<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>Latest Spam Articles</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/</link>
<description>Articles at Populate.NET</description>
<language>en-us</language>
<item>
<title>How To Get Rid of Spam And Precautionary Steps You Can Take</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Internet/Spam/how-to-get-rid-of-spam-and-precautionary-steps-you-can-take.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Internet/Spam/how-to-get-rid-of-spam-and-precautionary-steps-you-can-take.html</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Junk mail are generally unwanted and unloved. If you find yourself in the undesirable position of being at the receiving end of unsolicited emails, you want to get rid of spam. 

Whenever there is a risk of your personal email address being compromised by putting it on the web, rather use an alternative and disposable email address. You should safeguard your primary address like a stack of gold bars. You don't want people you don't know sending you strange emails in the middle of the night. Once one spammer picked up your primary email address, you can be sure others will abuse it as well in order to send you meaningless marketing related junk mail.

Some sign up forms may require you to uncheck a textbox if you do not want your email address to be shared with selected third parties you might be interested in. It can be best to uncheck the textbox and not share your email address with unknown third parties. You do not know whether they will send you something useful or whether they will just send you spam mail. Usually it is the latter.

When posting your email address in a newsgroup, forum or blog comment be sure not to put on there as is. Spammers can actually harvest addresses from these places by using specially designed software. I usually replace the '@' with 'AT'. That is really the minimum you can do to safeguard your email. 

Here is something that I should have done and could do in the future. I could use a disposable email address when signing up for something on the world wide web. I always use my primary email address because I do not like having to log into Yahoo Mail or Google Mail just to read a few emails. I like receiving and reading it with Microsoft's Outlook Express. I have not yet had any problem with spam, since I normally try to keep signups to a minimum. However, I might experience some spam problems in the future. As a rule, if you don't trust a website or its owner, don't signup to receive a newsletter or free ebook or whatever. Less is more.

You can set up a disposable email by using such free mail services as Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail. Just do a search and you will find them. Alternatively you can visit the homepages of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.

There are three things might want to avoid doing, since it is better, when you have already received spam mail.

1. Avoid buying anything that is advertised in the spam emails.
2. Do not reply to the spam and threaten to use violence. Spammers are criminals.
3. Rather take the time to report spam rather than just automatically deleting it.

The better way to deal with spam mail is to send a complaint to the internet service provider of the spammer. So how do you know which ISP the spammer is using? A service such as SpamCop might help you to find out.

Spam protection is better in the long run than to get rid of spam after you already have an inbox full of junk mail. ]]></description>
</item>
<item>
<title>Spam Email: How To Stop Spam Email In Its Tracks</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Internet/Spam/spam-email-how-to-stop-spam-email-in-its-tracks.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Internet/Spam/spam-email-how-to-stop-spam-email-in-its-tracks.html</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 20 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Many internet users would like to learn how to stop spam from filling up their inboxes. Not to mention the threat of viruses and spyware. Sometime or another we have all or will all have to face this annoying problem. So where do you start? Here are some suggestions for dealing with spam email.

Is your computer running slower than normal? Can't figure out why? Have you checked your computer for spyware? Spyware may be using your pc's resources to spy on you! You should install and run a spyware removal program to find and remove these filthy spies!

Spam emails. Enough is enough! Estimates are that 80% of all emails received are reported to be unsolicited. Hotdog! You should definitely have some anti-spam software on your computer right now. If you don't want to spend any money, don't worry. There are lots of reliable free spam software available to download, install and use. That's how much people dislike spam!

Here is a suggestion. Start using a spam filter to sort through your emails. A spam filter does not block suspicious emails like a spam blocker does, but rather sends them automatically into specified folders. You can also edit your list so you can customize the filter as to what you think is junk mail and what is not.

The total volume of  spam emails being sent out on a daily basis approaches the 100 billion mark. This type of bulk emails are unsolicited and generally a waste of time. You probably already know that spam is unwanted, but is it illegal? A big problem with spam law is that the world wide web has grown so quickly. Electronic mail spam or junk email is an illegal action whereby nearly the same message is sent to multiple email inboxes. Just remember that junk mail is illegal when unsolicited as well as sent in bulk.

