot. Make sure its not yours.

Select an email program that has a good set of filter switches.
Simply stated, a filter switch allows you to mark certain types of
email for deletion or blocking immediately. If you dont know how to
use filters, then find someone who does and who can teach you.
Or, simply experiment yourself thats the way you learn.

My recommendation is to choose an email program from the
following (I use Pocomail, but you should consider all):

1. Pegasus Mail ( http://www.pmail.gen.nz/ ),
2. Eudora ( http://www.eudora.com/download/ ),
3. The Bat (http://www.rtlabs.com/the_bat/index.html),
4. Pocomail ( http://www.pocomail.com/ ),
5. Becky (http://www.rimarts.co.jp/), or
6. Kaufman Mail Warrior ( http://www.kaufmansoft.com/ ).

I tested all of those (and 25 others) and found only those few to
have excellent filtering capabilities.

Avoid all other email programs, if you can. Many dont even have
filters included. And, bear in mind that Outlook Express is the email
program that most viruses, worms and Trojans attack.

Last but not least, as a general rule, never I say NEVER open
an email that has an attachment, UNLESS you can categorically
trust the sender. If anybody I dont know, sends me an email with
attachment, that email is deep-sixed immediately, without
exception.

Email is basically a very easy way for anybody to send a text message to any
valid email address in the world. Thats how it started out, as I said. In the last
few years, however, technology changes now allow the use of HTML (HyperText
Markup Language) code in email. Like all things, theres good and bad about
that

Heres the good news:

You can send and receive pretty pictures;

You can design great looking templates for your email, all in
glorious color;

Hence, for business purposes (and personal, I guess), you can
make a big impression with the quality of your email to any clients
you have.

Now, heres the downside:

HTML email takes longer to send and to load on a screen. That can
be a turn-off.

When you open HTML email, the sender gets feedback
immediately about it. That is, they know youre looking at the email.

Its now possible to hide viruses within pictures. So, its possible to
receive a virus that is not an attachment to an email.

Overall, HTML email takes up more of your valuable time.

Me? I avoid all HTML email if I can. Not always possible, but as it is still
impossible to hide any virus in the text of a text email, I think Ill stick to text only
as much as possible. You would do well to consider that also

Im not going to bore you with a mess of statistics about email. Suffice to say
there is a lot of it going around, and its growing in volume. Co-incident with that
growth, of course, is that other aspect of email: spam.

Its to that topic that you can now turn to









Section 4: Spam

Hate it or love it, we aint gonna get rid of it

But first, lets try to define what it is, shall we (many others have tried, so why not
us also)?

In the offline world the world of bricks-and-mortar (BAM) mailboxes we all call
it junk mail or junk. And, from what I have observed, we dont differentiate
between the different types, do we? Its justjunk, right?

Most of us dont like getting that junk in our mailbox. It gets in the way of real
mail, doesnt it? Mail that we really want

Now, let me ask you: do you always toss out the junk before you read it?
Think about that very carefully, before you answer yourself. I know, from
personal experience, that I occasionally glance at some junk from the BAM
mailbox. Certainly not all of it, just some and not very often, also. Quite frankly,
I just dont have the time to spare

I know my partner, Sherry, would nearly always read all of the junk scan it all
quickly and read some quite closely, looking for bargains, of course. So, what
else is new, I ask you?

However, this human aspect about communications and modern living illustrates
the Archilles heel that all spammers exploit effortlessly, all the time: namely, our
insatiable curiosity.

And thats why the spammers online are winning, and will continue to win.

But, I digress

You know you dont want junk in your BAM mailbox, but you might glance at it
sometimes. But, you know you always want your real mail, and thats the mail
with your name on it. Thats how you always separate your mail that you want
from the mail that you only-maybe-want-to-glance-at-and-then-throw-out.

Is that how you would define spam also something you might want to
look at, maybe, and then throw out Perhaps?

