Preventing Spam

In this episode of Computer Chronicles, we show you how to protect yourself against spam, your email's most notorious enemy. [Episode #1928, First broadcast: 3/26/2002] To begin with, there are many anti-spam tools already on your computer that you may not know about. Mike Elgan from Interex first explains how spammers get your email address when you post it anywhere on the Internet. Then, he demonstrates how to create junk email folders in Outlook and also how to use the 'Rules Wizard' to create macros that get rid of junk mail. Elgan says you should not respond to junk mail and you should use two email addresses, reserving one for public use. And, there are many effective anti-spam applications that you can download from the Internet as well. PCWorld.com's Andrew Brandt recommends "SpamKiller" that runs filters then dumps junk mail in a "killed file" and "Spam Buster" that runs filters with splashier animations. Brandt also talks about "MailWasher" , a free advertising supported service that gives you the most ability to customize their filters using regular expressions. Brandt says that experts predict by 2005, most people will be receiving 40 spams per day. Then we take a look at the consequences of spam, identity theft and child abuse. An identity thief victim talks about how her name, social security number and credit card was stolen on the Internet while a hacker describes the vulnerabilities that allow them to break into systems. Tom Poledge from Symantec explains how Norton Internet Security Software can protect you by preventing designated items from being sent to insecure websites. Mailshell is an intelligent email system that allows you to customize your inbox to avoid spam. Eytan Urbas describes how the product works to block bad email and manage good email when you register and create alternative addresses for different purposes like shopping or auction bidding. With Mailshell, you can create specific filters for individual addresses