Another suggestion is that instead of just deleting spam mail, you should report it. There are spam laws in place that tries to protect legitimate email users from junk mail. Reporting spam mail may lead to the prosecution and fining of spammers.

You can send a copy of the junk mail you received to the Federal Trade Commission. Your submission is then stored ina database. This database is accessable by various consumer protection and law enforcement agencies.

You can also send a copy of the offending email to your internet service provider and to the internet service provider of the spammer. They will normally be glad to get rid of someone who is using their services to send spam mail. You can also report it to a website such as SpamCop.

Spammers use a variety of methods and techniques in order to get around spam filters. Thankfully email filters are adapted to new techniques and methods. However, they will never be 100% effective all the time. 

In the fight to stop spam you should arm yourself first with knowledge and then with the right anti-spam tools. There are many anti-spam software available that may filter and prevent junk mail from reaching your inbox. You can look for the following popular software such as Comodo, Mailwasher, SpamTitan or SpamFighter. Then put your knowledge and tools to good use and stop spam in its dirty little tracks. ]]></description>
</item>
<item>
<title>Spams and Their Filtering Techniques</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Internet/Spam/spams-and-their-filtering-techniques.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Internet/Spam/spams-and-their-filtering-techniques.html</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ We are all familiar with word Spam. This is something we encounter almost on a daily basis in our mail inboxes. They waste our precious time and also contribute in spreading malwares. It is expected that in the year 2008, as many as fourty trillion spam messages will be sent across the globe. This is significantly higher than the figure in 2006, when it was 18 trillion messages.

All of us are aware that email filtering software separates good or true email from the rest or spams. But these software or other appliances employed for filtering can go wrong. While a true mail may be blocked, a spam mail can easily pass through the filter to reach your inbox. If a spam mail is successfully filtered, it is generally placed in a separate folder. These folders can be searched later by the user. According to few sources, both individual users and organizations stand to lose not only their energy and time in deleting these spam mails but also have to shell out $0.4 per deleted message. This figure has been calculated after a lot of calculations and predictions by analysts.

Popular filtering techniques

A number of spam filtering mechanisms have been employed over the years to counter it effectively. Occasionally, more than one techniques are also employed. Some of these include:

1]  Tarpitting:- These are services on the server which takes a lot of time establishing incoming mails. This technique ensures spam mails will take a lot of time to reach a recipient, thus discouraging the spammer to carry out his task. However, the disadvantage is that the same procedure hampers the true mails as well.

2] Graylisting:- In this case, the recipients mail system temporarily rejects all incoming mails. Reciprocal mails are sent as reply with the content being quoted as temporary failure. This technique is employed with the assumption that a real mailer will respond back by sending the mail once again while the spammer loses his patience and will give up on sending further spams.

3] Challenge response:- This technique employs CAPTCHA method to its routine. Mails from unrecongnizable IP addresses are asked to enter the sent CAPTCHA. Humans are able to detect these patterns while the computer fails to do so.

4] Bayesian filters:- This technique analyses the ratio of "good" and "bad" words and assigns a score to each one of them. Based on these scores, spams are filtered out. ]]></description>
</item>
<item>
<title>Anti-Spam Software: The Importance Of Anti-Spam Software</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Internet/Spam/anti-spam-software-the-importance-of-anti-spam-software.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Internet/Spam/anti-spam-software-the-importance-of-anti-spam-software.html</guid>
<pubDate>Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ You may have have found yourself in the following position. You open your email program, get up to make some coffee and upon your return you find your inbox crammed full of unwanted junk mail. It is going to waste your time (and money!) just to try and sort through this much email on a daily basis and may amount to no more than a hill of beans. You want some anti-spam filtering to help you with sorting your emails.

Email spam has turned out to be a big stealer of time and an irritation for individuals and company employees alike. There are real losses of time and money involved for businesses. Companies want to deal with this unwanted hazard effectively and easily.

Some estimations put the amount of spam email being sent on a daily basis at around 100 billion. That is incredible! Just imagine the total amount of time and bandwith that may be wasted on something which most internet users dislike, even hate.

