Wouldn't it be nice if you were to request your email and no spam or unsolicited commercial email (UCE) appeared when you downloaded it?

You all know what I'm talkin' about! Those obnoxious and often rude electronic advertisements that arrive when you request your email from your server. To me, SPAM and UCE represent an intrusion into my private, personal, and paid-for space by nefarious characters who are psychopathic and delusional. Have you ever purchased anything from one of those advertisements? Worse, has your computer been infected with some backdoor or malicious code that usually accompanies SPAM or UCE? In this little article we'll try to provide you with some basic tools and knowledge to prevent additional SPAM and UCE from appearing in your email.

1.) Use Mozilla, Firefox, Netscape, or Safari (for Mac) browsers. Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser software provides back door entries for spammers and hackers and they exploit them! If it wasn't for Microsoft there would be almost no need for anti-virus software. Think about the unnecessary sub-markets Microsoft has created in order to further decrease the cash in your wallet. If your computer came with Microsoft's Internet Explorer you can still run another browser like Mozilla or Firefox as your primary if you desire without having to uninstall MS Internet Explorer. I like Mozilla and Firefox browsers and prefer them to MSIE.

2.) Never open an email attachment without a preliminary virus scan by your installed virus protection software or set your virus software to scan your email before you open it. Most ISP's provide this service with your account before you download your email, but always check with your ISP to make sure it is enabled. Some ISP's enable email virus protection by default, some don't.

3.) In Mozilla for example, set up your browser Preferences to something like: Edit>Preferences>Privacy and Security>>> "Do not load remote images in Mail & Newsgroup messages". Now navigate to the "Pop-up Windows" part, then check: "Block unrequested popup windows". In the same Preferences window navigate to Advanced>Scripts and Plug-ins>Leave the checkbox unchecked for "Enable JavaScript for Mail and Newsgroups". You can tweak these settings on your browser depending on your risk tolerances but the main thing is to be aware of possible exploits on your machine by spammers and hackers and to try to prevent intrusions/exploits. It's important to learn how to use the Preferences feature in your browser and understand what the terms mean.

4.) Learn how to expand an email header. This step is absolutely necessary if your are to properly report a Spammer to an ISP. In the Mozilla browser it goes like this: Open your email program. Select an email from someone you know and trust in order to familiarize yourself with these procedures. Open your (now scanned) email as you normally would to read it. In the topmost toolbar select "View" >drop down box appears > Select "Headers" >drop down box appears>Select "All" or View>Headers>All .......are you with me? It's works much the same on all browsers, just variations on a theme. This is what an expanded email header looks like.

5.) Once the email header is expanded look for an IP number enclosed in parentheses and brackets like this: ([71.102.10.132]). There is usually only one instance of a bracketed IP number in the expanded header and the one closest to the top of the page is the one to use.

6.) Now you have to find out what that bracketed IP number means. I use two sources. The first one I use is Sam Spade.org and the second one is Geektools.com. Whenever Sam Spade's search fails use Geektools. There are additional anti-spam tools on the Sam Spade website for your perusal. Copy the IP number without the parentheses and brackets and navigate over to Sam Spade.org and paste the IP number you just copied into the form where it says: IP Whois then submit the form. Go ahead, try it. What did you find? Did you find an abuse address like: abuse@verizon.net? You're almost there.

7.) Next, compose a "Template" email that you can summon with a few mouse clicks or keystrokes every time you wish to make a complaint about a SPAM, UCE, or someone trying to hack your computer (security violation) and save the "Template" as "SPAM/UCE". Saving the template this way will cause the complaint to appear with "SPAM/UCE" in the Subject of the email. The body of my template file reads like this:

8.) Just below your signature cut and paste the entire expanded email header then cut and paste the entire contents of the body of the spam message leaving a space between the header and body of the spam copy. The person at the ISP has to read it and delineating between the header and body will make it easier to read. Now you have all the information you need to report an email spammer. There are different variations upon this theme but it's a good way to yank some delusional Humbug Merchant's chain ;-) Now send your complaint off to the offending ISP's abuse dept. and seal it with a kiss eh?

Here is an actual example of a response from an ISP concerning a complaint filed about a spamming incident. Please refer to additional anti-spam resources on the web because it's your internet too and the nice thing about it is that the more people who report spam the less of it there will be!