Issue 13 - October 15, 2003

Editor: Lynne Bullen
lynne@associatedsecretarial.com.au

Publisher: Associated Secretarial
Copyright © 2003 Associated Secretarial

In this issue:

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1. Editorial

At last ... Wedge is ready to release his October issue of "From The Eagle's Nest".

Hi. Good to see you back again. Thanks for logging in. To our new subscribers, a big welcome to you also. We hope that you will continue to visit each month.

On the 12 October 2002, the tragedy of the Bali bombing echoed around the world. Many Balinese, Australians, in fact, visitors from 21 countries in all, lost their lives.

Many others survived, some with horrific injuries.

One year on from the Bali tragedy, many of the survivors, their families and friends arrived in Bali from all over the world for a special service on the day.

After the tragedy of the Twin Towers (9/11), and then the Bali tragedy almost a year after, we're seeing incredible strength in the face of tragedy. There are heroes, regardless of the race, colour or religion who may not see themselves as heroes. The able-bodied and the injured who were still ambulant did all they
could to help those trapped and injured too badly to walk.

Instead of the focus many have on the terrorism issue world-wide, here's a chance to focus on the positive things that have emerged since the Bali bombing, from minutes after the bombs, right through to today.

There are many stories in newspapers, magazines, on radio and television and on the Internet. There are still more to come.

Many who were there have told their stories to journalists around the world. There are also stories by those who lost loved ones.

Recently retired from Australian Rules Football, Jason McCartney is one who has achieved what many thought was impossible. With burns to over 50% of his body, he made a promise to himself that when he recovered sufficiently, he would play one last game with his team. He did! And they won!

In the face of adversity, there have been many other incredible achievements. They are inspiring and moving stories that will restore your faith in human nature.

Here are a four. I believe that if you read just a few of them, it will make a difference in your life. Just click on these links:

Candles at sunset for Bali victims
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/World/story_52263.asp

Bali: 'A nightmare I can't forget'
http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?x94575868

My angel: Jason finds Bali lifesaver
http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?x94516792

The survivor - Nicole McLean, 24
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/10/05/1065292459229.html?from=storyrhs

Although these are Australian Stories, there are many more stories from the survivors of the other 20 countries.

Not everyone will be able to forgive, and no one will ever forget the Bali tragedy.

Being angry and bitter takes a huge amount of energy. Why not use that energy positively. I can guarantee that the results of positive focus, regardless of the subject, will affect your everyday life.

The human spirit is a truly amazing thing. What can be achieved even in the face of adversity is sometimes called a miracle; I can find no other word to describe it!

Take stock, look at what you have, be grateful and let your spirit shine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, down to business:

SPAM / SCAM / SPAM /SCAM

Have you noticed lately that you're receiving far too much unsolicited mail via your email Inbox? Almost everyone I talk to lately has. Spam, Scam, the two interact to fleece us of what we've worked hard for.

Scams are alive and well, and just waiting to catch you out!

Spam is usually how they arrive

Spam seems to be breading in dark corners and then launching itself at the unsuspecting. The unscrupulous people behind the spam and scam emails are ruthless crooks and they don't care who
they hurt!

Some of the best Internet Service Providers have been fooled into letting spam and scam emails through their watchful eyes.

There is very sophisticated technology at work here, so sophisticated in fact, that some personal firewalls and antivirus programmes have not managed to stop them getting through.

It's up to you to be vigilant.

I would advise strongly against using the "unsubscribe" link which most of these nasty critters have at the bottom of their message. Doing that will just let them know that you're "there", send you more in the hope that you might bite next time.

A better way is to treat them with the contempt they deserve. Simply delete them, and then delete them from your Deleted Items box. You might find the same thing popping up next week or next month, but you will eventually fall of the scammer's mailing list when there is no response.

>>>>> Scams can also arrive via the telephone in the guise of a marketing survey. They can arrive in your letterbox at your place of residence or your workplace.

They can even turn up at your front door, cleverly disguised as legitimate and articulate human beings who will offer you treasures you'll find hard to resist.

These scams come in all shapes and sizes and different disguises ... if you're not careful you could loose your hard earned money, or even your identity!