The internet is running amuck with people trying to push their definition of what
spam is. Youll see things like spam is UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email), or
spam is BUCE (Bulk Unsolicited Commercial Email), others will say that all
pornography is spam, still others think that online scams are spam. Nobody
that Ive seen has mentioned viruses specifically as being spam, which I find
somewhat surprising

However, as you stay online longer, you will eventually receive one or all of those
types of email at your INBOX. You may have already received quite a lot. If that
is the case, let me ask you: how many of those emails were directed to your
specific email address and how many began the email with Dear Your Name?
Quite a few probably were using your email address, but Ill wager that not one
used your real name, but began with something else, like Friend, Partner,
Opportunity Seeker or some other generic title.

Remember, all of this email is received by you, without your permission, yet none
of it addresses you by your correct name. Is that not the same, in concept, as the
junk youve been getting in your BAM mailbox? Most junk comes to your BAM
mailbox addressed to The Occupier, or The Home Owner or some other title.
Sometimes, its just an envelope with no name on it! Very rarely is your real
name used.

You probably know that some states have enacted laws to stop spam. Just how
effective those laws will be remains to be seen, but I dont expect too much from
them (despite the recent success with the arrest of the Buffalo spammer). No law
has ever stopped the commission of a crime the law simply means youll be
punished if youre caught.

Ayetheres the rub, as somebody once said.

Spammers are so effective at remaining anonymous that it will be very difficult for
law enforcers to hunt them down for prosecution. Even if they are tracked down,
it may be impossible to prosecute anybody, simply because the spammer may
live in Timbuktu!

The over-riding issue, however, is that nobody, no organization, no country
is yet able to agree upon a definition for spam that is acceptable to all
concerned parties. And, the likelihood of that happening is becoming less and
less apparent.

Soare you going to wait around for somebody to tell you what is or is not
spam? Or, are you going to decide for yourself exactly what you are willing to
accept or reject at your INBOX? I would think the latter, naturally, but Im
prepared to accept that some people may elect to go with the former. Its your
choice, after all.

More importantly, do you really care how others define spam, anyway? As an
end-user, I would suggest that your main consideration would be whether email
is properly addressed to you in the first instance, using your actual name. Now,
even that may be something you dont want to get. If I may inject a bit more levity
here, nobody wants to get any bills to pay, right? Oh, most people accept them
and must pay them, but we dont have to like it do we?

Sothe fact that an email is properly addressed to you does not
necessarily mean its something you want.

But, Id suggest to you that its the best starting point in your efforts to avoid
spam. Anything else that comes your way should not be acceptable, nor should it
ever be accepted. Your email filters should immediately delete any email that is
not properly addressed to you, and only you.

If you find it difficult to agree with that proposition, you may be open to an
avalanche of spam at your INBOX!

Sojust how do spammers get a hold of your email address? Well, heres some
things you should knowand do:

As soon as you give out your email address, its vulnerable. You
can reduce the risk by giving your private address(es) to trusted
people only. Never allow your private addresses to become public.
If that happens, dump that address (the myaddr@ part of your
account) and create a new private address that you then give to
your trusted contacts.

Serious spammers use clever programs to scour the web for email
addresses. So, if you have a website, dont post your public
address(es) on it, unless you have taken steps to make it difficult
for spammers to capture and/or use it. You can make it difficult to
capture by completely avoiding the mailto@ HTML code that you
see on web pages; you can make it difficult to use by placing an
invalid character in the address, thus ensuring the need for a real
person to remove the character before using your address.

Spammers use other clever programs that generate millions of
email addresses automatically, hoping that they can make random
hits on valid addresses (thats why, even if you dont use your email
address to send anything, you can still receive spam from some
lucky spammer who automatically generated your address). So, it
makes sense to avoid the very common addresses that abound on
the web e.g. webmaster, editor, contactus and many others.
Instead, create unique names, even with random characters, that
are most unlikely to be generated by software.

