01 559656 FM.qxd 12/31/03 9:10 AM Page i Fighting Spam FOR DUMmIES ‰ by John R. Levine, Margaret Levine Young, Ray Everett-Church 01 559656 FM.qxd 12/31/03 9:10 AM Page viii 01 559656 FM.qxd 12/31/03 9:10 AM Page i Fighting Spam FOR DUMmIES ‰ by John R. Levine, Margaret Levine Young, Ray Everett-Church 01 559656 FM.qxd 12/31/03 9:10 AM Page ii Fighting Spam For Dummies Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River Street Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 Copyright © 2004 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. 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Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Library of Congress Control Number: ISBN: 0-7645-5965-6 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1O/SR/QR/QU/IN 01 559656 FM.qxd 12/31/03 9:10 AM Page iii About the Authors John R. Levinewas a member of a computer club in high school—before high school students, or even high schools, had computers—where he met Theodor H. Nelson, the author of Computer Lib/Dream Machinesand the inventor of hypertext, who reminded us that computers should not be taken seriously and that everyone can and should understand and use computers. John wrote his first program in 1967 on an IBM 1130 (a com- puter somewhat less powerful than your typical modern digi- tal wristwatch, only more difficult to use). He became an official system administrator of a networked computer at Yale in 1975. He began working part-time, for a computer company, of course, in 1977 and has been in and out of the computer and network biz ever since. Since he has been on the Internet for a long time, he started getting spammed early and often, leading to his joining the board of the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (CAUCE) and starting the Network Abuse Clearinghouse (www.abuse.net). Although John used to spend most of his time writing soft- ware, now he mostly writes books (including The Internet For Dummiesand Internet Secrets,both published by Wiley Publishing, Inc.) because it’s more fun and he can do so at home in the tiny village of Trumansburg, New York, where he is the sewer commissioner (Guided tours! Free samples!) and can play with his small daughter when he’s supposed to be writing. John also does a fair amount of public speaking. (See www.iecc.com/johnlto see where he’ll be.) He holds a B.A. and a Ph.D. in computer science from Yale University, but please don’t hold that against him. Margaret Levine Youngwas a member of the same high- school computer club as John (probably because she was his little sister at the time). She stayed in the field throughout col- lege against her better judgment and despite John’s presence as a graduate student in the computer science department. Margy graduated from Yale and went on to become one of the first PC managers in the early 1980s at Columbia Pictures, where she rode the elevator with big stars whose names she wouldn’t dream of dropping here. 01 559656 FM.qxd 12/31/03 9:10 AM Page iv Since then, Margy has coauthored more than 25 books about the Internet, Unix, Microsoft Access, online communities, WordPerfect, and (stab from the past) PC-File and Javelin, including The Internet For Dummiesand Access 2003 All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies(published by Wiley Publishing, Inc.) and Windows XP Home Edition: The Complete Reference and Internet: The Complete Reference(published by Osborne/ McGraw-Hill). She met her future husband, Jordan, in the R.E.S.I.S.T.O.R.S. (that computer club we mentioned). Her other passions are her children, Unitarian Universalism (www.uua.org), and cooking. She lives in Vermont (see www.gurus.com/margy). Ray Everett-Churchpublished his first article about computers—and about the mischief one could cause with them—in a community newspaper in Nashville, Tennessee, back in 1983. Nobody has been able to shut him up since. In 1999, he became the world’s first corporate chief privacy officer, and has spent much of his career since then teaching Fortune 500 firms how to respect consumer privacy and avoid being labeled as spammers. He received degrees from George Mason University and the George Washington University Law School. During law school, he supported himself by working as an antispam consultant to an upstart online service named America Online. He trains dozens of privacy professionals each year in executive semi- nars and lectures, and has testified before Congress and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on the issues of junk e-mail and online marketing. Ray now works as chief privacy officer