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E-Mail Service Providers are Cracking Down
Three of the world’s leading e-mail providers have joined together to try and reduce the amount of spam that is being faced by their e-mail users. AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo will work together to identify ways to limit the amount of spam originating from their own e-mail services. This will include the identification of suspicious e-mail headers, better feedback options for consumers and closer cooperation with law enforcement authorities. Other groups including other e-mail service providers and anti-spam organizations will be invited to join the global initiative.
The three companies hope to prevent spammers from using e-mail headers and subject lines which hide their true identities and/or where the email has come from. Spammers do this by using “open relays”. An open relay makes it possible for mobile users to connect to corporate networks by going through a local internet server provider, which then forwards the message to their “corporate” internet service provider, which forwards it to the specified recipient. The big problem with this type of technology is that spammers are using it to hide the source of the large-volume e-mails they send, by using the e-mail address of an innocent account as the origination address. For example, have you ever received an e-mail where the sender’s address looks like your best friend’s email account, only to find that its just another spam email selling drugs, ink or any other number of “great deals”?
One reason that AOL, Microsoft (MSN) and Yahoo are working together to solve this problem is that a lot of spam comes from users of their free e-mail services. The three companies want to significantly reduce this number by making it harder for spammers to register fraudulent e-mail addresses in bulk. They also want to set up procedures that will make it easier for their legitimate customers to identify spam-generating businesses or e-mail addresses.
Yahoo, for example, has added five new services including three that are FREE to all Yahoo e-mail users. They include the scanning of every attachment arriving or leaving a user’s in-box; message views, which lets users sort e-mail sent by people listed in their address book and unknown senders; and an anti-spam resource center which is located on Yahoo’s website and gives information, tips and best practices when dealing with spam. There are two additional services available to subscribers of Yahoo Mail Plus (cost $29.99 per year):
· AddressGuard gives Yahoo Mail Plus users a disposable alias that they can use instead of their real e-mail address. E-mail sent to this alias address arrives in the “real” Yahoo account in-box. If an alias falls onto a spammer’s list, Yahoo Mail Plus users can simply ditch this disposable address.
· SpamGuardPlus lets Yahoo Mail Plus users customize the SpamGuard filter by usage and preferences.
While Yahoo is doing a good job of protecting its users from unsolicited e-mail messages, the spam problem will continue. Spammers will find new ways of delivering their messages. Solving the spam problem will require making it more difficult to spoof e-mail addresses, something being addressed in an initiative called Project Lumos. That initiative, however, is still in its early stages.
October 04, 2004 11:54:56 -0400 Copyright 1997-2004 BC Technologies- All Rights Reserved