Yes, your identity! Scams don't just stop at ripping you off financially, they can also be extremely good at getting you to divulge personal information, including banking details, credit card numbers, social security numbers, your mother's maiden name, and the list goes on.

If you've been unlucky enough to have been targeted and responded to a scam, there's not much you can do about it now, except "put it down to experience". But, you can help others who may be in the firing line.

How?

No matter where in the world you are, there will be authorities you can contact to report scams that have devastated you or someone you know. Your contact and report may save others from the same fate.

Following are a few articles you may find useful. The article by Geoff Duncan will help you to avoid the traps of the spammers and the scammers. The more you know, the better equipped you will be to avoid their very attractive traps.

Geoff Duncan's article has some good advice and will make you think before you act.

The second article, by Bill Ringle will also give you some very tasty food for thought if you're using email to find your client/customers. Do it the right way and you can never be accused of "spamming".

Both authors have their own ideas, as I do. Although there may be differences in the way individuals choose to do things, a little forethought before action is wise advice.

Until next month, take care of yourself and those you love.

Lynne

lynne@associatedsecretarial.com.au

2. Article: 21 Ways to Avoid Business E-mail Disasters

Robert was a 6 year account executive with a Pittsburgh-based financial services firm. He considered himself savvy in both the industry and the tools of the trade that allowed him to be successful within his company and serve his client base well. On a hotel shuttle ride to the airport one afternoon, he happened to
strike up a conversation with a manager of a company that Robert wanted to establish greater inroads with. At the conclusion of the conversation, the two exchanged business cards. As the manager tucked the card in his jacket pocket and picked up his laptop to go, he said to Robert, "I'll e-mail you the phone number of the person you'll want to talk to," and stepped off the shuttle. The doors closed, and Robert's anxiety level rose along with the shuttle's speedometer. His e-mail address isn't printed on his business cards, he realized!

Business blunders like this occur every day. None is likely to be a deal-killer by itself, but in combination with other missteps, or the same mistake repeated over time, will hurt you as an individual and your company, as well.

Below is a guide to 21 common ways that business people shoot themselves in the foot with e-mail on a regular basis, with recommendations for better business conduct on the Information Superhighway.

Personal effectiveness

Take a close look at how you use e-mail when communicating with just one other person. These tips are particularly important with your one-on-one correspondence.

== Be hard to reach via e-mail. This is easy to recognize. Your business cards are missing this important line. If you've just gotten a new batch of cards printed (or you have a supply on hand), reprinting with the e-mail address may not be a short-term option. To bridge the gap, I've seen businessmen and businesswomen successfully use pre-printed clear label stickers to add their e-mail address and company web site. If you are conscientious and have easy-to-read handwriting, you can get away with writing your e-mail address on the back of your card in many cases. Bonus tip: Always check business cards you receive and if an e-mail address is mission, offer to write the person's e-mail address on the card before tucking it away.

== Use terrible subject lines. When e-mail arrives, people use two ways of determining its importance: who sent it and the subject line. A message that says, "reminder" as a subject line is treated quite differently than one that says, "Reminder: Meeting on 3/12 at 2:30pm in Conference room". Additional examples can be reviewed at the business e-mail web site (www.starcomm.com/BusinessEmail/).

== Be informal, even jocular, as a rule. This is a subtle one because each of us thinks that our messages will be understood exactly as we intended when we wrote them. To avoid misinterpretations, lean toward straightforward communications with individuals you do not know well. This is twice as important when sending a group message. If someone in marketing sends you a message saying that over 50% of existing customers will pay for the new product being discussed, you may wish to register your skepticism. Responding with a sarcastic "Right!" is far more ambiguous than saying, "I think that claim may be exaggerated. Care to back it up?"

== Who needs to proofread? The loss of credibility due to a mistyped or misspelled word is below the radar screen for most busy professionals. In other words, you probably don't know it when you blow it. Take the extra minute or two to a) use the spelling checker of your e-mail package, and b) to reread the message to make sure it is coherent and accurate. Typos happen. Proofreading prevents you from embarrassing yourself.