If youre in business, dont put any email addresses on business
cards, letterheads, newsletters, brochures and the like. Instead, use
only the URL for your business homepage and/or direct people to a
special email contacts page from which interested people can
choose the appropriate address to use.

Choose your online ezines very carefully. Many websites with
ezines are affiliated with other so-called partners. Very often, after
subscribing to one ezine, youll begin receiving email and spam
from those partners. When you try to unsubscribe, youll
sometimes find that your request is ignored, and it might even
make things worse for you.

Avoid email services from the major players on the web, if you can.
It is a generally accepted axiom that, should you have an email
account at AOL, MSN and others, youll get a lot of spam.
Alternatively, you may want to have an account at one of them just
so that you can use those accounts as spam receptors, and keep
your valid addresses spam free. I think AOL, MSN are already onto
that little dodge, so I anticipate more controls and fees for the
pleasure of using their bandwidth.

Now, heres a further problem: regardless of whom you talk to, you wont find
anybody who will admit to being a spammer. To be fair, that has a certain twisted
logic to it, simply because nobody can provide a universally acceptable definition
for spam! Its sort of like a Catch-22 situation: The man says, NO, Im not a
spammer, because no definition of spam exists, so until it does, I cannot be
accused of spamming! So, everybody continues along their way, each
convinced that others are spamming, but not they!

That condition results in many, many companies on the web being in this
ridiculous situation: Having an administrative arm that is desperately trying to
stop spam to their customers, and a marketing arm that is desperately trying to
send out marketing and sales pitches to all customers on their email lists.

Thats just a recipe for disaster, as you can imagine

Even now, federal legislators in the USA are trying to develop laws that would be
applicable to all states; perhaps other countries are grappling with the problem
also (I know Australia is also). Unfortunately, thats not enough, simply because
email is global in scope; hence, a global solution is needed.

So, to use a hackneyed expression: dont hold your breath!

Heres some things you dont want to know:

The legislation is being prepared with the assistance of those who
have most to gain from the concept of spam e.g. the Direct
Marketing Association, the US Internet Service Providers
Association, AOL, MSN, Yahoo and the National Retail Federation.

Those organizations are involved simply because they want to
ensure that their interests, within online marketing, are met.

In doing so, critics of the legislation have already noted that the
provisions against spammers have already been watered down. It
might even be easier for unscrupulous people to send spam.

Even if, by some miracle, some form of legislation is put into
practice, the incentives to stop spam will actually decrease; in other
words, there is a more than good chance that spam will simply
increase. The reason I say that is as follows:

o The world is, more and more, depending upon all forms of
electronic communication to keep the engine of progress
moving;

o It is in the interest of all governments to assist with global
trade and to encourage the continuance of global
communications, thereby increasing the level of business
and hence the level of taxes collected;

o In this age of terror, however, all governments are hurting,
with inflated budget requirements, depressed economies
and fewer taxes collected. In words of one syllable: there is
no end in sight.

o Hence, no government can afford to put serious resources
into any effort to curb business communications and trade,
including online marketing emails. Despite what you may
read, no government wants to do anything that will actually
reduce taxes. Many administrations will go through the
motions of lowering taxes, but the end result will mean less
money for the larger sectors of society while governments
make more money available for business growth.

o Any controls on email marketing are mired, or will become
mired, in legal, political and administrative wrangling.
Moreover, now that states in USA are collecting sales taxes
across all states (not just where you live), the sales tax
windfall from online marketing cannot be ignored. And, since
all state budgets are virtually crippled and in the worst
condition since World War Two (as at May, 2003), state
legislators will be even more hard pressed to resist the
political pressure from vested interests.

o Therefore, any legislation will be a setup, just a lot of smoke
and mirrors. Ergo spam will increase, not decrease.

o Q.E.D. Case proved!

