[Groop] how is your spam filter?

[Tone]

	I have my own domain as well, but it is hosted on a server,
which I and a few friends pay into together. The server hosting company
does have its own spam filtering in place, which allows all e-mails to
pass through, but inserts "*****SPAM*****" at the beginning of the
subject line of any e-mails predetermined to be spam. That way at least
a user will have a method to filter messages quickly when they receive
the crap.
	Unfortunately I have been using this e-mail address for around
10 years now, and much of that time my address was posted as a primary
contact for a high-traffic web site, so it has become quite a target for
spam. :( On average these days I probably receive about 100 unwanted
e-mails daily!
	While I know many people choose to set up multiple accounts or
switch e-mail addresses every so often to avoid spam, I find it is still
more convenient for me to only manage and keep track of one account. I
actually get annoyed at friends, who constantly send me updates for
their new e-mail contacts, so I do not want to be one of those people. I
have known too many people over the years, who might like to get in
touch with me this way, so I prefer to keep my e-mail address. I may
have moved to Pennsylvania recently, but everyone who has known me knows
they can always get in touch with me through my e-mail.

	The way I filter spam is I basically just add the e-mail
addresses of every desirable sender to my mail-program's contact list,
including primary Yahoo-type group e-mail addresses, etc. like
groop at groo.com. Everything coming from an unrecognized sender
automatically gets filtered into my "deleted" folder, which I then
quickly scan through manually to remove accidental/unintended e-mails.
Unintentionally filtered e-mails sometimes occur when I do not have
certain individual list member's e-mail addresses on record and they
write me directly off-list, so that does not happen too often. After I
have manually scanned through my "deleted" folder I simply go ahead and
really delete all the crap.

	As for getting one of those "This is for Groo"-like e-mails, I
remember getting one or two of those a number of months ago. I think I
actually read the first one because I thought it must be a legitimate
e-mail from someone in the Groop. Of course I do not EVER open
unexpected attachments (and only safe ones at that), have an active
e-mail virus scanning program in place, and also have my e-mail program
set to NOT display images or html (text only).

	At this point in my e-mail I went on to explain in detail other
anti-spam tactics I use and have used in the past. I also continued on
to describe some of the techniques spammers use to trick and use people.
However, after writing a bunch of stuff and almost sending off the
e-mail I followed Scott's http://www.knyght.net/badspam.htm link and
realized he did a terrific job at creating a very thoroughly descriptive
web page against the evils of spam. I HIGHLY suggest people take a look
at it.
	I was already aware of practically all of	what Scott
described, but I think other people would definitely benefit from
checking out his page and should check it out. I am just rewriting these
last paragraphs of mine to save everyone from having to read all of my
anti-spam tips when they can clearly view what Scott set up.

	Something I think Scott touched on in his badspam page but did
not explain techniques against is e-mail addresses posted of the web.
	I suggest if anyone must display or will have to display their
e-mail address on the web, even within a forum message, they should at
the least alter it somehow. Spammers utilize automated web search
"robots" or "spiders" to look for e-mail addresses. Retype your e-mail
address so it appears more like "Tone[at]moon-shine. NET" or "Tone AT
moon-shine. NET". You might want to even go so far as typing it out like
"you-know-my-name-so-type-it-here AT moon-shine. Net". Unfortunately
though, this is not a complete lock-out to spammers either. They can,
and probably already have, set up their automated web scanners to look
for "@" symbol and e-mail address variations.
	While overhauling my own site I am actually taking an additional
spam reduction tactic by only having my e-mail address displayed within
an image file rather than text. To retain the visual aesthetics of the
site I also am applying it in such a way so a visitor would not even
realize it. Unless spammers get so sophisticated as to use image
recognition scanners, then the only way a spammer would get my e-mail
address from my soon-to-be-updated site is if they take the time to
actually visit it manually. Of course, I would not put image recognition
scanners past them

_TONE_