We have all heard of SPAM and we have all gotten the message. SPAM is an unsolicited, often commercial message that is transmitted online as a mass mailing to a large number of recipients. So what do we do?

The term “SPAM” comes from the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. The law was the first in the United States to establish national standards for sending commercial email and requires the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to enforce its provisions. . The acronym stands for Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act.

Often times, the information that is shared online between companies and their followers takes on an intentional misunderstood meaning. There are many people who share valuable and informative information intended to educate and help others overcome the challenges they face in their own businesses. Instead of it being treasured and appreciated for what it is, the intent is misinterpreted and other people get angry and resentful because, in their opinion, they are being exposed to too much information, find it annoying, and start declaring it as SPAM.

It is definitely correct to say that not all unsolicited materials that are distributed over the Internet are spam. For example, if you have voluntarily given your email address to a person or company (in other words, you have chosen to participate), you should not feel in any way that the owners of the company are spamming you. A good example of this type of email communication would be a monthly newsletter, a business proposition, or some other type of message from those particular companies.

The most important aspect of SPAM that negatively affects online recipients is that they feel like they are being bombarded with information. It is information that arrives in great volume and with great frequency. Another aspect is when people start receiving the same content multiple times.

What to do with SPAM

You really can’t prevent SPAM from reaching you completely; however, there are things you can do to minimize the amount of SPAM you receive.

• Emails: First of all, you should not post your email addresses on public forums, newsgroups, chat rooms, or websites. Unless you really want to receive a lot of information that you don’t want or need, this should be the golden rule to follow when it comes to your online presence.
• Opening messages: There are many tools and filters available that will prevent SPAM mail from reaching you. For example, Yahoo offers several options to help you. You can choose all the emails that you think may be SPAM and click the “SPAM” button. Once you have done that, those types of messages will no longer reach you. You won’t see them in your inbox.
• No reply: If you have any suspicions that an email received by you is SPAM, the worst thing you can do is reply to that email. Sometimes the message seems silly, but in reality it is not. Many times, you will have received a message and have the option to unsubscribe. When you do that, you are showing the spammer that you exist. If you are fairly certain from the subject line that the email is SPAM, you should delete it without opening it at all.
• Do not click any links in a spam email: Because spammers often have multiple unique pages on their websites, when you click a link in the SPAM email they have sent you, you are giving them a clear message that you (and only you) have received the message from that he or she sent to you.
• Never forward an email from someone you don’t know to a list of other people: The classic example of this is the Email string. This is a perfect way for spammers to get their hands on new lists of people to harass.
• Never use your home or business email address: When you sign up to a website for a service or a sweepstakes, always use a free email address, such as Hotmail or Yahoo, to create an address that will only be used for that purpose.
• Think before joining: Before deciding to join an online list of any kind, you need to make sure that the owner of the list has no intention of selling your contact information to anyone else. Please check if you can opt out of receiving unsolicited emails from that website. A good way to know for sure is to read the website’s privacy policy.
• Preview your messages: Most email programs allow you to preview all your email messages before opening them. In Outlook, go to the View menu and select Preview Pane. Once it’s activated, whenever you want to preview a message, click on it and you’ll see the preview.
• Use a SPAM filter: There are several decent SPAM filters, such as spamBayes for Windows (which is part of TechSoup’s free downloads section and will cost you nothing)
• Set your privacy settings correctly: You will need to ensure that your privacy settings do not allow you to receive any requests from other websites in your email profiles. If you sign up for free email accounts, be sure to uncheck the preselected options you don’t want.

Conclution

Although SPAM is a huge nuisance for everyone, it is a way of life in this age of technology. Because everyone will continue to be connected and become even more entrenched in all things electronic in the future, we must find the most effective way to live with what we have and do it in the smartest and most effective way possible to make sure it doesn’t cause any harm. real.

We are pleased to provide you with the valuable feedback included in this document. Contact us at CompuKol Communications to learn more about how we can help you and your team.