Question: What is "Spam"?
Answer: Spam is "Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail". As such it is a horrible, insidious
invasion of our privacy by scumbags, Cretans, and maggot infested, vermin
covered, low-life swine - called "spammers". They fill our e-mail in-box with
ads and schemes (mostly scams) that we didn't request, don't want, and
have no use for! A waste of our valuable time and the bandwidth of the
Internet. Many people have told me that they get as many as 100 or more
spams a day!! Personally, I get well over 100 spams daily.
Question: How do these people get my e-mail address?
Answer: Unfortunately, our e-mail addresses are not private or confidential. It is
fairly easy for spammers to get mailing lists of e-mail addresses. If we
request information from a web site, or sometimes just log-on a web
site, or order something on-line: some of these companies will sell our e-
mail address to spammers. Another way they collect our address is by the
use of "Spyware" - programs secretly placed in our computers that collect
information about us and send it to the spammers. Spyware can be
cleansed from our computer (see Spyware in this FAQ section)
Question: Is there anything I can do to cut down or eliminate the spam I am receiving
now?
Answer: Yes! Many e-mail programs (not all) have the ability to "filter" messages
as they are received into our computer from our ISP (Internet Service
Provider) and send those filtered messages to the Trash or any mailbox we
create, for example, "Junk Mail". We don't have to open or read or look at
them, just empty the Trash (or Junk Mail box). Gone! Problem solved!
Question: Which e-mail programs can filter incoming e-mail and how do I do it?
Answer: There are many e-mail programs and I'm not aware of the capabilities of
all of them. I believe I am correct on these three:
Eudora 7.0 (free) Good Filtering of Incoming E-mail
MS Outlook (costs $100+) Excellent Filtering of Incoming E-mail
MS Outlook Express (free) Limited Filtering of Incoming E-mail
Again, I recommend the Eudora 7.0 (free download of the program from
www.eudora.com ) and here is how to set up the filters.
A. ProLog Customers: ProLog helps us by using SpamAssassin, a
program that doesn't block the spam but gives us information in the
e-mail "header" (that stuff we see before the actual message) that we
can use for filtering. If SpamAssassin determines the e-mail to be spam
it puts in the header: ***SPAMTAGPTD:
All we have to do is set up a filter on this phrase.
There are two portions to an e-mail filter: the first asks what to "Match" and
the second asks what to do when a match is found.
To set up the Main Filter in Eudora:
MATCH
1. Click the "Tools" drop down menu
2. Click "Filters"
3. Put checkmark beside "Incoming"
4. Click the down arrow beside Header and select "Any Header"
5. In the next field click the down arrow and select "contains"
6. In the next field type: ***SPAMTAGPTD:
7. In the next field click the down arrow and select "ignore" (This tells
Eudora to use only the first set of filter conditions and ignore all else)
Now we have set up the match condition that will identify at least 90%
of the spam in our incoming e-mail. Now what do we do with it?
ACTION
1. In the first field click the down arrow and select "transfer to"
2. Click on the button to the right and select "trash"
OPTIONAL SECOND ACTION (to play a sound when spam is filtered)
1. In the next field click the down arrow and select "play sound"
2. Click the little box to the right and go to: c:\windows\media
and select a sound (from the group of .wav files listed)
To complete this filter click the down arrow on the next field and
select "Skip Rest" (meaning do no more with this spam). Then click the X
in the upper right to close the window and click "Yes" to save the filter.
ProLog (bless their hearts) is working with us to provide the tools to
overcome this worsening horror of spam. In this article I have explained
how to use these tools for the e-mail client Eudora. However, on ProLog's
web page ( www.ptd.net ) they provide information on other e-mail clients
and I suggest you take a look at their instructions, which are quite detailed.
B. Non-ProLog customers (and to get any spam missed by the first filter - again
these instructions are for the Eudora e-mail program).
we create individual filters by three mouse clicks as follows:
1. Highlight or open the offending e-mail (spam)
2. From the "Special" drop down menu, select "Make Filter"
3. In the "Make Filter" window you will see two boxes:
MATCH CONDITIONS
Notice the incoming box is already checked and the offenders e-mail
address appears. This is correct. You do nothing.
ACTION
Click the radio button (little circle) beside "Delete" (send to trash) and then
click "create filter". You're done with this filter.
Three mouse clicks and the offender is history! Repeat this for other spam
you receive and you will cut down tremendously on your Junk Mail.
SPECIAL NOTE: Do not reply to any Spam asking to be removed from the
list. This will identify you as a live person who responds, and add you to
many more lists. Your e-mail address is now sold at a premium to other
spammers.
Also, I am told the some e-mail programs offer an option
to "block sender". I am told this does not work.
Spamming is a multi-multi-million dollar business. We are suggesting a free
solution to the problem, but will be updating this page frequently as we
receive more information. Please forward any information you may have to
comppals@cpals.com so we can share it on this page.
Thank you!!
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