Spam

CAPTCHA

February 15, 2005

Ever wonder why so many websites ask you to enter squiggly, distorted pass codes? They are using captcha to verify your humanity. A captcha is an automated test that humans can pass, but computers can not. To learn more, read the definitions from Webopedia or Wikipedia. Or dive into Carnegie Mellon’s Captcha Project.

Read the rest of the tip →

Joe Job

December 27, 2004

A Joe Job is spam mail that deliberately and specifically uses an incorrect from address in order to put the blame on that specific person. Although it common for viruses to forge from addresses, it is usually not done with specific, malicious intent. So true Joe Jobs are pretty rare. The term originated in 1997, [...]

Read the rest of the tip →

Getting Rid of Spam

May 25, 2004

Ask ten people what can be done about spam, and you’ll get ten different answers. One thoughtful discussion of the problem of unsolicited, commercial email and how to get rid of it is Getting Rid of Spam by “This is True” columnist Randy Cassingham. Fight Spam on the Internet from Scott Hazen Mueller, is another.

Read the rest of the tip →

Spim

February 11, 2004

As instant messaging has grown in popularity, it’s also fallen prey to the same marketers that made “spam” a household word. According to Ferris Research, spim (unsolicited commercial instant messages, also called “instant spam” or “IM marketing”) doubled last year. How can you stop it? AOL IM ( http://www.aim.com ) gives you the option of [...]

Read the rest of the tip →

Challenge/Response

September 15, 2003

In an effort to control unwanted e-mail, some are turning to Challenge/Response, an email filtering system that checks incoming mail against a white list of approved addresses (such as your personal address book.) If the sender is not on the list, he is sent a challenge email with instructions on how to proceed. If the [...]

Read the rest of the tip →

Spam

June 17, 2003

Spam is unsolicited commercial e-mail. Its original use as a technology word dates back to Usenet newsgroups, where “to spam” meant “to flood a newsgroup with irrelevant messages.” To learn more about the origins of “spam” and other recently coined words and phrases, visit Word Spy.

Read the rest of the tip →

Javascript Email Address

July 29, 2002

If you have a personal or professional Web page with your email address posted, you are an easy target for spam robots that crawl the Internet looking for email addresses to add to their lists. One way to avoid this is to use a bit of Javascript to break your email address into so many [...]

Read the rest of the tip →

Next Entries →