== Use e-mail as PageMaker. As e-mail packages start to get feature-heavy, users sometimes get seduced by the ability to change fonts, text color, and paragraph alignment. It's remarkable how slick you can make a message look these days. The consideration that's often missing is how the message looks when it is received. Not every e-mail client supports all these formatting features, and when they don't, your recipient gets mail that looks really messed up! A better approach is to use e-mail for text messages. When you need additional formatting, create a word processing file and send it as an e-mail attachment.

== Print out every message to review it. That's a good way to waste your company's paper and your time! Instead, develop methods of storing your incoming and outgoing messages in relevant mail boxes, such as "staff meeting minutes", "Q2 transactions", and "hot leads". Learn how to mark-up and transfer just the pertinent portions of a message to appropriate places, such as meeting information to your online calendar or datebook. Programs such as Eudora (www.Eudora.com) and Lotus Notes (www.Lotus.com) offer automatic sorting of e-mail based upon keywords in the sender, subject, or body text of messages.

== Rely on others to keep a copy of messages you send. In the online executive education course I teach, a VP of Sales confessed, "I thought it was like printing -- doesn't the file say on the hard drive when you send it via e-mail?" No, not necessarily. And many e-mail packages install with the default to NOT save copies of outgoing e-mail. To avoid the mess of looking for mail that you sent and not finding it, some people always cc themselves. A better way is to take a moment and verify that your e-mail software is configured to save outgoing copies.

== Check for new messages when the mood strikes you. Come on, you know the drill on this one. E-mail makes it so easy to communicate within a corporation, to your vendors, suppliers, consultants, and customers that professionals expect you to be checking your e-mail regularly. Three times a day, spaced out by a couple of hours, is a good start. If you have a full-time connection to the Internet, set your software to check every 15 minutes for you unless your IS department has specified otherwise. In business, replies to messages (even if they're just acknowledgements) are expected within 1 business day.

Group Communications

This category focuses on messages sent to a group of colleagues<bold>.</bold> Usually, this involves putting more than one e-mail address in either the To line, Cc line, or Bcc line. An address put in any of the three lines delivers the message to the recipient, so what's the difference? Here are a few guidelines to help you become a more discriminating e-mailer.

The To line in business e-mail is for people who are directly involved in a message. Each has a need to know and possible action items from the communication that you're sending. When you want to keep someone in the loop, but this person is not directly affected by the news, information, or instructions in a message, put that person in the Cc line. (Cc stands for carbon copy, a holdover from the old typewritten memo days -- but you knew that!) So, if you are following up on a client's behalf, you might Cc the client on the mail you send to your manager. Doing so sends a signal to your client that you're following through as
you promised.

If you want to include someone on a message, but risks giving the message a tone that might be misinterpreted by some members of the group, then put that person on the Bcc line (blind carbon copy). Say that you're sending a notice to a vendor who hasn't delivered as promised. You may want to include other team members, or your comptroller, on the communication so they know that the vendor is on a short leash until coming through with the goods. However, by using the Bcc line, you avoid the impression that you are "ganging up" on the vendor, and the vendor is not left wondering who those other people are and can focus on getting your delivery to you.

Below are seven mistakes to avoid when sending e-mail to groups:

== Only respond to e-mail sent to you. Let's get this problem out of the way first. E-mail is meant to be interactive. You're supposed to send mail. Your partners and clients will wonder about you if they never receive messages. Remember, it's not like TV -- you get to send as much mail as you like. Overcome any reticence by asking yourself whether what you're going to send will give direction to your team, share valuable information with your colleagues, inform your customers, or build other valuable relationships. E-mail often bypasses secretarial gatekeepers. Learn to take advantage of it, because your competition certainly is going to.

Let it grow, let it grow. Pop quiz: You and 4 other managers receive a message requesting your input on ten line item questions. Three of those questions fall under your area of responsibility. How much of the original message do you send back? Answer: Just enough of the message that is pertinent to your reply. Include the questions that you are answering and your replies. You are well within your rights to clip and delete the part of the message that is extraneous to your contribution. This holds so long as the list of people you are replying to includes all the people who received the original message.

