Blog Comments & Spamming

Maurice Clarke

The word “Spam” as applied to Email means Unsolicited Bulk Email (”UBE”).

Unsolicited means that the Recipient has not granted verifiable permission for the message to be sent. Bulk means that the message is sent as part of a larger collection of messages, all having substantively identical content.

A message is Spam only if it is both Unsolicited and Bulk.

- Unsolicited Email is normal email

(examples: first contact enquiries, job enquiries, sales enquiries)

- Bulk Email is normal email

(examples: subscriber newsletters, customer communications, discussion lists)

Technical Definition of Spam

An electronic message is “spam” IF:

(1) the recipient’s personal identity and context are irrelevant because the message is equally applicable to many other potential recipients;

AND

(2) the recipient has not verifiably granted deliberate, explicit, and still-revocable permission for it to be sent.

Spam is an issue about consent, not content. Whether the UBE message is an advert, a scam, porn, a begging letter or an offer of a free lunch, the content is irrelevant - if the message was sent unsolicited and in bulk then the message is spam.

Spam is not a sub-set of UBE, it is not “UBE that is also a scam or that doesn’t contain an unsubscribe link”, all email sent unsolicited and in bulk is Spam.

This distinction is important because legislators spend inordinate amounts of time attempting to regulate the content of spam messages, and in doing so come up against free speech issues, without realizing that the spam issue is solely about the delivery method.

Important facts relating to this definition:

(1) the sending of Unsolicited Bulk Email (”UBE”) is banned by the vast majority of Internet service providers worldwide.

(2) Spamhaus’ anti-spam blocklist, used by more than 260 million Internet users to reject emails identified as spam, is based on the internationally-accepted definition of Spam as “Unsolicited Bulk Email”. Therefore anyone sending UBE on the Internet, whether the content is commercial or not, illegal or not, needs to be fully aware that (1) they will lose their Internet access if they send UBE, (2) they will be placed on the Spamhaus Block List (SBL) if they send UBE.

Various jurisdictions have implemented legislation to control what they call “spam”. One particular example is US S.877 (CANSPAM 2004). Each law addresses “spam” in different ways, and as a consequence, often has different definitions of what they cover, whether they call it “spam” or not. Spamhaus uses the industry standard “unsolicited bulk email” definition which underlines “it’s not about content, it’s about consent”. As such, arguments as to whether UBE messages are covered under CANSPAM or are compliant with CANSPAM, are entirely irrelevant.

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Keith George

Do you remember the quote from the Monty Python sketch in 1970. Spam is nowadays mostly known to be “sending nearly identical messages to a few or thousands (or millions) of recipients by e-mail” (Wikipedia).

Spam is best defined as unsolicited and unwanted commercial electronic messages or e-mails that are sent to large numbers of people. The term is also used to similar abuses in other media, like messengers and newsgroups.

To maintain solid relationships with your clients and peers, writing an accurate and descriptive subject line for each email you send is critical to making your readers’ lives easier and their work more efficient. Such a marketing approach provides your product information to a large audience without the aggravation causing mass email approach that many companies try and fail with. Make sure it is not unsolicited and unwanted emails that arrive in your customer’s email in-box.

Spammers know that everybody hates them and that people try to delete their messages immediately, so they have learned how to make their letters and headlines catchy. Some people have to take shortcuts to make a profit. One would expect an internet company to delete the profiles of the people that use their service in an abusive way. Some operator’s try to stop spam and Yahoo for example has a button you can use to report it. MSN has a type of free email account which filters out all the junk Spam.

Nevertheless we all need spam filters as they are an extremely successful way of managing or stopping unwanted emails, but occasionally they can work too well. However, the use of software filters in e-mail programs can be used to remove most spam sent through e-mail. A search on the internet will provide a great number of software producers in this field.

The recent buyout of Giant Software may see spam filtering as a default feature in the next version of Microsoft Windows perhaps. Anti spam software typically uses content filtering or Bayesian logic, an advanced content filtering method, to score each email, looking for certain tell-tale signs of spammer habits such as frequently used terms like “Viagra” or “click here”.

In the USA the Department of Justice’s Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Protection Division has recently put forth a bogus report to Congress on their role in the CAN SPAM Act and stated in writing that spam has been reduced. Businesses worldwide report that 20% of all e-mail received is spam. So there is still a long way to go to a spam free world.

