Ask The Computer Geek
By: Jeff Johnston (jeff@domynoes.net)
Q: I get a lot of email from advertisers, how do I get rid of them? - Stephen in Brantford Ontario

A: What you are receiving is generally called Spam. Spam is any unsolicited email and it is the bane of the Internet. Generally speaking spammers are kind enough to include a way to get off their mailing lists. Don't fall for this, it is a trick, they use these forms to verify that the address they collected is indeed a valid address. Spammers take the list of verified addresses and sell them to other spammers.

Eliminating spam is considerably more difficult then one might presume. While there are countless anti-spam programs out there most of them only catch a small percentage of the incoming spam, plus there is always a fee involved. Unfortunately the only sure-fire way to eliminate all spam is to change your email address and be careful who you give your email address to. I would suggest you have two email addresses, one you use to give out to any company or anywhere on the internet, the other you use to give people you actually want to contact you. You can use your fake email address to sign up for websites that require you to have an email address, this protects your real address from spammers.

The reason you never want to use your real address on the Internet is that even if the site you are submitting your address at promises to never sell your information they might publish your email address in a forum where spammers scan for new email addresses. If you are using a fake address you can just check it for any confirmation messages or membership forms and ignore everything else. You can use the address you are already receiving spam as your fake address and just set up a new one. You could have your ISP (Internet Service Provider) change your existing address and set up a free web based address on hotmail or yahooto use as your fake address. If you use a free mail service you must make sure that you log on occasionally to keep the account active and clean out the junk, if you do not do so the account will be terminated an you may lose access to sites where you have used this fake address.

Spam is almost inevitable for anyone who surfs the web, however if you make sure you protect your address you can minimize the impact spam has on you.

Suggested Links:

http://spam.abuse.net: A great collection of anti-spam links and resources. There is also an extensive list of commercial spam filters.

Outlook and Eudora usually make you download spam before filtering it. I'll show you a simple and effective way to deal with unwanted email before it hits your inbox. Best of all, you won't have to add on to or replace your current client.

G-Lock SpamCombat scans and marks spam on your POP3 email server (sorry, the app doesn't work with Web-based email) so you don't waste time or drive space downloading unwanted messages. Plus, G-Lock SpamCombat uses Bayesian filtering. It actually learns what spam is by your actions.

1. Install and launch the file.
2. Click File.
3. Select "Add new account."
4. Fill in your email account information.
5. Click the Test button to make sure everything works.

When you run G-Lock SpamCombat for the first time, you'll see all new mail entries in the status pane to the right. As you highlight a message you can check the mail as either clear or spam using the mark buttons on the toolbar below the status pane. Look at the preview pane below the toolbar to view the contents of an email and verify whether it contains spam.

As you use G-Lock SpamCombat more and more, the app will begin making automatic decisions based on your previous behavior. If it's unsure about a message, it will say, "U:Baysian: 50," meaning SpamCombat believes the email is 50 percent good or 50 percent spam. Select the check box next to an email and click the Delete button to remove messages from the POP3 server.

Take control

On the left of its interface G-Lock SpamCombat has a checklist of actions it can take on incoming email. If at any time you don't want a process to take place, uncheck the box next to the process.

You can also customize black-and-white email lists, blocking or allowing email based on title, subject heading, or IP address. This lets SpamCombat expedite email checking by blanketing certain IPs as bad or good. Plus, save some time by choosing to automate the entire process so it runs at predetermined intervals.

When you're done, run your regular email application and start downloading your spam-free email.

:lol: Download G-Lock SpamCombat now:cheesy:

Just some useful info on this rather new Spaminator....

I will have to check out that software. It sounds like it would be a very useful one.

i think it is ... your welcome. ..b