Now, if you dont buy any of the above, then consider this:

1. Since direct marketing to your BAM mailbox was developed,
you have received a steady stream of junk mail for ever
since you can remember;

2. Over time, governments responded to complaints and
placed controls and even penalties on those who broke any
law (only if they could find them, of course);

3. My question to you is this: by how much has junk mail
decreased in your BAM mailbox? Or, has it actually
increased over the years?

4. And, to forestall those who might say: Ha, all those junk
faxes were stopped cold, as soon as the laws came into
effect!, I respond thus: Of course they did, but not for the
reasons you think. Quite simply, junk faxes were going
mostly business-to-business and not business-to-
consumer. When business finally figured out that they were
shooting themselves in the foot every time a junk fax was
received, I guess somebody said Duh! Hey, fellas, shouldnt
we be selling to the suckers in la-la land?

5. Was any legislation actually needed? You be the judge. But
again, has your junk load decreased?

Just to give you some small insight into the nature of the online problem, Im still
receiving emails and ezines (electronic magazines) from sites, from which I un-
subscribed over a year ago. That is to say, Im still being spammed by
companies (very big companies) that I told to stop sending their stuff.
Fortunately, the filtering I use on my email program deletes all those emails
immediately.

Alright then, given the fact that you are online and you want to stay online, how
do you get the stuff you want and avoid getting the stuff you dont want?

The next section reviews whats available
Section 5: Fighting Back

Ive called this Fighting Back, as you can see, but Ill say this upfront: there is
nothing 100% effective in avoiding spam. Well, of course, you could get offline
and stay offline, but thats absurd

Butwe can get to maybe .980 or .990, which is a pretty good batting average,
dont you think?

Essentially, there are two methods of fighting spam (theres always been just
two essential methods):

1. Wait for the spam to come and then use a filtering device to weed it
out and dump it; or

2. Force the sender to establish that s/he is not a spammer, then
decide whether to accept or reject it.

The first method is the one that is most commonly used and comes in various
guises. The second is emerging, as I write (May, 2003), as the more effective
method of the two.

Some might say that there is, in fact, a third method: just say no to spam. That
position may have a certain moral rectitude, and some people may be able to
accommodate its dictate, but it is about as effective as: just say no to drugs.

Unfortunately, spam is with us, as I said at the very start of this ebook. We all
have to deal with, one way or the other.

Concerning the first method, that can broken down into three types:

1. Using add-on filters for your email program. Now, as Ive said,
many email programs dont have any filters. So, if you insist using
such a piece of defective software, then an add-on filter may be
what you should use. You pay a price (in dollars, naturally) to use it
and you also pay another price (in time and delays) while you wait
for your email to be vetted. These types of filters can sometimes
stop email you want to receive, so there are limitations in their use.
I dont know of any that I can recommend, as Ive never used any.
However, if you want to find them, go to your favorite search engine
and punch in add-on filters +email or email filters in the search
box, and follow the links. Good luck!

2. Using server side filters for your email program. Now, this is
just a variation of (1) above. Instead of selling you some add-on
software to work with your email program, you can contract to have
an outside company (it could be based in New York, or Zambia, or
Sydney) read through all of your email first and vet it all for spam.
And, all for a price, naturally. And, maybe a monthly, ongoing price.
These services work (hey, they all work, otherwise theyd be
indicted for fraud) of course, but to varying degrees. Ive seen
reports that some are 80% effective, some up to 90%. Ive also
seen angry reports from those who have had genuine email
blocked and dumped by such filters. So, again, there are limitations
that are often counter-productive. And, again, I cannot recommend
any because Ive not used any. So, go to your trusty search engine
and search on email server side filter service or external filter
service email and go from there.

3. Marketer-operated solutions. These are analogous to a
middleman approach, but differ from (1) and (2) above. I know of
three Habeas, Ironport and Vanguish that use different methods
for stopping or avoiding spam. Habeas levies a fee for the use of its
ongoing service; Ironport is a combination hardware/software
solution for small to large business not for end users; Vanquish
forces marketers to pay a bond and penalizes them if they spam
again, not for end users (unless youre a marketer also). How
successful are they? Its too early to say, all having emerged only
in the last six months or so.