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Rick Vidallon

Have you ever wondered how those odd-ball emails make their way into your inbox? Some contain absurd titles like: There was so much sugar in that dessert that it made my eyes hurt! Hippolytus as old records have said. Never been better since I laughed the bank. Welcome to Spam Wars. There are never ending battles being waged for your inbox. It is the spammers’ quest, duty and job to get you to click or open their email. But how in the heck does it get past your spam protection?

Confirmation Required This is the highest level of protection where an action or reply is required by the sender. While this is an effective way to block unwanted emails, you may end up blocking important automated emails from important sources like your bank or credit card companies.

Reporting Malicious Spammers Two very common types of malicious emails are virus attachments and spam that seeks to steal your financial information. Virus attachments cannot infect your computer unless you click or open the attachment. There are many virus protection software programs that warn you once a virus attachment has been received. Some popular programs include: Norton, McAffee and Avast.

Spammers seeking to steal your personal information or gain access to your financial information go to great lengths to trick unwary users by creating emails that look exactly like an official email from a reputable financial or online company.

Detecting Financial Fraud If you see an email that looks suspicious there are ways to detect it. Let’s say you receive an email from Bank of America. The email warns you that someone has attempted to access your account and your cooperation is needed to prevent this from happening. The email looks very official and contains their logo along with a properly formatted hyperlink that looks something like this: bankofamerica.com/account_resolutions. But once you click this, there is a very different link, which still looks official. The page still looks like Bank of American but the web address is linking to another website aka: clickster.com/bankofamerica.com When you see these emails forward them to the proper departments of the actual company or organization. Here are two emails for reporting suspicious emails to Pay Pal and Bank of America. Forward suspicious emails to abuse@bankofmaerican.com and spoof@paypal.com Spammers’ Weapon Of Choice The spammers’ weapon of choice is surprise. Heck, even I’ve been fooled once or twice out of sheer curiosity. The email might come to me titled as ‘Dear Rick’, Or ‘Rick, please read this’. Spammers or mass email marketers need to sneak past your spam filters, which are either setup by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or your own email client spam filters.

Internet Service Providers can only do so much. It’s up to you if want more protection. There are third party providers that specialize in identifying and blocking spam.

How Spam Is Identified Here are the primary parameters that define an email:

From Address: legal_billpay@biz.com! From Domain: billpayers.net Subject: We pay all your late bill fees today. Body Text: You have been approved! Attachments:

Specific file Names: paynow Specific File Extensions: paynow.exe

Most ISPs have a ongoing file of known addresses and domains belonging to spammers. However, identifying spam using the subject line and body text is more difficult and must be blocked at the user level.

Blocking Spam Based On Use Since I run a business I do not want to unwittingly block new emails from potential business inquiries. So I have to deal with a moderate amount of spam. Some users work around the problem by creating multiple emails for friends, family, business and general use. If you have some techy skills you may define your own spam filters within specific email domain accounts. You may view or download my own set of filters for free at the link below.

‘Spam-Filtering-Rules’

As you receive new spam you may add them to this list to decrease your spam influx.

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Lance Winslow

What if we could defeat SPAM? What if no one could hijack a Zombie Computer? What if SPAM did not come from half way around the world? What if SPAM did not take up so much of our bandwidth?

What if no one tried to sell us junk we did not want? What if SPAM was actually targeted, such as not sending male items to females or denture ads to teenagers?

What if the Federal Trade Commission had better tools to get these people? What if it did not take years to define SPAM? What if the CAN SPAM Act was not taken as a challenge by perpetrators?

What if we no one invented SPIT (SPAM over IP Telephony) which threatens to disrupt VoIP? What if no one used SPAM to try to steal someone’s identity? What if Phishing did not exist thru SPAM? What if we were not asking today what to do about Pharming?

What if the Viagra Spammers knew that you just have never had a problem getting it up? What Chinese Spammers did not send SPAM with a bunch of symbols you cannot read and could care less what they say? What if SPAM just went away?

What if you had back the time you wasted on sifting thru the SPAM? What if you could send the SPAM back times 10, 100, 1000 or 10,000? What if you could fight back, what then? Why do people send SPAM and why do you hate it so much?

What if the real Spam or ham in a can could sue all of them for hurting their brand name? Ah, yes what if…What if We Stopped SPAM?

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 Ward Tipton

One of the most difficult concepts for many people to understand is that stuffing keywords and key phrases into an article or creating a keyword density which is more than two to two and one half percent is actually recognized by the search engines as being keyword spam. In some instances, this may not be such a bad thing but continued posting of materials which use keyword stuffing in an effort to generate traffic is much more detrimental than many people really know or understand.

