Question: I have had my own start-up business for about 6 months now. Recently, I’ve noticed that my e-mail and my employees e-mail are being flooded with SPAM. Some days it’s only a couple sometimes it’s more. What can we do to fight this?
SPAM! We all hate it, don’t we? Small businesses are hurt the most because they might lack expensive hardware or software to combat SPAM. Each year spammers increase their attacks on small businesses, flooding their inbox with junk e-mail. There are some simple techniques that you could implement within your small business to reduce the amount of SPAM you received. Here are five simple tips that you can do for your small business.
Please Note: We used the word “reduce” because it is impossible to get rid of all SPAM.
Tip 1: Don’t Post E-mails On Your Company Website
Spammers look for e-mails out in the open
Posting your e-mail address on your website is like leaving the key to your house on the front lawn. As soon as someone finds it, the outcome won’t be good. Spammers surf the Internet to harvest and collect e-mail addresses that are lying around. These could be on your website or even within the code of your website.
Tip 2: Be Careful What You Register For
If you’re a small business then the best price for you is free. But before you signup for that free seminar or giveaway look at how your data is being handled. Some places will sell your e-mail addresses to other companies and once again your e-mail will be out in the open. If you do want to sign up for something, read their privacy guidelines so you can opt-out of any e-mails you do not want to receive.
Tip 3: Use E-mail Filters and Whitelists/Blacklists
Every e-mail system should have either of these features: an e-mail filter or a white/black list. E-mail filters allow you to filter your e-mail based on where it comes from, the subject line, or any keywords in the body of the e-mail.
Whitelist and Blacklist options
For example: If you are consistency receiving SPAM about Viagra, you can setup an e-mail filter to mark any e-mail that contains Viagra in it as SPAM or you can have the filter simply delete it for you.
Whitelists and Blacklists work in two different ways to fight SPAM. Whitelists will tell your e-mail system that it is okay to receive e-mails for a pre determined lists of e-mail addresses that you specify. Blacklists will tell your e-mail system that these e-mail addresses are known for SPAM and that it should deal with them by either marking them as SPAM or deleting them.
For example: You can put your staff, clients, family members, and friends on your whitelists because you know that those e-mail are “safe”. But when you get an e-mail from a potential spammer you can mark it on a blacklist, so that you’ll never receive spam from that person again.
Tip 4: Use A Spam Blocker
Many e-mail systems allow you to install a SPAM blocker. A SPAM blocker usually is a third party piece of software that you can purchase to decease the amount of SPAM you receive. SPAM Blockers will also have additional features such as being able to safely preview e-mails, having advanced filtering techniques, and incorporating virus protection.
Tip 5: Report It!
There are organizations on the Internet that collection information about junk e-mail in order to build better SPAM fighting tools. Most web-based e-mail system will have a link or icon that says “Mark as SPAM”. Doing this lets the e-mail provider know that this e-mail is SPAM. From there, the e-mail is stored into a database so future attempts will be blocked.
If you are running your own e-mail system, then you can use online services such as Spam Cop or Consumer Fraud Reporting. These organizations work with other law enforcement agencies to find out where SPAM could be coming from and potentially getting rid of it.
Keep in mind that SPAM will be a part of your everyday digital life. But until more sophisticated technology comes out, these simple tips should help your small business.
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