The crucial point that should be understood about all such programs and
services is this: no matter how sophisticated a program or service is, clever
spammers will always find a work-around. This has been the complaint of
many, for a long time.

I should just remind you, of course, that should you use an email program that
does have a good set of filters and you use those filters properly, then in my
opinion, there is no need for any of the above add-ons or services.

Concerning the second essential method, now emerging, it is generally known as
the challenge-response method or system, and there are now competing
techniques:

1. A company called Mailblocks.com now operates a service that
accepts all your email and sends a challenge back to any email
tested and deemed to be spam. If it is spam, no response will come
back and hence that original email will be dumped. All your valid
email is then forwarded to your real address. Ive looked at the
website and read about the service, and it appears to be a very
workable solution. Naturally, you must pay a fee (It started out at
$9.95 per month, but I dont know the current amount; go to
http://www.mailblocks.com to find out), but it may be worth it for
some people and businesses.

2. Another company, in Australia, has instituted a pay-to-play situation
for online marketers and businesses (and, maybe spammers too).
Essentially, if businesses want to send their email to a certain
group or person, they must pay a fee for email they send,
something like .01 cents per email or higher. That depends on the
recipient of the email, who can set whatever price s/he wants. So, if
youre a spammer sending millions of emails, that adds up to
serious dollars. As an end-user, you would join the service (for a
fee of US$36), but youd get only commercial email that businesses
are willing to pay for in spades to send. Hence, this service is
an attempt to cut down on bulk commercial email, which is perhaps
the most bothersome to most. However, to me, the service is
problematic, and may be open to abuse; but then, any service can
be abused, I suppose. If you want to find out more, go to this link:
http://www.CashRamSpam.com .

3. Finally, you can experience the challenge-response system used
on our website at online-wealth.com. Use this link to send an email:
http://online-
wealth.com/email_contact_page_for_Online_Wealth.htm . Just
choose the appropriate email address for your query or comments
and you will see immediately how our system works. Essentially,
all email that is sent to us, from that web page, is NOT spam,
by our definition. Any other email we receive, from whatever
source, to those addresses shown, is spam, is always spam, and
nothing but spam.

If you want an in-depth explanation of how the filtering is done, then
please visit this page: http://online-wealth.com/spam_killers.htm
where you will be able to purchase our ebook, if you wish.

Sothats it. Those are all the tools now available to fight off the scourge of
spam.

But, before you go, I have some concluding remarks on the next page








Section 6: Concluding Remarks

Well nowis there anything left to say?

YesI think there is.

Having read through this little ebook, I hope that you now have a better
understanding of the scope of the spam problem. If I have succeeded in simply
confusing you, then Ive failed at my task, and I unreservedly apologize. If you
feel strongly enough that I have been lacking, then please do send an email from
this link: http://online-wealth.com/email_contact_page_for_Online_Wealth.htm
and tell me how to remove your confusion and/or dissatisfaction. You will receive
a response, I can assure you.

If, on the other hand, I have succeeded in my task here namely, to present a
cogent review of email, spam and all the attendant problems and solutions then
you are now in a much better position to decide how you should tackle the
problem of spam.

At the risk of beating a point to death, the central thrust of my argument here is
that, while spam is a global issue, it can only be resolved at the end-user level.

And, thats you and me

My advice, should you wish to accept it, is to concentrate on the challenge-
response methods as being the only effective solutions for the problem of spam.
However, if you choose other methods, thats a good start, and I applaud your
efforts.

If, having read through now, right to this very end, and still you do nothing, then
the spammers have won. Andyou may be in danger of electronic self-
destruction. Somehow, I dont think you want that

Sincerely,

Roger Burke
P.S. Remember, if you want to know how to setup your email program as a
challenge-response system, click http://online-wealth.com.spam_killers.htm now.
http://online-wealth.com
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