Free Windows Spam Filter

With the rise of spam the CAN-SPAM was enacted in January, 2004. The act covers any email which have as its purpose advertising or promotional efforts for any service or product, including those whose contents reside solely on a web site.

One legal initiative aimed at fighting spam is the "Digital PhishNet" (DPN), which was established in 2004. It is a collaborative effort between the Internet industry and criminal law enforcement. Its purpose is to identify and to prosecute spammers who break the law through phishing. Online auction sites, financial institutions, ISPs and other groups within the industry are all involved in this imitative.  Important data and information is forwarded in real time to law enforcement.

One major provision of the law - The recipient must be fore-warned of any sexually explicit information the email may contain. This warning must be displayed in the email's subject line.

Protect yourself from the spam in your inbox

Read your Email in Plain Text. Spammers often use Javascript to embed malicious code in their spam. It may, for example, be designed to infect your system with a virus that can install itself in your computer, and give a hacker or other scammer access to your private and financial information - without your ever knowing it. You can protect yourself against this by changing the settings to display the email messages in plain text. This effectively disables many harmful scripting features

Chain letters. The spam email directs you to send a small amount of money to each of 4 or 5 names on a list, add your name to the top of the list and remove the last name on it, and then forward the updated list via bulk mail. Typically, the letter will claim the scheme is legal, and may refer to sections of US law as supporting proof of this. Not true. These chain letters are almost always illegal, and nearly all those who participate in them lose their money.

To Report Spam Abuse

Saving and sending the entire email header is an important step in reporting spam. The header of every email you receive will contain information on the full chain of computers through which the email passed in order to get to you. Generally, most email will pass through at least four computers: The spammer's computer, the spammer's ISP, your ISP and finally your computer. This is the most reliable way for an anti-spam service to track down the spammer's ISP because the spammer will camouflage the "from" address.

A common spam scam you may come across is called a "419 Scam", or the Nigerian Advance Fee Fraud. These spam emails generally relates a tale of woe - a death in the family and a huge inheritance that the sender needs your (financial) help to claim. As improbable as it sounds, many people have fallen for this scam and millions of dollars have been defrauded from them. Fax a copy of this spam along with the header information to the United States Secret Service.

For reporting report to www.spamcop.net. This is a third party agency which will report spam on your behalf to the relevant anti-spam agency.