The study did indicate, however, that “power users” or people that communicate heavily via e-mail (which means most professional communicators by my estimation) were far more likely to have difficulty dealing with spam. If recent media and legislative activity both in the United States and abroad is any indication, lawmakers and journalists probably also fall into this category. So this month I’m going to give all of you power users some tips and tools for dealing with all of those unsavory advertisements cluttering your inbox.

Part of the trick to avoiding spam is knowing how it finds you in the first place. In March 2003, the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) released an interesting study where they created hundreds of test e-mail addresses and used them in different ways to track which ones received the most junk e-mail. The e-mail boxes that received the most spam were either listed on a public Web site, included somewhere in Usenet discussion forums and/or contained short names that could be easily guessed by programs trying random letter combinations (like “ This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ”). It appears that most spammers use special programs that work like search engines, constantly searching across the Internet for e-mail addresses.

Based on these findings, the CDT recommends that public Web site owners not list e-mail addresses in the standard format. Instead, they should list them in ways that human beings can intuitively understand, but that throw off address harvesting search engines. So instead of listing “ This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ,” you list “bob at bignetwork dot com.” Or use a gif image to display the @ character instead of text.

There are also some clever ways in which Web developers can allow visitors to public sites to e-mail you without revealing your address. IABC is currently taking this approach with its member directory. You may want to consider having your name removed from public directories that openly list addresses in the standard format to avoid unwelcome messages. And if you have a short, common name on a large network like AOL/Yahoo/etc., you might want to consider changing your address to something less common, perhaps by including your last name or middle initial.

What if it’s too late?

Unfortunately for many of us, it’s too late. Once you get put on one spam mailing list, the problem quickly grows since lists of legitimate addresses tend to get shared. I get more than 50 unsolicited messages a day, and altering the e-mail address on my own Web site will probably make little difference. This is where filtering software can at least alleviate the bulk of the problem.

While there are a number of approaches to filtering junk e-mail, my personal favorite is a combination of two free open- source tools that work together; POPFile (popfile.sourceforge.net) and Outclass (www.vargonsoft.com/outclass). Popfile uses a technique called Bayesian filtering that examines blocks of text to determine if something is an advertisement or if it is legitimate. You train the software for about a week—telling it which messages you are getting are spam and which are not. After the initial training, you can let the tool filter automatically. The results, for me, have been uncanny. A clean, clear inbox. Very rare mistakes. Spam is automatically moved to a folder that I periodically check to ensure that nothing legitimate was filtered. Over time, the tool gets more and more accurate as you tell it what you want and what you don’t.

Outclass is an extension to Popfile that makes it integrate with Microsoft Outlook 2000 or later. It also allows Popfile to work with corporate mail systems like Microsoft Exchange. If you use Outlook and want to try junk-mail filtering, be sure to follow the installation instructions on the Outclass site before installing Popfile. Like many open source efforts, things aren’t as pretty and simple as they sometimes are with commercial software, but you can’t beat the price or the results.

Microsoft, naturally, isn’t sitting still on the issue that bothers their customers. Outlook 2003, due out later this year, claims to include junk mail filtering. And several commercial products and services like SpamArrest (spamarrest.com) have received favorable reviews.

Looking ahead, it will be interesting to see whether spam can ever be eliminated. While many governments are working on legislation to outlaw unsolicited e-mailing, spammers simply shift their operations to Third World countries or use innovative methods of disguising their location. Consumer groups that try to exert pressure by boycotting products that are sold in this manner are often hampered by the reality that spammers often count on 1/100th of a response rate to turn a profit. It is hoped that some combination of technology, consumer pressure and legislation will eliminate the problem in the future.

Until then, take some comfort in the fact that average employees at most firms are thus far not significantly affected by spam. But if you are one of the unlucky exceptions, the tips I’ve mentioned should help turn a major irritation into a minor one.

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