Keyword stuffing or putting in the same keyword phrase too many times will often result in the web page being completely banished by the search engines. The idea of keyword articles and keyword phrases is to generate traffic to a web site and not to get the site banned. If you want to generate traffic to your site, that is fully understandable, however stuffing the keywords, even if it does work in the short run, is not a viable method for keeping your sites in the top rankings.

It is absolutely and completely true that content is king. That has always been the case and always will be the case when you have a web site up in hopes of generating traffic and creating successful business ventures online strictly from the contents of the web page. That content however, needs to be written as more than just a means to stuff a bunch of keywords onto a web page if you want to be successful.

The content needs to be well thought out and written in a manner that is easy for visitors to the site to read, comprehend and when necessary, to act upon. Generally an article which is written in the manner of keyword spam is difficult for most people to read simply because of so much redundancy within the context of the article itself. There is no need to continue inserting the same keywords or keyword phrases over and over again. In fact, not only is it more likely to get you banned from the search engine results pages but it inevitably prevents another benefit to both the visitor and owner as well.

Continually stuffing the same keywords or phrases into one single article will often prevent the inclusion of other relevant keywords in relation to the same subject matter or topic that they are writing about. Unless someone has the means to write the thousands of articles it would take to include every relevant keyword or every phrase that has been searched, a modicum of diversity is necessary in the writing in order to include as many possible variations on the keywords as well.

It is necessary to reiterate the fact that stuffing keywords is spam. Spam is never a good idea and is always bad unless you are talking about luncheon meat and even then it is questionable at best. Using a diverse group of related keywords and phrases throughout the article will help you to attract anyone who searches around your keywords as well. This will result in more hits on the SERPs and more traffic being generated for the site itself.

Once the traffic has been generated and people begin coming to the site, the only to keep them coming back for more is to make sure that all of the information included in the content is actually worthwhile and not just something that has been thrown together simply to include your keywords or key phrases. If the content on the site does not contain actual materials with actual information and what the visitors want and need, it will quickly fade out and cease to be a marketable asset. Keywords and keyword phrases are an important tool for site promotion but the actual Content will always be King.

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By Rami Doleh

People who begin their online business ventures would naturally be unaware of many of the internet business rules, protocols and etiquettes. Yet, as in any law, the internet law does not forgive for ignorance. One of the most important issues that are governed by many controls over the internet is Spamming.

A beginner in online business can very easily fall unintentionally into the spamming trap while conducting internet marketing activity to promote his/her business.

Spamming has many faces and forms depending on the marketing activity performed. We will list the marketing activity, the possible spamming forms within each marketing activity, possible consequences and how to avoid unintentional spamming in each spamming form.

1- E-mail Campaigns: The most common spamming method is conducted through e-mail campaigns. E-mail spamming is when you send an e-mail promoting your product or service to someone who did not request any information from you. In many cases beginners fall into the trap of buying lists of e-mails from questionable sources and when sending the e-mail campaign they would realize that one of the following occurred:

a. Received direct complaints.

b. The e-mail account gets shut from the ISP or the hosting provider.

c. Contacted by internet police.

How to avoid e-mail spamming:

a. Make sure that the person who you are sending your campaign to has requested information from you or allowed you to send him e-mails.

b. When buying e-mail lists make sure that the list is safe and has allowed e-mails to be sent to them.

c. Ensure to have a statement at the end of your e-mail that would allow the recipient of your e-mail campaign to opt out if they do not wish to receive any communication from you.

2- Link Submission: Spamming in Link submission could be done in different forms but to cut the story short, you should follow the rules of each directory carefully. Among the very famous rules that are common across many link submission directories:

a. Do not submit your website link in more than one category.

b. Do not submit different pages of your website; submit only your top level link.

c. Do not submit your link more than once. Search the directory to check if your link already exists.

Failing to follow the rules of each directory would delete your link immediately at this particular directory.

3- Article Submission: Just like link directories, article directories have their own rules as well. Not complying with these rules will make those directories decline your articles. Among the most famous rules are the following:

a. Submit your own work and not somebody else’s.

b. Submit a topic that is acceptable by the directory.

c. Do not make your title all in Capital letters. Use Title Caps form.

d. Do not Bold your key words within your article.

4- Posting in Forum: Again you have to read the rules of each forum you intend to be part of before you make any posts. Among the most famous rules are the following:

a. Do not advertise your business in your posts.

b. Do not include affiliate links in your posts.

c. Follow the exact rules of the forum for your sig. file.

