Ban Spam

We're moving!

This whole site is being moved to a shiny new server - as are all my sites, in fact. Apologies for the bumpy road ahead, but at the end of that road things will become fast and smooth.

Once the site at the new server is ready, this message will automatically disappear!

Meanwhile, you can see how the move is progressing at the status page.

This little site provides information and resources to help deal with spam: preventing getting it in the first place, what to do stop spam directed at your email addresses so it doesn't clog up your inbox, and how to fight back to get spammers shut down. The information and resources presented here should at least help you minimize the damage.

No method is perfect as long as spammers are active, and they are active as long as they (or some of them) make money. In some cases, merely visiting a spamvertized site will mean the spammer earns a referral fee; they may also be peddling their wares themselves, or they may get a commission from what is sold. But as long as they can make money, they'll continue - or try to.

The simplest thing you can do is make sure they don't earn any money: Don't buy from spammers, don't even visit spamvertized sites! And take the boulder pledge:

Under no circumstances will I ever purchase anything offered to me as the result of an unsolicited email message. Nor will I forward chain letters, petitions, mass mailings, or virus warnings to large numbers of others. This is my contribution to the survival of the online community.

- Roger Ebert, December, 1996

Your emails with tips and corrections are always welcome; please provide references (like URLs or forwarded emails) so I can verify the information.

Site contents

This site will consist of three main sections:

Prevent spam
Stop spam
Combat spam

Some other things that don't quite fit under these headings will (for now) be filed under

Miscellaneous

For many subjects you'll find a lot of information presented on a single, long, page (with a local navigation menu), as well as the same information distributed over separate pages by category or chapter, with links to get you from one to the other. You choose what's most convenient for you, and bookmark where you'd like to come back. In either form, I've done my utmost to make the pages simple, fast-loading and accessible to all. If you are having any problems with accessing any of the content here, please send me an email to let me know what problems you are having.

Prevent spam

Preventing spam means: making sure spammers cannot send spam to you. Here I present some strategies for how to keep your email address out of their hands: if they don't know your email address, it's unlikely they can send you spam.

Hiding from spammers
- Part 1: Getting organized
- Part 2: Email on the web (later)

Stop spam

If you've been "out there" in the Internet for a while, chances are spammers have found your address and are sending their spews to you. Here we look at how you can deal with the spam directed at your mail box so your inbox isn't clogged up with spam.

Combat spam

So what do you do with the spam that does reach you? You can, of course, "Just Hit Delete" (JHD); that will keep your hard disk clean, but does not really do anything about the underlying problem: that spam takes up a lot of bandwidth on the Internet, and all of us together are paying for that. JHD doesn't really help at all but you can fight back; join the fight and help get spammers closed down.

In this section:

Miscellaneous

Spambot warning: listing email addresses is "attractive" to harvesting spambots; the first spambot has already been detected here and denied access:
- Spambot(s) at theplanet.com
  short explanation and evidence
Scripts
- SCack.pl
  SpamCop AutoResponder mails with the "Finish reporting" links now refer to http://www.spamcop.net/ instead of http://members.spamcop.net/. If you're a member and are already logged in with the userid/password method, you'd have to log in again using the cookies method to use the links. The script SCack.pl changes the URLs back to http://members.spamcop.net/ and sorts out non-SpamCop mails to your address as well. Developed and tested on FreeBSD, assumes 'mbox' type mailboxes; further instructions in the script.