You need to have an anti-spam filtering program or service that can screen your incoming emails and sort them into wanted emails and suspicious emails. Spam filtering software will do the job for you. It will automatically sort through your emails and send suspicious junk mail to a separate folder.

Installing and regularly updating anti-spam software may help with filtering your emails. It tries to let your regular emails through while stopping unknown e-mails from clogging up your inbox. High quality spam filters are estimated to be up to 98% effective, although they are not always correct in their sorting process. It may happen that an e-mail you would have wanted to read gets thrown into the dustbin. 

Adjusting the sensitivity of your spam filter may help to regulate this problem. The higher you set the anti-spam filter sensitivity, the harsher it will sort your incoming emails and the greater the likelihood of it marking an e-mail as spam. It could happen that an important email may be marked as spam and that you never get to read it. In the end it is a balancing act between too much filtering and too little filtering.

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition is a popular choice for spam protection and protection against virus infections. You can download and use a free edition or buy the full version. You are able to configure your scanning schedules as well as update the software database from the internet. It also boasts email, instant messenger and internet browser protection options.

You should remember that installing and using two different anti-spam software on your computer does not offer you double the protection. Use only one at a time and be sure to uninstall the anti-spam software you are not going to use before installing a new one.

If you have enough bandwith available, it is probably a good thing to let the software check for automatic updates. This will ensure that the anti-spam software stays up to date with the latest data concerning spam mail, virus and spyware.

Anti-spam filtering may save you time and in some cases even money. There are a lot of free anti-spam software available that you may choose to use. They are free, so you do not have to spend a cent to receive spam protection. ]]></description>
</item>
<item>
<title>Anti Spam filtering: Do You Use Anti Spam Filtering?</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Internet/Spam/anti-spam-filtering-do-you-use-anti-spam-filtering.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Internet/Spam/anti-spam-filtering-do-you-use-anti-spam-filtering.html</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Spam email can be stopped or controlled by using a spam filter. Email filtering software can be installed by you on your computer or sometimes your internet service provider may provide a spam filter on their mail server. You will have to contact them for more details.

There are a lot of different spam software that you may choose from. Some are better than others and some you buy and others you may use for free. Popular spam software includes Mailwasher, Spambutcher, McAfee, Cloudmark and others.

Microsoft Office Outlook has some features that helps you to block spam email. The most prominent feature is probably Microsoft's 'Junk email Filter' which screens out spam. Other features include the safe senders list, safe recipients list and blocked senders list.

Spam protection is an important part of managing your electronic mail. Spam protection tools can prevent email address harvesting from happening to you. Keep your computer and email program free from junk email. 

There are a few ways how you can prevent spam. You should stop spammers from getting your email address by not posting it directly on your webpage or encrypting it. This prevents the 'spam bots' from harvesting it. You also need a good spam filter as well as anti-virus software that constantly checks your incoming emails.

Once you have been spammed, you need spam solutions. To check if your email address is published on a website, use the Google search engine and do a search for your email address. Generally speaking your address is at a great risk or already compromised if Google can find it. You may need to remove your email address from any webpages that are displayed in the search results.

Junk mail usually contains advertisements, product reviews or related marketing material that sounds too good to be true. You are tricked into reading the email by a wonderful headline promising riches or the keys to unlock secrets. Do not respond to these emails or click on any of the links. Rather delete them or put them in a separate folder. 

You may also receive domain name spam. This normally happens when spammers obtain domain names from the whois database. They then go ahead and send junk email to such commonly used email addresses such as 'contact@', 'webmaster@' and 'info@'. You may want to avoid email prefixes such as these that are commonly used in conjunction with domain names.

Control or block unwanted spam by installing a spam filter on your computer or have your internet service provider filter your email on their server. You can use spam blocking software to eliminate spam from your life and save you precious time, inbox space and increase your peace of mind. ]]></description>
</item>
<item>
<title>Protecting Yourself From Cyber Crime</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Internet/Spam/protecting-yourself-from-cyber-crime.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Internet/Spam/protecting-yourself-from-cyber-crime.html</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Today, the Internet has become an integral part of our lives. It's a daily routine for us to log onto the internet for banking, shopping, social & business networking, job application, researching, music downloads and on other various important information retrieval, we all depend on internet. 