Failing to comply will make the forum moderators cancel your account permanently.

5- Blogging: Filling your Blog by copying other people’s articles could eliminate your account permanently with your Blog host.

6- Search Engine Related Spamming Activity:

a. Filling your site content with your keywords will be considered spamming by search engines.

b. Submitting your website to link farms will be considered spamming by search engines.

c. Adding huge amounts of content to your website while your site niche does not usually require such additions will be considered spamming by search engines.

d. Submitting your website to FFA’s could be considered as spamming by search engines.

e. Including Keywords in your Keyword tag on your website while they are not related to your website could be considered as spamming by search engines.

I hope this will help all online business beginners to avoid the spamming trap and have a smooth and successful internet marketing activity.

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Why do you need anti spam protection? Because it is the quickest way to get rid of junk email. Although every single one of us complains about spam very few people do anything about it.

But once you install anti spam protection on your computer you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner. It’s not really expensive and is easy to install.

More than 40% of all e-mail today is still unsolicited sent to you by spammers. Even though the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 was supposed to eliminate spam, email spammers still send millions of unwanted email messages everyday.

Most people think spam is just annoying and delete it without thinking twice about it. But what happens if one of your children opens a spam email without you even knowing it?

Spam protection is one of the most critical components of your computers security. You need to eliminate spam as quickly as possible because just opening some of these emails can engage spyware programs and even damage your computer.

Anti spam protection tools help stop identity theft and prevent the spread of Internet viruses which often arrive inside spam attachments. But it still allows legitimate email from friends, family and co-workers to arrive safely.

Anti spam protection puts you in charge of what you want and don’t want coming into your computer. These programs are very cost effective and easy to install.

If you are ready to take back control of your Internet message Inbox and get rid of junk email, anti spam protection is the perfect solution.

Copyright © 2005 Spyware Information.com All Rights Reserved.

This article is provided by http://www.spyware-information.com where you will find free spyware cleaners, downloads, removal software, computer firewalls and valuable tips. For regularly updated articles about adware, spyware and protection from identity theft go to http://spyware-information.com/articles_1.html

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By Sean R Mize

In discussing the development of an opt in email list in this day and age at different points in this ebook, reference has also been made to the serious consequences associated with spamming. Indeed, it is very important that you do understand the negative consequences if you end up being accused of spamming and if you fail to follow the laws, rules and regulations surrounding the use of email to solicit customers or clients on the Internet and World Wide Web.

In simple terms, spamming is defined as sending unsolicited bulk or commercial email over the Internet and World Wide Web. In other words, in order to lawfully solicit on the Net through email, it is important for you to ensure that a person you end up soliciting has specifically requested that his or her name be included on an opt in emailing list. In addition, you also need to be careful to ensure that you remove someone’s name from your opt in email list once you have been requested to do so.

In this day and age there are now both civil and criminal penalities associated with spamming. In other words, if you have engaged in a particular egregious course of spamming, you could end up facing a find in an amount upwards to $6 million and you actually might end up going to jail.

In addition to the penalties becoming stiffer for spamming in this day and age, you also need to appreciate that law enforcement authorities (and civil enforcement officials) have become more aggressive in sanctioning people and businesses who are involved in spamming. You also need to appreciate that an individual who owns a business can personally be held liable for the spamming activities of his or her own business enterprise even in some situations in which he or she may not have specifically authorized the spamming endeavor.

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Thanks to wordpress for this opportunity. Now I have the chance do such things on this blog.

As mentioned in the previous post, I will include her the names used in slaping spam comment of my this blog. I am thankful that even though I already posted such thing in the previous post I am still receiving lots comments. Sad to say, most if not these comments contain again posts that are far out fro the post being commented.

Well, fine with me because this will again to my collection of spam commenter. Do you really think such blogger will click or even read such spamming comments? I a not, I only scan then for unfavorable links. If I found one, I automatically delete it or worst, I f not in the mood to read, I click the “bulk moderation button and there it goes, all comments will removed.

Do you know blog commenting these days are now one source of income? You can see lots of people in forums offering such service to internet marketers. I just hope this people are not posting spamming comments because it they do, the person who hired them just wasted his or her money on such service.

