Spammer in the works gets worse

By VIKKI BLAND

Pick up any computer-related publication and you're almost certain to find an article about how best to deal with spam.

Most people know the term refers to junk email more often than tinned pork luncheon meat, but while some PC hobbyists get a giggle out of penis-enlarging, Viagra touting, money scamming emails, businesses are finding the number of spam emails flowing in to in-boxes adversely affects workflow, computer networks, production, and business communications. And it's getting worse.

The web portal Yahoo reported a 40 per cent jump in spam from January to August and averages 700,000 spam reports a day. Some analysts estimate that spam accounts for one-third of all email received, and research companies estimate spam costs corporations billions of dollars a year.

A little more specific is the November issue of the New Zealand Netguide Magazine, which conducted a poll through its website in September. Visitors were asked to record the average number of spam messages they receive in a day - nearly half said they received more than 25.

Earlier this year, Valerie Fogg, chief information officer for law firm Simpson Grierson, told MIS Magazine spam was becoming increasingly problematic.

"Email is a big headache, and the amount of spam we get has increased significantly in the last year. I couldn't say we've managed to combat spam, we can only do the best we can."

So is anybody doing anything about it? With no desire to sound flippant, seeking a solution to spam is a little like seeking an Aids vaccine - incremental advances in anti-spam products such as software filters and quarantining technologies have been made, but there's no big whammy.

There's also no real incentive for spammers to stop. Spammers caught red-handed aren't fined in this country, and other countries with such laws have found them difficult, if not impossible, to enforce.

However, while spam cannot yet be eradicated, it can be reduced. So what can you do to minimise the effect on your business?

Start by calling a staff meeting. Explain why spam hurts your business and enlist staff support in reducing it - that shouldn't be a hard sell. Announce internal policies for dealing with spam and decide what the repercussions of violating those policies should be: some businesses favour supervised email access for a day or two.

One policy should be that staff delete all spam emails without opening them. If they're not sure which emails are spam, they should move suspect emails to a special folder that they can check later when their workflow is not affected.

While internal policies will help protect your business from accidentally sending spam to customers and should make a small dent in the amount of spam arriving each day, you will need to use anti-spam technologies to make a significant dent.

You could start by installing spam filtering software on computers with email access but if an ISP delivers your email, first ask whether it can filter out spam before it arrives.

If spam is a big problem and your ISP doesn't offer this service, it might be worth finding one that does. For information on how ISPs filter spam, see Watchdog.

You can also subscribe to a web service that charges an annual fee to isolate and check incoming emails for spam before passing them to your normal email inbox. Take a look at Spam Arrest.

If you have your own mail server, you should check out spam filtering software. The sheer number and diversity of these programs can be confusing, so read antispam software reviews in computer publications and on websites before testing a product.

Finally, be pleased with whatever reduction in spam you get, while pushing for more. With perseverance and a little genius, the spam problem may eventually be beaten. Until then, the meaning of the word spam will remain something you eat, and something that eats at you.

Combating spam

* Turn off the HTML option in your email client. For Outlook Express, go to Tools/Options/Send, then select "Mail sending format: Plain Text". Also uncheck "Reply to messages using the format in which they were sent".

* Turn off the preview pane in your email client; it downloads some of the message and can alert spammers that your email address is a live one.

* Don't enter an email address into a website unless you really have to.

* Never reply to spam - either delete it without opening it or cut and paste its header into a spam police website such as www.spamcop.net.