With its worldwide popularity, the risk of Internet crime has also risen considerably. Precaution has always been better then cure so it's in our hands to safeguard our personal information when we make any online transaction. With every bit of information you transmit through the Internet or store online, the risk of falling victim to the Internet crime also rises. Identity theft is at its all time high! Some of the various gullible trends that have been rising through the Internet include hacking, stalking, fraud, phishing, theft, spreading Malware and harassment! This not only causes a financial distress but more then often leads to the psychological stress.

Some of the ways that can help you to guard your safety in the Internet world and help you escape from falling prey to Cyber Crime are listed below. Do remember, your safety is at your own hands!

Awareness: Before you start the campaign to safeguards yourself from cyber crime, keep in mind that you know about the risks you are going to face! The right knowledge equips you to fight with a right mindset! Awareness is the most important weapon that will come to your rescue at the most difficult times!

Be Vigilant: These days most of the people who surf online are the members of social networking sites. Being social is nice but trusting everyone regarding your personal information can drown you into deep waters! Most of the cyber criminals maintain a good relationship at the start and at later stages they exploit that information for their own good. Do not let them exploit your trust! Be conscientious of the information you share with others online. 

Don't pass your Password: If any link in your email asks for your personal information or your password, quickly mark it as Spam and report it! Most of these emails are used to phish for your personal information. They will allure you with schemes such as " Congrats! You've been chosen winner for a trip to Switzerland", all excited you may give your information but in the end you'll realize the big loss you made for yourself! Keep in mind, if you are dealing with a valid organization, it will never ask you for your password. Another way to keep your personal information secure is by changing passwords at some regular intervals. Though make it easy for yourself to remember! 

We all enjoy using the Internet. It has been a valuable source of information since almost a decade now! Do not let anyone make it a bad experience for you by making you prey to their bad motives. So, to prevent yourself from becoming a victim to cyber crime keep in mind these basic tips, be vigilant and conscious of the information you share through the intranet connection. ]]></description>
</item>
<item>
<title>Halt! 5 Steps to Stop Spam Emails on your Website</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Internet/Spam/halt-5-steps-to-stop-spam-emails-on-your-website.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Internet/Spam/halt-5-steps-to-stop-spam-emails-on-your-website.html</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ No one likes spam email - customers, clients, and even business owners cannot always handle the amount of spam that comes from one email address placed in a public space on the web. So if you have a website, you will want to check out these five tips that will help to reduce the spam that gets into your inbox. 

1.	Limit the number of emails that you give out to your customers and post on websites. If you post more than one email address on a website, you will experience twice as many unwanted emails. And if you run a business, you should never post your personal email anywhere on your website. 
2.	You can include tools such as CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart). This is a small box on your website where you can have words or numbers that come up and the visitors to your site will have to type these in before they are allowed to send messages to you. This prevents automated spam from slipping through. 
3.	Use web forms instead of giving out your email address. This will let your visitors contact you without ever having to see your email address. This may not cut down on all the spam, but at least you know the spam you are getting was typed by a real person. 
4.	If you need to give out your email address, spell it out on your website. Leave out the @ symbol so that it is harder for spam bots to recognize it as an email address. Customers that want to send you an email will understand what you mean when you spell it out.   Better still create a jpg/gif images of your email address, so that the visitor/customer can see your email address, but the spammers will no be able to find it so easily.
5.	If all else fails, you can require a registration for your website. This will let visitors leave you comments and questions. This prevents any spam bots from contacting you or pulling your email address from your website. 

