The Best Spam Filters For Personal Use

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When it comes to personal computing, ease of use is paramount. Most personal computer users are doing some pretty basic stuff, like checking email or Facebook. They may find their inbox full of unwanted spam, but there are some good free products that will rid your email of unwanted messages.

Block Spam For Free

The causual computer user prefers to use free software and services whenever possible, and there are some free anti-spam programs out there that work pretty good. Most reviewers recommend Mailwasher. It not only does a fairly good job of getting rid of the spam, it does it before it downloads into your mailbox. That means you download mail faster, and that stuff gets dumped before it gets to your computer. Spam often contains viruses and malware, so a free program that washes the mail before you get it will definitely show up on most reviewers “best of” lists. Other choices include XTerminator and SPAMfighter Standard.

The Best Anti-Spam Money Can Buy

Like anything in the world, you get what you pay for when it comes to a spam filter. Therefore, the easiest to use and most thorough programs will cost a little money. However, at less than $100 a year, their well worth it if they save your hard drive from overcrowding or some pesky virus or malware.  Cloudmark Desktop shows up on several reviewers’ lists, so for $40 or so, it would be a good buy. It uses the input of millions of users to constantly battle the spam masters. It also never blocks legitimate email.

What works today to filter spm might not work tomorrow, so keep anti-spam updated.

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Blogs – How much is too much?

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The internet has become a great tool for marketing. There are many available avenues to reach users without having spend a bomb on advertizing. There are social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter that are being used by many companies to effectively connect with their consumer base. Through the medium of the internet, companies can interact more closely with their consumers, getting first hand views and responses. It also helps a company to keep a track on what the ‘buzz’ is about them, that is, what the market base generally thinks of them. Identifying such trends real time can be a great advantage to control damages cause to goodwill. Consumers getting instant responses to their queries and complaints is sure to leave a good impression.

Many companies run blogs of their own, providing valuable information about industry news and developments, upcoming products, product awareness and more. These blogs are great forums for consumers to know the company better and in a more informal way. Blogs definitely beat brochures! However, many companies, realizing the great value the internet and blogging can bring, dive into online marketing without drafting out a clear strategy. They don’t do enough of research to find out how relevant a blog would be to their consumer base, whether they have enough data to share or if they have the capacity to keep the blog active.

The result? A poor blog! There are very few things that leave a bad impression about a company, a poor blog is one of them. The internet is full of blogs started off by companies that just could not maintain them. They may have taken the trouble to make the blog SEO friendly so they do crop up on your searches. However, when a user visits the bog and finds outdated data and no responses to consumer queries, it leaves the impression that the company is not really bothered about customer satisfaction – that’s not good!

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Facebook Profiles May Provide Answers to Spam Problem

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Millions of people log on to their computers to connect with family, friends and even employers using email. This communication tool is often free, making it a more affordable option to stay in touch. After all, not everyone has cheap cell phone plans.

One of the downsides of emailing is the spam a person can encounter. While email filters can help send the junk to the trash file, wading through ludicrous and fraudulent emails to find the ones from your actual contacts can be a pain.

Even social networking sites fall prey to spam. Instead of a message from your friend, you may get an email from Facebook offering you a free laptop. Well, a new study may help researchers solve the spam problem for both email messages and social networking sites.

In 2010, Northwestern University downloaded the Facebook profiles of over three million people, enabling the researchers to get a large snapshot of spam. By analyzing the spam messages, the study was able to track trends and discover some of the methods hackers use to infiltrate the social networking site.

According to the research, most of the spam occurred through compromised user accounts. Many of these individuals didn’t even know spammers had hacked their accounts. In addition to the data recently downloaded, the study looked at over 11 million profiles exploited in a Facebook feature that by default shared private profile information with regional “networks.”

By looking at 2.08 million wall messages from the user accounts, the research team identified over 200,000 spam posts. Out of the spam attacks, an estimated 70 percent “phished” for information. Phishing is a hacking technique designed to gain personal information, including credit card numbers, from victims.

Using this study as a baseline, researchers hope to learn more about hacking methods and techniques, which could one day reduce the amount of spam on social networking sites and in emails.

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A Look at Spam: Phishing Emails

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They look like real emails from banks, secure sites and other places. They just simply ask that you provide a few pieces of information because something major has just happened to your account. An unsuspecting person innocently puts in all the information and BOOM their information is stolen by a person.

A few days later they find out that their account has been hacked, all their money is gone and that there is nothing that they can do.

This is a common occurrence and the email that they got is considered a phishing email which is a type of spam. Phishing emails are fraudulent emails that come masked as bank accounts, auction sites such as ebay, social websites like Myspace or Facebook and other types of emails. The whole purpose of the email is to get email receivers to click on the links and provide information to those that want the information.

Here are a few tips to avoid getting caught in a phishing scam.

1. Check the Place that Sent the Email. If you have never banked at Bank of America or never used Ebay then it’s a good bet that they don’t need you to provide them information. If you see one of these emails, either report it to your email provider or just click delete.

2. Your Information will Only Be Retrieved Via Phone. If your real bank or ebay site has a problem with you, they will contact you via phone. They will not email you ever to ask for personal types of information. If they do email you it is only to ask for you to contact them at their real phone number.

Remembering these two items will help you protect yourself, your information and anything that can be obtained from phishing emails. If you suspect something is wrong with it, it probably is. Just keep these tips in mind next time you are emailing.

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