for the privacy andantispam technology company ePrivacy Group (www.eprivacygroup.com), where he heads its consulting division. He lives a stone’s throw from Silicon Valley, in always lovely northern California, with his very patient part- ner, Justin, and two rather strange-looking cats. You can learn more about Ray at www.everett.org. 01 559656 FM.qxd 12/31/03 9:10 AM Page v Dedication John dedicates his part of the book to Tonia and Sarah, again and forever. Margy dedicates her part to Jordan, Meg, and Zac, as always. Ray dedicates his part to his Mom and Dad, and to Justin. Authors’ Acknowledgments All three authors would like to thank the folks at Wiley Publishing, Inc., for making this book happen, including Steve Hayes, Rebecca Whitney (the world’s best editor), and the rest of the gang listed on the Publisher’s Acknowledgments page. Ray gives thanks to Vince Schiavone, Stephen Cobb, David Brussin, Lucinda Duncalfe Holt, Michael Miora, and the out- standing team at ePrivacy Group for their friendship and pro- fessional prowess in privacy, security, and spam fighting; David Lawrence and Lili von Schtupp, from “The David Lawrence Show” and “Online Tonight,” for their friendship and occasional airtime; and to the members of the Cabal (TINC)—you know who you are, which of course means that you’re now going to have to be killed. Sorry we brought it up. Margy thanks the gang at AnswerSquad.com, for answering various technical questions, and to her friends and family for putting up with the process of writing and editing yet another book. 01 559656 FM.qxd 12/31/03 9:10 AM Page vi Publisher’s Acknowledgments We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registra- tion form located at www.dummies.com/register/. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions, Editorial, and Production MediaDevelopment Project Coordinator:Erin Smith Project Editor:Rebecca Whitney Layout and Graphics: Acquisitions Editor:Steve Hayes LaurenGoddard,LeAndraHosier, Stephanie D. Jumper, Michael Kruzil, Technical Editor:James F. Kelly LynseyOsborn, JacqueSchneider Editorial Manager:Carol Sheehan Proofreaders: Laura Albert, Media Development Supervisor: TECHBOOKS Production Services Richard Graves Indexer: TECHBOOKS Production Editorial Assistant: Services AmandaM.Foxworth Cartoons:Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com) Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies Richard Swadley,Vice President and Executive Group Publisher Andy Cummings,Vice President and Publisher Mary C. Corder,Editorial Director Publishing for Consumer Dummies Diane Graves Steele,Vice President and Publisher Joyce Pepple,Acquisitions Director Composition Services Gerry Fahey,Vice President of Production Services Debbie Stailey,Director of Composition Services 01 559656 FM.qxd 12/31/03 9:10 AM Page vii Contents at a Glance Introduction ......................................................1 Part I: The World of Spam ..................................5 Chapter 1: How Spam Works — and Drives You Crazy! ........................7 Chapter 2: How Spammers Get Your Address .....................................25 Chapter 3: There Oughtta Be a Law Against Spam! ............................35 Chapter 4: Talk to the Hand ’Cuz the Spammer Don’t Care ...............47 Part II: Filtering Spam Out of Your Inbox ..........63 Chapter 5: Mailbox Filtering in Your E-Mail Program .........................65 Chapter 6: Filtering Spam in Outlook Express and Outlook ..............73 Chapter 7: Filtering Spam in Netscape and Mozilla Mail ..................105 Chapter 8: Filtering Spam in Eudora ...................................................115 Chapter 9: Filtering Spam in AOL and AOL Communicator .............125 Chapter 10: Filtering Spam in Hotmail, MSN, and Yahoo! Mail ........137 Part III: Spam-Filtering Programs and Services .................................................145 Chapter 11: A Round-Up of Desktop Antispam Programs ................147 Chapter 12: Antispam Services for Just Plain Folks ..........................173 Chapter 13: Server-Side Spam Filtering for Network Administrators ................................................................179 Part IV: The Part of Tens ................................191 Chapter 14: Ten Spam Scams ...............................................................193 Chapter 15: Ten Internet Annoyances and How to Get Rid of Them ..............................................................................199 Index.............................................................211 01 559656 FM.qxd 12/31/03 9:10 AM Page viii