These tips are just some of the ways that you can prevent spam on your website. There are obviously many more but this should help to heavy reduce the level of spam emails you receive.  If you have a paid web hosting service, most providers now have Junk Mail Filtering services including with their hosting plans or at an additional charge. ]]></description>
</item>
<item>
<title>Stopping Nasty Spam from Taking over Your Inbox</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Internet/Spam/stopping-nasty-spam-from-taking-over-your-inbox.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Internet/Spam/stopping-nasty-spam-from-taking-over-your-inbox.html</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 14 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ There are so many different ways that people can get email addresses these days. All you need to do is find a site that offers email addresses and sign. But have you ever notice that even when you don't share your new address, you can end up with a half a dozen spam emails in your box a few hours later? If you want to get rid of this nasty problem, take a look at the following steps. 

First, if you are so annoyed by spam that you can't take it anymore, you can purchase and internet spam filter. These are usually less than $50 and can easily stop spam before it ever reaches your inbox. One or two messages still may find their way through the filter, but it is better than the dozen you used to get ever hour. 

If you have your own domain name, then ask your provider if the provide a spam filter or it's sometimes known as a Junk mail filter service.  A large number of ISP's and Web Hosting Company do offer spam filters and even virus scanning.  So if your one doesn't it might be worthwhile doing some research and finding one that does!

One of the big mistakes made by many people when setting up email addresses with their ISP or Web Hosting Company is to use their catch-all filter.  Although this will catch anything@yourdomain.com it also gives spammers the same option and they will use it!

Another quick way to get rid of spam is to have multiple email addresses. One address can be used for you correspondence with business associated, friends, and family members. This address should only be given out to trusted individuals. The other email address can be used for anything that you want - if you want to sign up for newsletters, chat rooms, or if you order products online. If too much spam gets into this address, all you have to do it dump it and get a new one. 

Remember that creativity with your email address is also a way to stop spam. The more letters and numbers that you use, the harder it is for someone to capture your address and start sending you spam. 

If the spam gets too much, or it's the same thing or and over again, you can take the time to report it. This is one way that you can take a step is stopping spam for everyone, and not just yourself. ]]></description>
</item>
<item>
<title>Is Your Internet Provider Blocking Your Emails Port 25 - Here's How To Fix It</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Internet/Spam/is-your-internet-provider-blocking-your-emails-port-25-here-s-how-to-fix-it.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Internet/Spam/is-your-internet-provider-blocking-your-emails-port-25-here-s-how-to-fix-it.html</guid>
<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Almost a week ago I found out that I couldn't send emails using my desktop software such as (Outlook / Thunderbird). After speaking with my high speed internet provider I was told that they had recently started blocking port 25 -- basically stopping me from sending emails.

So after speaking with the tech support staff they told me to try port 587 which didn't work. So I called up my website administrator company and he said that by default it has to be port 25 and like most others they only support port 25 for sending out emails. 

After spending several hours researching this and trying several solutions, each crazier then the one before, I stumbled upon a solution that still allows me to send email from my computer using desktop software such as Thunderbird or Outlook.

MY OLD EMAIL SETUP
Here are the old settings that used to work just fine before my internet provider started blocking port 25:
Email address: info@mywebsitename dot com
Userid / Password: The userid and password that my email software asks me for is my email address and it's password.
POP / Incoming Mail Server: mail.mywebsitename dot com Port 110
SMTP / Outgoing Mail Server: mail.mywebsitename dot com Port 25 (I tried just changing that port to 587, but that didn't work. I recommend that you try just changing it to 587 first and see if that works.  If not then continue to the steps below)

AFTER THE BLOCK STARTED
After my internet provider started blocking port 25 - I was still able to receive incoming emails but I was not able to send or reply back to those emails.

NEW SETUP TO FIX THIS ISSUE
Now we need to change these settings so that the mail goes through your internet provider while still allowing you to keep your business / custom email address. Here are the new settings:
Email address: info@mywebsitename dot com  (still the same)
Userid / Password: This time around I'm using the user id and password given to me by my internet provider for my account.  You may have to contact your internet provider and ask them for your email account id and pass.
POP / Incoming Mail Server: mail.mywebsitename dot com  Port 110  (still the same)
SMTP / Outgoing Mail Server: smtp.yourinternetprovidersname dot com  Port 587

NOW
This new setup allows me to receive emails and reply back just as I was previously doing. 

