Here is the article from the newsletter: -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2003 1:36 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Technology & Business Daily "E-Business Secrets" from InfoWorld.com, March 19, 2003
======================================================== BRIAN LIVINGSTON "E-Business Secrets" InfoWorld.com ======================================================== Wednesday, March 19, 2003 Advertising Sponsor - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - INTRODUCING THE NEW NEC VERSA LITEPAD: THE THINNEST, LIGHTEST TABLET PC ON THE PLANET! Only 2.2 pounds and just .6-inches thick, the Versa LitePad features Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, integrated wireless connectivity, a bundled productivity suite and more. It's the ultimate digital paper experience! To get the white paper "Inventing the Tablet PC" go to: http://63.115.136.15/go/infoworld/5342314.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - PREVIEW SPAM AND YOU'LL GET MORE By Brian Livingston Posted March 19, 2003 6:00 AM Pacific Time I described in the past month ways to prevent e-mail addresses on your Web site from being collected by "harvester" programs that feed spammer's lists (see E-Business Secrets issues from Feb. 26 and March 5). You can solve an even bigger problem by keeping your business addresses from receiving more spam than they already get. Other publications often warn you not to click the unsubscribe link of an e-mail message; if you do, it confirms your address and you'll get more spam. I'm convinced that this advice is dead wrong. Legitimate e-mail newsletters do honor unsubscribe requests, but most spammers don't honor them or use them in any manner, if their unsubscribe links even work. Now there's a fascinating study that shows one of the real mechanisms that multiplies the spam your addresses receive. Out-law.com, a respected Web site maintained by British law firm Masons, ran an experiment that demonstrates this effect: 1. The law firm first set up numerous e-mail addresses that were unused except for being posted on various Web pages. 2. These addresses were soon "harvested" by software that searches Web pages for addresses. Spam messages began pouring in. 3. For the first two weeks of the experiment, the researchers did what novice Internet users do: They opened the messages that were received. 4. They found that 83 percent of the spam being received contained a coded "tracking" image. When the image was downloaded to be displayed in the message, it alerted the senders that a message sent to a specific address had been viewed. This is now the most prevalent mechanism by which spammers find "live" accounts, in my opinion. 5. Two weeks after opening the messages, the accounts that had been used received almost twice the volume of spam as before. 6. The researchers then began "bouncing" messages. To do this, they programmed their mail server to reply with a generic error indicating nondelivery. Only two weeks after taking this step, spam to these accounts decreased by 40 percent. The bottom line? You can significantly reduce the spam that the addresses on your Web site receive by: 1. Not viewing messages that are likely to be spam. 2. Sending a "bounce" message to those messages that you deem to be spam. It's important to note that the "preview pane" of Microsoft Outlook and similar e-mail packages downloads any images in your incoming messages. This activates the tracking codes in the same way as if you had fully opened the messages. In my office, therefore, we turn off the preview pane of our e-mail programs before deleting messages that the From line or the Subject line indicate are spam. In Outlook, you can turn off the preview pane by clicking View, Preview Pane. In Outlook Express, it's View, Layout. (In various versions of Outlook and other programs, the menu placement may differ.) It's trickier for you to send an "undeliverable" bounce to the senders of spam. Any mail server can do this, of course, but the hard part is integrating the controls of each user's e-mail program with this capability. With the volume of spam roughly quintupling every 12 months, I'm sure a button with this feature ("Delete and Bounce") will become a familiar part of all e-mail packages before long. If you have more information about this or wish to send me a tip on any other subject, please send e-mail with "tip" in the subject line to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] A summary of the study of spam and the tracking codes in downloadable images is at http://[EMAIL PROTECTED]/4e84 -----Original Message----- From: Couch, Nate [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2003 10:47 AM To: Exchange Discussions Subject: RE: Can this happen with Spam ? I would like to read the whole article. Where did you find it? Off of ExchangeAdmin.com? Nate Couch EDS Messaging > ---------- > From: RBHATIA > Reply To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2003 09:22 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Can this happen with Spam ? > > Hi, > As I try to battle the tons of spam related email my organization receives > everyday, I am amazed at the increasing number of emails targetting our > organization despite the fact that we do have a filtering technology in > place. Which brings me to the question - are we doing something to invite > these emails ? > I came across an article by Brian Livingstone recently about spam and how > certain tactics can invite spammers to your organization. I quote a > statement from his article relating to the results of an experiment they > carried out at some law firm - "They found that 83 percent of the spam > being > received contained a coded "tracking" image. When the image was downloaded > to be displayed in the message, it alerted the senders that a message sent > to a specific address had been viewed. This is now the most prevalent > mechanism by which spammers find "live" accounts, in my opinion." > Is this possible in Outlook ? The article said something about with the > Preview pane being turned on in Outlook, this was more likely to happen or > just opening an email with this sort of an image in it could also trigger > the code. How can this happen ? This means Outlook is allowing some code > to > get executed that passes information back to the source. Isn't there a > security patch to prevent this from happening ? > RB > > _________________________________________________________________ > List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm > Archives: http://www.swynk.com/sitesearch/search.asp > To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Archives: http://www.swynk.com/sitesearch/search.asp To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Archives: http://www.swynk.com/sitesearch/search.asp To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