== Let 'em have a piece of your mind! This is a related problem that quite a few former managers wished they understood prior to sending a heated e-mail message. In short, do not ever send anything via e-mail that you would not mind printed on the front page of tomorrow's newspaper. E-mail is wonderful, convenient, and a great boon to business communications. It is also easily forwarded (either deliberately or accidentally) to groups of people at no material cost (personal cost is a different story). It's OK to write a heated reply to let off some steam, but rather than sending it, save it review it after you've cooled off. A tip to prevent premature sending is to remove the address lines until you're ready to ready to send a message.

== If in doubt, count him out. Have you ever been on a group distribution list to suddenly find yourself out of the loop? This is a classic problem, especially in large organizations. Say that John is part of a To list with 12 other people. He thinks of a clever thing to say to his peers regarding the latest posting, but he doesn't want to send it to management. So, he simply replies to the group and deletes the manager's e-mail addresses from the To and Cc lines. The joke is funny and his peers get a kick out of it. However, the problem comes when one of John's peers uses this abbreviated list to send serious input to what he thinks is the whole group. One solution is to use a descriptive subject line and opening sentence. The new subject line lets the group know that your message is not a continuation of the previous discussion, and the opening line could announce that this message isn't to the whole group (and probably shouldn't be circulated!).

== Pack that cc line. After all, if the software developer though it would be a bad idea, why would they have left all that room? Well, not exactly. In fact this can be a real pain for many users who have gotten 3 pages of address lines to find a one paragraph message at the bottom of the e-mail. If the group is fewer than 10, leave them in the Cc line. Between 10 and 30, add them to the Bcc line so that they receive the message, but each message doesn't contain the distribution list. More than 30 participants, or if the group membership changes often, or if the group contains members outside your organization, then you should start asking your IS department about using special software for handling these situation easily, called a listserver.

== Be a "me too!" in online discussions. This is one of the Seven Deadly Sins of business e-mail that we discuss in StarComm's executive development seminars. You recognize this type of message by its total lack of contribution to a discussion. You avoid it by thinking of the New Hampshire farmer's motto: "I'll speak when I think it will improve upon the silence."

== Be generous with spam. Here's another mistake that many a well-meaning professional commits. You get a message that seems amazing and you either want to share it with your pals or help out someone appealing for you to take some action. For your information, the Mrs. Fields Cookie recipe story is a hoax. The report of a man getting a mickie in his drink at a bar and finding himself stranded the next morning in a bathtub of ice, with a note saying one of his kidneys have been removed is an urban legend. It's amazing how normally skeptical people would dismiss these types of messages if they received them via a phone call asking for money or through bulk mail, but when received in an e-mail seems perfectly reasonable to forward widely. Solution: don't forward get-rich quick schemes, lose weight plans, or anything that seems too good to be true.

Advanced Tips

Below are some additional tips and disctinctions that will propel you past the blunders to greater efficiency and effectiveness with e-mail.

== Never pass up the chance to retype a person's address. It doesn't matter how fast you type or how good your memory is, this is a time-wasting habit. Instead, learn to use your address book. When StarComm designed and delivered an e-mail transition seminar to 1,200 professionals at one multinational company in 1998, our trainers recommended that every person sit down for 30 minutes to "populate" their address book with commonly used individual and group e-mail addresses. It will save you a great deal of time in the weeks ahead.

== Have multiple e-mail accounts for business. That's a sure, fast way to add stress to your life! The professionals who are most susceptible to this are the early adopters who recognized the value of e-mail ahead of their corporate IS department. So, instead of waiting for IS to catch up, the Information superhighway road warriors started giving out their personal AOL or ISP accounts to associates, clients, and vendors. The problem came when the company caught up and established e-mail systems, and now the busy professional has multiple places to check for e-mail, remember where inbound messages are filed, and what you wrote to whom just last week. The solution is to have a single e-mail account for business and one for personal/other communications, and do what it takes to have people use the appropriate account. This is what a friend of mine does this with e-mail from his air force reserve colleagues. Reducing your e-mail anxiety will make your life both at work and at home much easier to manage.

== Keep it all in one pile. OK, just for fun, how many messages are in your In box? More than 5? 15? 25? 50? Really, what in the world for? Unless someone has appointed you the company's e-mail archivist, you're putting a drain on your productivity each time you've got to scroll down this list because you've got to make a decision about each mail item over and over again. The better solution is to create new mailboxes or e-mail folders to be used within the e-mail client. Current versions of nearly every e-mail package supports this feature. Simply label and sort your mail as it comes in, and you'll be well on your way to better organized messages and a more manageable In box. It won't be long before you want to learn more about the filtering feature, that uses rule-based commands for automatically sending mail to the box you've determined that it should go to.

