Golden_Eternity sets mode: +m
Golden_Eternity: OK... here we go
Golden_Eternity: If you need to talk to me or ask a question, /notice Golden_Eternity
Golden_Eternity: Ahem...
Golden_Eternity: The lesson I'm about to rattle off is on how spammers get your address, and how to prevent yourself from getting spammed
Golden_Eternity: I will be (at some point) giving a second half to this lesson about how to track down the spammers and get them kicked off their ISPs
Golden_Eternity: First off... what is "spam"?
Golden_Eternity: Spam is a slang term for unsolicited commercial e-mail, usenet posts, messages on IRC, or it can also refer to unwanted mail like multi-level marketing scams and chain letters.
Golden_Eternity: This lesson is generally intended to refer to the commercial side of spam
Golden_Eternity: Now, there are a number of ways that spammers might get your e-mail address, usenet, the web, and certain ISPs are good sources for that info
Golden_Eternity: First off, I'll talk about usenet, since that was (In part) the subject of my last lesson
Golden_Eternity: I already spoke about this, but I'm not going to make you go get my logs, so here's the basics of it...
Golden_Eternity: Spammers don't go through usenet by hand looking for people's addresses, that would take too much time and effort for their purpose; which is, of course, to make lots of money without really doing anything
Golden_Eternity: Instead, they use bots to read through the headers and body of usenet posts in search of text matching the form of an e-mail address "[email protected]"
Golden_Eternity: Now, there's a real easy way to deal with this problem, and the answer lies in your newsgroup reader... alter your identity
Golden_Eternity: Adding the text "nospam" is a common technique to prevent people from getting your real e-mail address, while still making your address available to people who have a valid reason to contact you
Golden_Eternity: "nospam" is in fairly common use, though, so the next generation of spam bots will most likely strip this from e-mail addys
Golden_Eternity: you can always use something of your own design and explain it in the body of your message.
Golden_Eternity: OK, the next way for spammers to get your address, that I'm going to talk about, is the web
Golden_Eternity: Many of us have our own web pages, whether it's an archive of our lessons, our views on the world, our poetry, or just an ego page about our love life and our dog buffy
Golden_Eternity: And many of us have as a feature of our pages a way to contact us, so that we can receive the prasie you or buffy rightly deserve
Golden_Eternity: Well, spammers have bots to browse the web too...
Golden_Eternity: So if you have your address on a web page that is linked to by another page, or especially if you're registered with a major search engine, then you should expect a few notes about MLM, that kid with cancer that wants everyone to forward e-mail, and adds about Tiiffani's Virtual Play-Pen
Golden_Eternity: The ways to deal with this are the same as for usenet... of course you can try burying your address on a page other than the index, in hopes that the bot goes no further, but that is no guarantee
Golden_Eternity: Your best bet is to explain it, not put it at all, or just accept the fact that you're going to get the occasional spam
Golden_Eternity: OK, now here's the real spammer hell on the web... guest books...
Golden_Eternity: I signed my high school's guest book a few weeks ago and I've been getting spammed by local political groups since then (Well, not really, I dealt with them)
Golden_Eternity: If you sign a guest book with your real address you are begging to get spammed
Golden_Eternity: Not necessarily by the owner of the site, mind you... guest books are just really great places to send spam bots... gold mine
Golden_Eternity: OK, now I mentioned that some ISPs are more prone to spam than others... the one that jumps out is AOL
Golden_Eternity: Now, I wont go into the "AOL sux!" debate... But I will say that here is a major problem for AOL members...
Golden_Eternity: I was an AOL member for a while, and I was getting 12 spam messages a day, and it was all because I had a profile set up in the AOL Member Directory... Now these are nice, but are they worth the hassle of getting mass-spammed?
Golden_Eternity: I have changed ISPs, and now that I am no longer with AOL, it has been weeks since my last spam message (I'm actually thinking about posting to usenet with my address so I can add a few more spammer kills to my list)
Golden_Eternity: As most of the people present for this lesson will know, IRC spam is also quite common. We've all gotten ads to go check out the Naughty Nursing Station at http://www.emergencyroom.com or been told to go check out someone's girlfriend on their web page (Just on the other side of a $20 charge to your credit card, most likely). Now, I don't know about you, but I'm not on IRC for the porn. Else, I'd be in #!!!100%XXXPixs and not #Hackerz_Rulez.
Golden_Eternity: Now, I dont know how this solution works, exactly... I just know that it does... the answer to IRC spam is to set yourself +i (And also to not go into #!!!1000%XXXPixs)
Golden_Eternity: Most clients have an option to set yourself +i (invisible on server), but if you can't find it just type "/mode +i" (Minus the quotes, of course)
Golden_Eternity: Then set your client up to autoexecute that command on connect.
Golden_Eternity: Now, I've reached the end of this lesson plan... are there any questions on the subject of spam protection?
Golden_Eternity: OK, then... this lesson is over... there's coffee and cookies in the back... and remember "keep coming back, it works if you work it"
Golden_Eternity sets mode: -m
Golden_Eternity: ;)
Golden_Eternity: Oh! For more info, check out http://www.cauce.org (CAUCE = Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail)