Web Wise: Project Honey Pot: How you can help rid the world of spam

By Lori Gama-White
President/Web Spinner of DaGama Web Studio

www.DaGamaWebStudio.com

Recently my e-mail provider put a new e-mail program in place of the old one. Guess what happened? Yep: the floodgates blocking the sea of spam opened up and I found myself deleting 60 e-mails the first day and even more the next. I couldn't wait much longer to do something or I'd be relegated to spam purgatory: continually deleting spam all day and not getting any work done. After complaining to my e-mail provider, they modified the server's spam filter and now the flood of spam has become a trickle.

According to a recent study done by the University of Maryland, "time wasted deleting junk e-mail costs American businesses nearly $22 billion a year." The study also found that "the average number of spam messages per day is 18.5 and the average time spent per day deleting them is 2.8 minutes." If you have your e-mail address on a Web site, you're probably spending even more time deleting spam.

What about people who are new to using the Internet and who aren't aware of how dangerous spam can be (sometimes viruses are attached) and how time-consuming it is to deal with? If you're one of these people, read on for some basics about battling spam. And if you own or operate a Web site and want to actually capture and contribute to the prosecution of spam harvesters, read about Project Honey Pot.

"Spam" is slang for unsolicited commercial e-mail, according to AcronymFinder.com. If you're new to using e-mail and don't know how to begin to battle spam, getting a spam filter going is one of the best ways to stem the tide. A spam filter can help funnel junk e-mail into a spam folder in your e-mail program, saving you the time of deleting them. Never reply to "unsubscribe" from spam because that lets the spammer know you are a real e-mail address--you'll be inundated with even more spam. Be sure to check your spam folder for legitimate e-mails that could end up there (you can adjust spam filter settings or "rules" it plays by so that it will allow those legitimate e-mails).

You don't have to use Microsoft's Outlook or Outlook Express as your e-mail program. Mike Selders, with Computer Brokers of Greeley, said that his "personal recommendation is to use an email client with good built-in junk mail handling, like Mozilla Thunderbird." Go to www.mozilla.org to find out details and to download it for free.

The company you are paying to provide your e-mail service should have a spam filter in place on their mail server. If you still get a lot of junk e-mail, tell them about it and they should respond appropriately. If they don't fix it, think about switching to another company or purchase anti-spam software. (Not to be confused with anti-virus software, which should be on your computer to help protect it against viruses and Trojan worms, which can cripple your computer, especially if you don't download daily updates.)

If you own or manage a Web site or operate a hosting company, please join Project Honey Pot. Project Honey Pot is one of a growing number of online communities that are forming into organizations to rid the world of spam. Project Honey Pot is trapping spammers and prosecuting them. What's different about its method is that Project Honey Pot moves in on "king pin" e-mail harvesters earlier in their devious process of collecting e-mail addresses rather than waiting later to try to identify spam harvesters after the spam messages have been sent.

After installing Project Honey Pot's software on your web site (it's free and easy to install), the software works to "collate, process, and share the data generated by your site with you." It will also "work with law enforcement authorities to track down and prosecute spammers," according to Project Honey Pot's Web site. "Harvesting email addresses from websites is illegal under several anti-spam laws, and the data resulting from Project Honey Pot is critical for finding those breaking the law."

By installing Project Honey Pot's software on your Web site, you're setting a trap for the spam harvesters. When a spambot visits a page with the honey pot installed, a unique e-mail address is created and given to the spam harvester. The address is implanted with the harvester's IP address, unbeknownst to the harvester. Later, when spam is sent to the e-mail address, it's matched with the exact time and date the spam harvester originally grabbed it from the "honey pot" page. The evidence can be used to prosecute the harvesters. As of last week, there were 870 spam servers identified by Project Honey Pot. Visit www.ProjectHoneypot.com to learn more.

A study done by Unspam (www.Unspam.com), a consulting company that helps businesses solve the problems generated with spam, found that "47% of employees with work email say they would be more productive if they received less spam." Probably, almost half of your workforce would be more productive if they didn't have to deal with spam. Improved productivity goes hand in hand with increased profit. That's a good reason to join the battle against spam.

Lori Gama-White owns DaGama Web Studio in Greeley, Colorado. Developing strategic, results-oriented Web sites since 1997, Lori Gama-White and her team of Web professionals are passionate about helping people get their businesses on to the Internet. For more information, questions or comments, call 970-378-7822 or e-mail .

© 2005 Lori Gama-White - All Rights Reserved - http://www.dagamawebstudio.com
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