1. Remove email addresses from your website. Spammers use automated tools called “address harvesters” to search through thousands of web pages per hour and extract all email addresses found.
2. Use a contact form that utilizes server scripts. Most “Contact Us” pages use a programming method that makes email addresses easy for spammers to locate. Ask your website designer to recreate your contact forms using server-based scripts (Active Server Pages, PHP, etc) or visit this website which generates the code for free. http://www.tele-pro.co.uk/scripts/contact_form/
3. Use private registration for all domains. When you registered your company’s website domain you were required to enter email address information. This email address is the primary method used by your domain registrar (Network Solutions, Go Daddy, Yahoo, etc) to contact you. Unfortunately spammers can query this email address and begin spamming your company. The major domain registrars now offer a domain privacy option which hides your contact information for a nominal fee ($7 - $9 a year).
4. Do not use generic email addresses. Spammers always try to send spam to common email addresses (info@, sales@, support@, help@, etc). If you are going to use a generic address, then make it difficult to guess what it is by appending a number to it (info44@, sales71@, 39support@, etc).
5. Restrict autoresponders on your email server. Autoresponders send an automatic response when an email is sent to your company. Examples of these include out of office replies, order confirmation messages, etc. Normally spammers don’t receive a response, so they do not know if an email address is valid. You can either disable autoresponders, limit them to respond only to employees (for out of office messages), or require that a condition must be met (perhaps a specific subject line), to prevent spammers from getting a reply back.
6. Protect your employee computers from viruses and spyware. Malicious programs such as viruses and spyware will search a computer for email addresses and send them back to the spammer. The spammer will then have your entire company’s address book and begin sending messages to all of your employees.
7. Restrict employees use of newsgroups, wikis and blogs. While there are legitimate business reasons to use these collaborative technologies, employees must exercise caution. Newsgroups, wikis and blogs are web-based discussion sites that allow people to post questions and receive answers to any type of problem from anyone around the world. People usually enter their email addresses to receive notifications. Spammers will search these sites and harvest all of the email addresses that have been posted. Restrict employees from using their email addresses on these sites or require them to use a “free” email account like Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail.
8. Disable automatic picture downloads in your email program. It is very common for email messages to include graphics or other formatting to make them more visually appealing. Unfortunately, spammers use web bugs (hidden graphics in spam messages) to allow them to identify when a message has been read and who read it. Most email programs give you the ability to prevent graphics from being displayed, thus preventing spammers from knowing if a message has been read.
All of the steps listed above will prevent spammers from capturing email addresses at your company once you make the changes. Unfortunately, it will not reduce the level of spam you are currently receiving since some spammers already have your email addresses. These spammers can also share your email addresses with other spammers causing an endless cycle of spam.
The only effective way to eliminate your current volume of spam is to begin using spam filtering. We offer a spam filtering service that is the best in the industry and is proven the most effective at stopping spam dead in its tracks! Our customers absolutely love our service and we know you will be amazed at what our service can do for your company too. You don’t need to purchase any hardware or software, there are no long term contracts to sign, and you can terminate service at any time. It’s completely risk free! We’re so convinced that you will love our service that if you call us today we’ll give you a free 30 day trial.
Eight Proven Ways to Protect Your Company from Spam - To learn more about this author, visit Bryan Bowers's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 |
Related Articles |
|
 Spam is a Threat Block It
|
| |
Many underestimate the threat that spam can create for a business. Aside from annoying junk mail that dramatically cuts down on a business’ efficiency and bandwidth, spam can pose serious security risks. Viruses and...
|
|
Controlling the Email Monster
|
| |
We are all very busy... and we have more than enough to do without being dragged down by reading volumes of email. Here are 5 steps to controlling your Email Monster.
|
|
Has Anyone Ever Called you a Junk-Mail Queen (or King)?
|
| |
This article discusses the best way to utilize e-mail marketing campaigns so that you can get your business's emails read. There is a lot of competition with SPAM out there -- and there are several things you can d...
|
|
Eight Proven Ways to Protect Your Company from Spam
|
| |
This article includes eight proven ways to protect your company from spammers.
|
|
Online Personal Finance
|
| |
Interested in finding a free training workshop for new entrepreneurs? You can find it online. Want to be able to pay your taxes without having to ever change out of your pajamas? Now you can, all with the help of a ...
|
 |
Related Businesses - Evan Elite Authors |
|
Leanne Hoagland Smith
Are your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales success or one of the many who have failed to change? So what are you doing to change those results? Let’s be honest, with companies moving globally and at lightening speeds, the traditional business solutions are outdated and dead. My approach moves your business out of its comfort zone and secures your competitive advantage now. If you are seeking to increase sales, build customer loyalty, create a culture of great attitudes or just achieve some sleep filled nights, then we should talk because my clients have experienced exactly those types of results. Learn more about customer loyalty at http://www.processspecialist.com/customer-loyalty.htm Give me a call at 219.759.5601 for a free strategy session. P.S. If you are seeking a motivational speaker, sales trainer or small business expert that will leave your audience smiling and remembering, please feel free to contact me at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland Smith's Website |
|
Dave Kurlan
Dave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development.
Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit.
He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine.
He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball.
He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
|
The Evan Elite Authors program is currently in beta phase. For details please contact us.
|
|
|
Bryan Bowers
(Visit Bryan's Website)
Bryan Bowers has held a variety of
managerial and staff positions in the
Information Technology industry over the
past sixteen years. His proven track
record of using innovative technology to
achieve bottom-line results prepared him
to take the entrepreneurial leap to serve
the business community of Orange County.
Prior to founding Bowers Technologies,
Inc., Bryan held positions as the Manager
of Information Technology for the Santa
Margarita Water District; Support
Supervisor at Avery Dennison Corporation;
and Project Manager at Control
Components.
Bryan holds many certifications and is
active in professional IT organizations.
He served on the committee that helped
guide the UC-Irvine Graduate School of
Management’s effort to integrate new
technology into its curriculum. He spoke
at the 1999 Information Technology
Association symposium on how a hacker
brought down Yahoo.com, CNN.com and other
sites.
The academic credentials underpinning
Bryan’s professional accomplishments
include graduating with honors from the
University of California, Irvine's MBA
program and a B.S. from California
Polytechnic University, Pomona, CA, in
computer information systems.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
![[Get Copyright Permissions]](http://license.icopyright.net/images/icopy-w.gif){kind=small}
