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INTRODUCTION
(from our home page)
When you think of spam you are probably thinking of all all the unsolicited emails that manage their way into
your email mailbox. And, you are right... that's all it is!
To eliminate spam, or at least significantly reduce it, you have to approach the solution from two distinctly different directions:
First,
stop of much of it as possible from finding its way to you!
If you have browsed the web much at all you know that many of the sites you visit require an email address in order to
operate -- no problem, give them one -- just don't give them your good or real one. There are numerous places like
Yahoo, MSN's HotMail, etc. where you can set up free email accounts. Use these free "throw away" email addresses for any sites you do
not trust explicitly.
If your email address is located on a website somewhere -- including a personal home page -- the email spam bots will find
it and use it to send you hordes of unsolicited email advertisements. The best way to stop the email spam bots from picking up
your email address is to "cloak" or "hide" it. What follows is a simple Javascript code snippet that can used to shows your
email address on a web page, but prevent the spam bots from finding and stealing it -- most are not sophisticated enough to read this type of
code.
Step 1: Add the following style specification to the head area of the web page you want your email address to be on:
<style type="text/css">
a.email:link {text-decoration: underline; color : blue}
</style> |
Step 2: Use the following Javascript to display your email address:
<script language=javascript>
<!--
var username = "myname";
var hostname = "mydomain.com";
var linktext = username + "@" + hostname;
document.write("<a class=email href=" + "mail" + "to:" + username +
"@" + hostname + ">" + linktext + "</a>")
//-->
</script> |
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And, below,
it looks and acts like a normal email link!
But, remember, the email spam bots can't read it or steal it! |
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Second,
learn to use your email program's "blocking" and
"filter" tools.
Most common email programs such as Outlook and Outlook Express have email screening / blocking capabilities. Although
they are sometimes a bit cumbersome, most anybody can figure out how to use them with a little study. They can block
emails based on such criteria as email address, subject, sender and email content.
For example in Outlook Express you get to the utility via Tools > Message Rules > Mail. Outlook and Eudora
email programs have a similar option. All the documentation you will ever need is available on the Help tab of the respective
email program.
Additionally,
heavily consider buying a third party spam management plug-in for your email program.
Although not much is available for Outlook Express, Outlook has many third party plug-in applications that will take you far
beyond the default spam blocking capabilities of Outlook itself. And remember,
don't get cheap with this type of software. It's not that expensive, so buy the best spam filter plug-in application you can find.
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