I hope this helps you resolve your port 25 block issue. ]]></description>
</item>
<item>
<title>How Spam Filter False Positives Harm Your Business</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Internet/Spam/how-spam-filter-false-positives-harm-your-business.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Internet/Spam/how-spam-filter-false-positives-harm-your-business.html</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Unless you live in a cave --and one without a computer at that-- you're very familiar with the huge time waster that sifting through mountains of email spam can be.  And while spam is a huge annoyance for employees and end users everywhere, the real costs for businesses are in time and money and they're increasing every day.  As costs rise, IT people (at SMEs in particular) are desperate for ways to deal with it effectively.

It's estimated that 100 billion spam emails fly back and forth, dirtying up the internet every day.  A lot of these emails end up on in business email boxes, and employees are forced to spend their mornings sifting through mountainous piles of spam. All of which is time they're spending not working.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Spam Filters

Installing anti-spam filters is really the only effective way to deal with day-to-day spam within a company.  These filters work to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, allowing the good emails through and tossing the junk in the trash.  They do this by combining several different types of technology and updating almost constantly.  And while the highest quality spam filters do provide relief, sifting out about 98% of a company's spam, they're still imperfect.

Why?  Unfortunately, spam filters occasionally have trouble telling what is wheat and what is chaff (to stretch an already-tired metaphor), and toss some important emails out along with the junk.  And while they don't occur that often, 'false positives' can still become a problem for business owners.  

One solution to the problem of false positive is adjusting the sensitivity of the company's spam filters.  The way this works is simple: the higher the sensitivity, the more spam is caught.  But the higher the sensitivity, the more valid emails will be taken out with the trash.  Increasing the sensitivity of spam filters can cost companies a heck of a lot more money than too much spam after all, customers don't like it when their emails go ignored. 

The Direct and Indirect Cost of Anti-Spam Filters

Even one little missed email can get a company in deep water.  A law company based out of Colorado, for example, missed an email containing some important information about a court date and ended up missing an important day in court.  The cost? They were required to pay all of the fees for the opposing counsel. 

How did this happen?  To combat spam, the company's IT department had turned up the sensitivity of their email filters. Apparently, the United States District sounded pretty spammy to these super hyper filters, and it costed this company thousands of dollars in fees.  Ouch.

While this is a nice and obvious example of how false positives can lose a company money, in most cases it's simply not that cut and dried.  Most monetary losses aren't direct; they come from a loss of business and credibility. When an email from a client is gobbled up by the spam filter and a big business deal falls through because the client feels ignored, it takes a lot of work and public relations to get that client back.  And sometimes it never happens.

In addition to directly losing a company money, false positives can affect productivity just as much as an overload of spam can.  If employees are used to seeing a lot of their important emails get junked, they will have to spend valuable time sifting through their spam folder for genuine emails.  How much can that cost? More than you'd think.  According to Ferris Research, recovering a genuine email from a spam folder costs an average of $3.50 of that employee's time. Especially if you don't experience many false positives, it may not seem like much but in a company of 500 people who have to fish out two emails from their spam folder a month, it adds up to $42,000.  Does that sound like an itty-bitty expense to you?

It doesn't to most other business owners, either.  And to reduce the number of false positives --and the amount of business lost-- many businesses don't use any anti-spam filters at all. And while it's hard to judge them for wanting to prevent a loss of business, going without a spam filter opens them up to all sorts of problems. Taking care of spam is just too important.

Striking a Balance

But how do you deal with spam and reduce false positives at the same time? The best method is to set aside all mail marked as spam into a special folder so that users will have access to it, and can check it often.  While this may seem time-consuming, with good anti-spam software it really doesn't have to be. The better the software is at recognizing obvious spam, the fewer emails will end up in the junk folder.

As spam filters improve, so do spammers. Because of this, spam filters will probably never be 100% effective-- the ones that will delete every piece of spam will generally delete a few important emails along with it.  And the ones that let all the important stuff though will also let in a bit of junk. But using a good, well-configured anti spam software and integrating it with your email server can really reduce the amount of spam that end users receive, as well as the rate of false positives you experience. ]]></description>
</item>

</channel>
</rss>

