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Spam
and How to Deal with it Easily. -
part 1 of 3
By Matt Western.
I'm
sure you've heard of spam and know what it is, but just in case
you're not sure, here's a very brief explanation.
Spam
is email that you don't ask for. You receive it but you don't
ask for it. It's analogous to junk mail you receive in your mail
box at home. You haven't asked for it, but you get it anyway.
Spam
goes by a few names. It is also called UCE (unsolicited commercial
email), junk mail, but the term that had stuck is spam. It is
not entirely clear where the term spam came from. Some people
say it caame from a Monthy Python skit in which the term spam
was used about a gazillion times over to drive a customer ordering
something to eat mad at a diner. Other folks say it comes from
somewhere else. Either way it doesn't matter, all we know is that
spam is a big big problem.
Possibly
the biggest problem presented by spam are the email messages that
contain nudity, obscenity, pornography and just out and out filth
and depravity. Only a few short years ago, it was OK to leave
your email client (Outlook Express, Outlook, Eudora etc) open
on your computer while you went away from your desk, but it's
not any longer.
These
days you may find as you return to your desk that your loyal email
client has gone out and downloaded new email for you, only to
find a pornagraphic image being displayed within the email message
(this will only happen if you have some form of auto preview setting
enalbled within your email client. But it doesn't end there. Spam
email can and very often does contain disgusting words and sentences
within the subject field of the email message. I no longer leave
my email client open on my computer while I leave my desk. I don'y
want my children to read these filthy words and sentences.
So
what can we do to remove some of the risks of spam right now?
There are a number of steps we can take to reduce the amount of
this filth spam we have to look at or read.
Maybe
the best thing to do first is to disable any auto preview option
you may have in your email client. Auto preview options allow
you to view an email without having to double click it to open
it. Generally you will have a list of all your email in one section
of your email client. When you click on one of the emails in this
list you may see the contents of the email displayed within another
section of your email client. This is the auto preview section
of your email client. By disabling this feature you will instantly
remove the risk of yourself or anyone else inadvertantly viewing
the contents of any email message.
Secondly,
create an inbox rule. An inbox rule is a list of words that your
email client will read and compare with words contained within
any incoming email you receive. For example, you can create an
inbox rule that scans any incoming email for the word firewood
in the subject line and then have that email redirected to your
emails trash can or deleted items folder etc. With most email
clients you can configure inbox rules to redirect emai into specific
email folders, to alert you when you receive email from a certain
person, to automatically delete message and many other things
as well.
For
example I use an inbox rule to redirect email that contains smutty
filthy words in the subject line of the email straight into the
deleted items folder (I use Outlook).
Spam
and How to deal with it Easily Part - 1
Spam and How to deal
with it Easily Part - 2
Spam and How to deal
with it Easily Part - 3
Article
© Matt Western - deTechnify.com
**********************************************************
Matt Western has been working in the electronics and IT areas
since 1983. These days he heads up deTechnify.com a web site aimed
at clearing away the technical haze surrounding computers computing
and the internet.
You can contact Matt via http://www.detechnify.com
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