Anyway as stated, here are the names that captures my attention. lol

Heather Balsemao, Gavin Garcia, Adam Silva, Robyn Kelly, Paul Browne, Austin Struye, Adrian Sanches, Colton Schnabel, Jamie Schrempp, Kevin Kovner, Kylee Moore, Lucas Reis, Levi Riotta, ayden Morais, Anthony Moraes, Jonathan Oliveira, Kai Couchepin, Eva Verwaayen, Richard Kerr, Thomas Vitorino, Ava Graham, Kai Couto, Brayden Haas, Bryce Clarke, Jillian JonesMegan Anderson, Gabrielle Federspiel, Maria Fagundes, Liam Castro, Katrina Burgmans, Gavin Borges, Colton Strmecki, Alexander Silva, Amber Graham, Grace Branco, Trevor Cabral, Audrey Verwaayen, Joshua Tavares, Justin Wolfenson, Chloe Mata, Olivia Federspiel, Hayden Castries, Brianna Harris, Matthew Miller, Julia Shevtsova, Ashton Vries, Carter Gil, Mason Jesus, Brandon Sandschneider, Paris Silva

This is only 50 names among the 500 left in the moderation queue. For this, I would like to apologize for the other 500 names I could not accommodate. My finger stiffen in copying and pasting. What will be the next? IP address.

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As mentioned on the previous post, I’ll be posting email addresses here. You might be thinking I am selling these email adds. No, I’m giving it away for free. After all, these emails adds are spamming this precious comment box with lots of link far away from the post being commented.

For those making opt in list, this is you chance to collect emails which surely are live. Unless these emails were also created to spam such things. I need to remove the link within so as to control out going links and not be treated as link farm in the future.

As mentioned also in my previous post, porn or sex related sites, drugs and illegal stuff are not welcome here, but I continue to receive such comment. Well, good for me. After all it’s my blog and it’s my prerogative to do whatever I want with blog. lol

Here are the email addresses that posted spam comments:

wmendes@fastmail.fm charris@37.com yscaroni@isp.net crexach@mail2world.com wborel@isp.net vfeith@msn.com ypantelides@mail2world.com rmckenna@gmx.net lwallenberg@telegraph.co.uk acamara@fastmail.fm nmathews@isp.net jedwards@msn.com zrobinson@fastmail.fm gross@mail.com okissinger@gmx.net strichet@hotmail.com uanderson@mail.com gmorais@msn.com hkoenders@bigmailbox.com amckenna@gmail.com aburgmans@bluebottle.com zmerlini@yahoo.com bneves@mail.com lmcdonough@yahoo.com psanches@rocketmail.com tborel@mail2world.com nitk@evkneh.com qlipponen@gmail.com qbenedetti@myownemail.com jveer@37.com nollila@bluebottle.com skovner@rocketmail.com tcorzine@myownemail.com qvisco@fastmail.fm nollila@aol.com lross@msn.com sgraham@37.com lsousa@fastmail.fm avjumd@qbwvpv.com mbeytout@isp.net amoniz@hotmail.com mtrichet@bigmailbox.com omathews@yahoo.com sollila@myownemail.comwkagan@fastmail.fm cbalsemao@msn.com tiwpis@ajgbvn.com imedeiros@mail.com yscaroni@aol.com ncaracciolo@hushmail.com rgalateri@bigmailbox.com smathews@msn.com icamara@aol.com cbalsemao@mail.com ycouchepin@yahoo.com xribeiro@gmx.net ewilson@yahoo.com tmartin@yahoo.com oriotta@mail.com wlima@mail.com rcamara@gmx.net bscholten@gmail.com bvisco@bigmailbox.com pluti@fastmail.fm otavares@aol.com qribeiro@msn.com zcarvalho@aol.com tcabral@bigmailbox.com cdraghi@gmail.com gdervis@gmail.com cambrosetti@bigmailbox.com escaroni@rocketmail.com uverwaayen@myownemail.com gschilly@msn.com wlynch@gmx.net pyavlinsky@yahoo.com ymoniz@isp.net qdervis@bluebottle.com tmontbrial@bigfoot.com lstrmecki@hotmail.com xnascimento@mail2world.com zrachman@gmx.net uyavlinsky@myownemail.com zbrown@mail.com vsanches@bluebottle.com sriotta@bigfoot.com ulins@msn.com owallenberg@aol.com tfederspiel@hushmail.com ihalberstadt@msn.com kgomes@bigfoot.com coliveira@fastmail.fm gcavalcanti@msn.com emoore@bigfoot.com fgil@lycos.com qeonah@zhznr.com

It took me time to copy and paste these 100 email addresses. I’ll be posting names next time. So keep it coming guys!  

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