If you think you get more spam because you're a small business, you're right. Big companies have more resources to throw at
the problem, but a recent study by an e-mail outsource vendor provides some hints to help you slow the spam.
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Gaskin writes books (16 so far), articles and jokes about technology and real life from his home office in the Dallas area.
He has been helping small and midsize businesses use technology intelligently since 1986. He can be reached at readers@gaskin.com.
MX Logic provides hosted e-mail filtering and security services for companies small and large. The company crunched the numbers of
the spam going through its systems to 11,000 customers this past June and found that companies with under 1,000 employees
received 14% more spam than larger companies.
Guess what? The CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing) Act rules are being followed
in less than 1% (.082%) of all e-mail messages today. Thank you, Congress.
Even if you believe your spam load has dropped, that isn't true for the Internet. Three of four e-mails on the Internet are
spam (74% according to the study). Worse, many of the top e-mail viruses and worms aggravating people in June have been around
more than a year, meaning companies are not protecting themselves even against known threats.
One of the problems is that spammers are getting smarter and are now motivated by profit (they are criminals). Although it's
nice to see capitalism improve productivity again, I just wish it wasn't the criminals getting more productive.
Scott Chasin, CTO for MX Logic, explained how even the smallest of companies can cut their e-mail problems. Some past advice
for avoiding spam no longer works.
Remember the push to replace the easy mailto link on your Web pages from joe@company.com to "joe at company dot com" to fool
the software spiders harvesting addresses? They figured that one out. If you want to keep harvesters from getting your e-mail
addresses you need to display the addresses as a graphic rather than text. This means customers can't click on the address
and send you mail, unfortunately. However, a good option is to put a form on your Web site for messages so people can send
a note directly without relying on e-mail. The form software can be added to your site with little programming, so check that
out.
