Four ways to reduce spam
It’s a sad fact of life, but it’s been two decades since the Internet first gained wide acceptance among the general public, and we still have to deal with spam. Unsolicited and unwanted advertising continues to clutter cyberspace. It irritates all who receive it. And in the worst case, spam can even disable a website or email address if the volume is too heavy.
Worse yet, today’s spammers have become infinitely more sophisticated than their predecessors. Which means that even though most web browsers and email programs come with spam detectors, spammers with the skills, technology, and determination can still find ways to deposit their porn links, phishing schemes, and ridiculous ads. to get rich quick in the inboxes of people who are not willing to do it. recipients
Fortunately, all is not lost. Here are four simple steps you can take to drastically reduce the amount of spam that makes it to your email inbox.
- Install CAPTCHA on your website forms to thwart bots. CAPTCHA, which stands for “Fully Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers From Humans,” requires people to enter a random code to submit an online form. Random code is often in the form of letters that are distorted, wavy, or difficult (but not impossible) to read. Spam bots, the automated email generators of choice for today’s sophisticated spammers, can’t read the random code, so they can’t submit the form.
- Don’t put your email address on your website. By itself, this will eliminate a large amount of spam. But the decision must be weighed against other concerns, such as making it easier for site visitors to contact you. If, like most businesses, you decide to include email addresses on your website, install PrivateDaddy. This free, open source software hides your email address from spam bots while making it visible to humans. Some web platforms, like WordPress, even come with a plugin that you can install.
- Disable comments on your blog. Once again, it is not an easy decision. But just like leaving your email address off your website, it can help reduce spam in the right situations. If you have a very active community of readers who post a lot of legitimate responses, the value of that community will outweigh the drawbacks of any spam that comes through. On the other hand, if you tend to get a small number of random comments, chances are a lot of them are spam. Disabling comments will remove spammers’ ability to use your blog.
- Unsubscribe from what you don’t read. When you subscribe to a newsletter, blog, or other form of online communication, you give that company or organization permission to communicate with you by email. You may not want to receive what they send you, but technically it’s not spam. So they can, and will, send you things until you tell them to stop.
Legally, all email newsletters must have an unsubscribe link somewhere in the email. They usually make it hard to find by placing it at the bottom of the page, in small print. But if you no longer read a newsletter or get any real value from it, find that link and unsubscribe.
Be smart, be vigilant, and minimize the ways spammers can access your email inbox. The small amount of time you invest will pay big dividends by reducing the amount of spam you receive.
