Apr 27 2009
Life after Spam
When you signed up for that exciting new email list you never suspected they’d sell you out or that you’d be deleting “Amazing Free Deal” emails for months. You were young and naive, but now you know better.
So what do you do about all that unsolicited “spam” email? Call the boys in blue at SpamCop. This week we’ll take a look at one of the most useful free services on the net.
For most of us, spam is a rude reality of working and playing on the Internet. You unsubscribe, complain and filter, but not even the Bulk Mail folder or Mail’s bounce feature can save you. You were doomed to the daily ritual of cleaning out the inbox… until now.
In all my experience in combating spam (yeah, I signed up for the same email list) I have found only one effective weapon, my ace in the hole. When I went to SpamCop, it was more out of a desire to spite the spammers than hope of deliverance. But SpamCop has brought my daily spam count from the 50′s and the 60′s to the 3′s and 4′s.
SpamCop is a spam reporting system. To make it work you need to do three things. First you open an account. SpamCop will assign you an email address which you will use to report spam. Second, you forward your spam email to the assigned address. If you use Entourage, use the free Spam Reporter Script to speed up this step. SpamCop replies back to each forwarded message with a link to a report. Follow this link and scroll to the “send report” button and you’re done.
From there on out, SpamCop takes over. Routers are called in for questioning and shady IP packets are hauled off in cuffs. Really I have no idea what happens, but what I do know is that it works.
A bit of advice to you: SpamCop reporting may seem time consuming or tedious at first, but hang in there. It is more than worth the time put in. This brings me to my final point…
Now this may sound a little out of character for a cheapskate like me, but listen up. I spent months, even years drifting from one email address to the next, hiding out only to be found again. Thanks to SpamCop, my record is clean (or at least my InBox). Even though SpamCop’s reporting is free, it is definitly worth a donation. So when you breathe your big sigh of relief on finding “no new messages”, consider tipping your hat to the Spam Cops.
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