Subject -: How to Prevent Spam ?

Description -:SPAM is the use of mailing lists to blanket usenets or private email boxes with indiscriminate advertising messages. Very bad netiquette. Even worse, it's bad business. The future of marketing online is about customizing products and information for individual users. Anyone who tries to use old mass market techniques in the new media environment is bound to fail.
The below are the steps to avoid a SPAM if you have not MASS MAILED or sent UNSOLICITED MAILS to others. If you have done so and started getting SPAM. Then there is little that can be done to avoid it. Your domain may to be terminated as it puts heavy load in the mail server.

Prevention Methods -:

[1] USE A SPAM FILTER

While there is no such thing as a perfect filter, anti-spam software can help keep spam at manageable level. If you are linux customer, please enable SPAM Assassin in your cPANEL. If you are a windows customer, please send us the domain that sends spam to you. We will blacklist it in the server side. To report a spam and black list a domain, please click here.

[2] DON’T POST YOUR ADDRESS ON YOUR WEBSITE

It seems like a good idea at the time, but posting your email address on your personal home page is just an invitation to spammers. Spammers and the people who sell spamming as a business have software that "harvests" email addresses from the Net. This software crawls through the Internet seeking text strings that are -something-@-something-.-something-. When it finds one, it catalogs it on a database of other email addresses to be used to send spam.

[3] USE A SECOND EMAIL ADDRESS IN NEWSGROUPS

Newsgroups are the great email address gathering ground for spammers. If you post to a group, you’re going to get spam -- it is just a matter of time. So how are you supposed to participate? Use a different email address than the one you use for talking to friends and relatives. In other words, have a public address and a private address. You’ll just have to deal with the spam in your public account.

[4] DON’T GIVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WITHOUT KNOWING HOW IT WILL BE USED

If a website is asking for your email address, they want to use it for something. Be sure you know what. Read the terms of use and privacy statements of any site before telling them your address. Ask yourself some simple questions. Are they going to share or sell my address? Do I want emails from this website? Do I trust them? Is it worth the risk? If you can’t answer these questions satisfactorily, if you can’t find their privacy statement, don’t tell them your address.

[5] NEVER RESPOND TO SPAM

Oh sure, they say they’ll take your name off the list, but they’re lying. What they really want to do is confirm that they’ve got a live address. Also, if you respond, they’ll sell your address to every other spammer on the planet meaning you’ll soon be flooded with even more spam.

[6] NEVER BUY ANYTHING ADVERTISED IN SPAM

The reason that people spam is because they can make money. They make money, like all advertisers, by convincing people to buy a product. If no one buys the things advertised in spam, companies will quit paying spammers to advertise their products.

[7] Block images in HTML messages that spammers use as Web beacons A Web beacon can be a graphic image, linked to an external Web server, that is placed in an HTML-formatted message and can be used to verify that your e-mail address is valid when the message is opened and images downloaded. By default, Outlook is set to block automatic picture downloads. To verify what your automatic download settings are, on the Tools menu, click Options. Click the Security tab, and then click Change Automatic Download Settings. Verify that the Don't download pictures or other content automatically in HTML e-mail check box is selected.

[8] Turn off automatic processing of meeting requests and read and delivery receipts Spammers sometimes resort to sending meeting requests and messages with delivery receipts requested. Responding to meeting requests and read and delivery receipts automatically makes you vulnerable to Web beacons.

[9] Limit where you post your e-mail address Be cautious about posting your e-mail address on public Web sites, and remove your e-mail address from your personal Web site. If you list or link to your e-mail address, you can expect to be spammed.

[10] Disguise (or "munge") your e-mail address when you post it to a newsgroup, chat room, bulletin board, or other public places For example, you can give your e-mail address as "s0me0ne@example.c0m" by using the number zero instead of the letter "o." This way, a person can interpret your address, but the automated programs that spammers use cannot.

[11] Use multiple e-mail addresses for different purposes You might set up one for personal use to correspond with friends, family, or colleagues, and use another for more public activities, such as requesting information, shopping, or for subscribing to newsletters, discussion lists, and newsgroups.

[12] Don't contribute to a charity based on a request in e-mail Unfortunately, some spammers prey on your good will. If you receive an appeal from a charity, treat it as spam. If it is a charity that you want to support, find their number elsewhere and call them to find out how you can make a contribution.

[13] Don't forward chain e-mail messages Besides causing more traffic over the line, forwarding a chain e-mail message might be furthering a hoax, and you lose control over who sees your e-mail address

Preventing Viruses
In computer security technology, a virus is a self-replicating program that spreads by inserting copies of itself into other executable code or documents . Thus, a computer virus behaves in a way similar to a biological virus, which spreads by inserting itself into living cells. Extending the analogy, the insertion of the virus into a program is termed infection, and the infected file (or executable code that is not part of a file) is called a host.

1. Do not open any files attached to an email from an unknown, suspicious or untrustworthy source.

2. Do not open any files attached to an email unless you know what it is, even if it appears to come from a dear friend or someone you know. Some viruses can replicate themselves and spread through email. Better be safe than sorry and confirm that they really sent it.

3. Do not open any files attached to an email if the subject line is questionable or unexpected. If the need to do so is there always save the file to your hard drive before doing so.

4. Delete chain emails and junk email. Do not forward or reply to any to them. These types of email are considered spam, which is unsolicited, intrusive mail that clogs up the network.

5. Do not download any files from strangers.

6. Exercise caution when downloading files from the Internet. Ensure that the source is a legitimate and reputable one. Verify that an anti-virus program checks the files on the download site. If you're uncertain, don't download the file at all or download the file to a floppy and test it with your own anti-virus software.

7. Update your anti-virus software regularly. Over 500 viruses are discovered each month, so you'll want to be protected. These updates should be at the least the products virus signature files. You may also need to update the product's scanning engine as well.

8. Back up your files on a regular basis. If a virus destroys your files, at least you can replace them with your back-up copy. You should store your backup copy in a separate location from your work files, one that is preferably not on your computer.

9. When in doubt, always err on the side of caution and do not open, download, or execute any files or email attachments. Not executing is the more important of these caveats. Check with your product vendors for updates which include those for your operating system web browser, and email. One example is the security site section of Microsoft located at http://www.microsoft.com/security.