== Save and forget. Technology's great stuff, so how would it go wrong? Murphy tells us that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. This particular problem plagues mobile computer users who write or reply to e-mail while in airports or in hotel rooms. (As PDA devices such as the Pilot become more popular, this will
become more important to a greater number of professionals who find being connected invaluable.) What happens is that you'll write your message, and rather being able to send it when your laptop isn't connected to either the office network or a phone connection, you simply save it in your out box. The problem is that saved mail doesn't get sent when you reconnect to the Internet. Queued messages do. Make the distinction, and be sure to make the choice you really intend.

== Attach files recklessly or not at all. This is one of the most powerful capabilities of e-mail: it elevates a workgroup above the need to exchange files via floppy disk and takes care of any cross-platform issues. Yet, like other powerful tools, when it goes awry, it goes awry quickly and badly. Here are three tips to encourage file exchange, safely and successfully. 1) Always label the specific application you used to create your file in your e-mail message. For instance, "Enclosed is the latest business plan for our department in Word 99 format. Standard fonts were used." 2) If a file is larger than 500k, use compression software. WinZip is built into most operating systems, but Aladdin Stuffit is preferred by many Internet users (www.AladdinSys.com).

== Spend no more than 5 minutes learning your software; your time is too valuable. This is an attitude engendered by that overused phrase from the 80's: user friendly. Forget it! Today's applications are sophisticated. If you want to have any hope of tapping the potential of these tools, you've got to crack open
the manuals. Here's another acronym for you from the world of support desk help lines: RTFM. It stands for Read the Fine Manual. When help desk workers get overwhelmed, the language may get a little stronger, but the sentiment is still the same. You can learn a lot by flipping through the manual when you first get new software, or when you have a question about its use or capabilities.

Granted, this may have been an amusing reinforcement of many of the good habits you've developed and bad habits you've sidestepped. But perhaps it's an article you can send to someone who could use these "reminders" (know any Roberts?).

If you would like to share what you've seen, post your favorite e-mail blunder on our web site under the "Ask the Expert" section at (www.starcomm.com). It is also where I'll post additional tips to help you become more Internet-savvy.

© 2000 Bill Ringle. All rights reserved. Bill Ringle runs the Internet consulting company StarComm Development and its subsidiary, LearnWell.com, that work with organizations that want to use technology to develop greater innovation and profitability. You are invited to join Bill's online newsletter, TechEdge eNews, by sending a message to enews-on@ls.starcomm.com from your e-mail program.

3. Resources

The Little Black Book of Scams A Consumer’s Guide to Scams, Swindles, Rorts and Rip Offs - An Aussie site http://www.consumersonline.gov.au/content/resources_black_book.asp

Also from Australia: CAUBE.AU was formed to represent the views of those in Australia who are opposed to the advertising practices which are collectively known as email spam. Consumers are increasingly hostile to spam, whether it comes from unknown or known senders. http://www.caube.org.au/

From the USA: Tired of wading through all that junk mail? Learn how to stop the spammers -- here are instructions to automatically filter your e-mail, defend your site from exploitation by the spammers, and get involved! http://www.arachnoid.com/lutusp/antispam.html

This Directory will assist you in locating suspected scams that have been reported to ScamWatch and/or the Web Police. http://www.scamwatch.com/scam_reports/scam_directory.html

4. Article: Those Bulk Email Blues

If you've been on the Internet for any length of time, the odds are excellent that you've received unsolicited email announcements and advertisements. These messages vary widely: one day you might receive information about a get-rich-quick scheme, the next an ad for an Internet service provider. Some messages are controversial and pernicious, including political harangues and hate-filled diatribes. Others are just odd, such as an ad for hand-knitted kitty-boots, or (I'm not making this up!) an announcement that extraterrestrials from Saturn want to set up a bottle-cap recycling program in New Jersey.

Although the problem isn't new, the recent growth of the Internet has been accompanied by an explosive expansion in "bulk email" or " spam," and followed in recent months by an angry backlash. An entire industry is springing up around bulk email, and now the issues are headed for the courts. Although this article can't discuss every aspect of bulk emailing, it does provide some background, and explains how to respond reasonably to junk email.

Pros --

Since I'm personally inundated and annoyed by bulk email, I cannot claim to represent the viewpoints of those who send it. However, in discussing the topic with several people who condone bulk mailings, some rationales surprised me.

For the most part, bulk emailers believe they are providing a service by distributing information, thereby helping their recipients make informed decisions. In the United States, they believe their activities constitute free speech. Internationally, bulk email seems to be viewed as free enterprise that could only
be curtailed by international trade agreements - agreements which, if they existed, would be nearly impossible to enforce. Further, in the U.S., bulk emailers feel the Internet is a public resource (since it was created in part with taxpayer monies), and that an email address is a matter of public record, like a street
address. Many bulk emailers argue their activities should be encouraged since they're an "improved" form of postal advertisements: they can be better targeted, take less time to deal with (mail messages can be deleted in a few seconds, and no physical object needs to be transported), and have less environmental impact, since no paper and little fuel is used to deliver them.

Almost universally, bulk emailers believe their activities are justified. Further, some are selective with their mailings, sending only 50 or 100 highly targeted messages. Some also work hard to prune their mailing lists of addresses or whole domains that object to their mailings.

Of course, many are much less conscientious, holding contempt for those who take issue with their activities, or arguing (often effusively) that objecting to bulk email is nothing more than economic, technological, and cultural elitism. There are also a few bulk emailers who are new to the Internet and seem to have no idea their actions might be problematic.

A few bulk emailers also make an interesting point: users who most strenuously object to bulk email tend to have been on the Internet for a few years, whereas new Internet users seem to have far fewer objections to bulk email. And here's another surprise: unless a recipient actively objects to receiving a message, even
the most conscientious of bulk emailers usually interpret that message as a success. They choose to believe that while the recipient may not have been interested in the material in that particular message, that recipient did not object to receiving it, and is thus a reasonable target for future mailings.

Cons --

The arguments against bulk email are numerous and well-known; I'll only summarize a few here. First, unlike postal mail, most Internet users pay to receive email at a flat rate, timed, or per-byte basis, so in many cases unwanted email is literally paid for by the recipient. Further, since the cost of bulk email is considerably lower than the cost of sending advertisements via postal mail, bulk email can be more easily abused and arrive in considerably higher volumes. Bulk email is also far more likely than postal advertisements to be inappropriate or personally offensive, not to mention in violation of state or local legislation. An argument can even be made that repeated targeting by bulk emailers constitutes harassment.

The most common objection to bulk email, however, is the annoyance. Most Internet users consider bulk email to be irritating and one of the Internet's largest drawbacks. They may feel that unsolicited mailings violate their privacy or interfere with their effective use of the Internet.

Perhaps the worst-case scenario is a bulk mailing gone bad. It's possible for a poorly-conducted bulk mailing to deliver thousands of copies of a message to a single account. Another troubling case is a mailing (or the backlash from a mailing) which overwhelms an Internet site or forces it to go offline. Events like these are widely considered to be attacks on individuals or entire sites, and usually provoke hostile and resource-consuming responses, potentially impacting untold thousands of Internet users.

The Spam Industry --

During the last two years, businesses and software products built around the bulk emailing concept have
sprung into existence. Beginning with commercial endeavors by expert spammers who would sell themselves as hired guns to spread a message as widely as possible, the bulk email arena has lately been dominated by programmers and entrepreneurs looking to make a quick buck. Some write programs that collect email addresses or that can perform bulk mailings to thousands of people in a few hours. Others collect and sell mailing lists, and still others offer complete bulk mailing services, setting up Internet sites as bulk email clearinghouses. Many of these endeavors are visible and public, and at least one is being taken to court.

Bulk emailers get your address using a number of methods:

>> Usenet trawling: Many bulk emailers use programs that scan all available Usenet newsgroups for email addresses, compile comprehensive lists, then remove duplicates. This is also used to create targeted mailing lists; for instance, a bulk emailer may assume that anyone posting in the comp.* hierarchy must be
interested in computers. Similarly, geographically-specific lists can be created from Usenet groups related to cities or regions. Though scanning Usenet is an arduous task, any respectable computer can pull out thousands of addresses an hour. Ironically, services like AltaVista and Deja News make this process even
easier for bulk emailers.

>> Provider-trawling: Although this tactic is most often applied to online services like CompuServe or America Online, bulk emailers use programs to scan member directories and discussion forums to generate lists of users of online services. Bulk emailers wanting to generate a list of users at large Internet providers (like Netcom or EarthLink) may sign on using a trial account, then use directory listings or programs like Finger to generate lists of valid usernames.

>> Mailing list trawling: Bulk emailers also scan large and popular mailing lists for email addresses. This tactic works best on large lists where lots of email addresses appear in the text of messages.

Collectively, these processes produce thousands of mailing lists, many of which overlap significantly. Removing your address from one doesn't remove it from the others, and your address can easily be re-added. Some bulk emailers do handle list removals responsibly; however, overwhelmingly, these lists merely grow.

What Can I Do? --

Unfortunately, there is no sure-fire way eliminate bulk email. As the problem gets worse, you can expect
services to appear offering spam-free email accounts, and email filtering software will become increasingly sophisticated. In the meantime, the most effective way to stop bulk email is to make your objections known:

>> Reply to the sender of the email, saying that you do not wish to receive such mailings, and that you object to such activities. If the message offers a way to remove yourself from a list, use it. Many addresses that bulk email appears to be sent from are forged, so be aware these messages may bounce.

>> Examine the headers of the message to determine the site where the message originated. (This information is usually in the bottommost "Received:" header line.) Although this information can be forged, it's usually more useful than the names of intervening sites. Write a mail message to the username "abuse"
or "postmaster" at that site, with a brief, polite note, the full headers of the message you received, and the message itself. Try to leave the subject line intact. This is the text I use to reply to junk email:

"I received the following unsolicited bulk email ("spam"), which apparently originated from your site. Please take appropriate action to ensure this doesn't happen again."

Although you may not receive a response to these messages, Internet providers usually a warn a bulk emailer that the activity should stop. If the mailings continue, the provider will usually terminate the account.

>> Some Internet providers and online services have local email addresses or newsgroups where you can report bulk email messages. With enough information, the provider can then handle the matter for you. Check your provider's or online service's help system or customer service information.

In the event you receive bulk email from an Internet domain specifically set up to send bulk email, these tactics are likely to fail. If you're familiar with utilities like Whois and Traceroute, you might be able to identify that site's upstream providers and complain to them, but that's too detailed to discuss here.

The Future of Bulk Email --

The current inability to stop bulk emailers has led to calls for regulation, perhaps by modifying existing laws applying to the postal service or fax machines. Although the issues are very complex, here in the United States, communications law experts I spoke with generally agreed existing legislation would adapt poorly to email, particularly in the case of laws designed to prevent junk faxes. Of course, legislation passed here would be difficult to enforce within the country and wouldn't apply elsewhere.

The first court cases regarding bulk email are getting underway now and will be watched closely by the online community. No matter what the outcome of these cases, the success of bulk emailers is likely to spawn services geared to eliminating bulk email. Already, there's talk of building live, authenticated filters into email clients - every time you checked your mail, your mail program would check for a new set of anti-spam filters set up by your provider or perhaps by a subscription-based service anywhere on the Internet. With a small editorial staff and decent connectivity, providing frequently updated bulk email filters isn't a technological challenge.

In the meantime, if you're one of the few who likes bulk email... I know where you can get some great hand-knitted booties for your cat.

About the Author: Geoff Duncan, TidBITS Technical Editor,Subscriptions Manager, Web developer, &c., &c., & so forth.Geoff joined TidBITS in 1994 as Managing Editor, and currentlyserves as Technical Editor, contributing articles and also managing subscriptions, distribution, editorial email, and other
behind-the-scenes stuff. Geoff's also a working musician and theassistant editor of the long-running online fiction magazineInterText. You can contact Geoff via email: geoff@tidbits.com.Check out Geoff’s home page: http://www.quibble.com/geoff/

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