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they store it for use in bulk mailing. The best defense against spammer
news-bots is to simply provide human-recognizable alterations to the address
that make it more difficult for the news-bot to recognize any e-mail address
pattern.
Listserv harvesting
Spammers develop programs that subscribe to list servers as any other user can,
but they never send to the subscribed list. Instead they capture other list
subscriber's e-mail addresses over time. The best defense against Listserv
harvesting is to simply provide human-recognizable alterations to the sending
and reply address to make them more difficult for an automated list-bot to
recognize any e-mail address pattern.
2.1.2 Avoiding harvesting
Advise your users to avoid having their e-mail addresses harvested by employing
the following techniques:
Have a personal or "junk" account from a free provider that is used specifically
for newsgroup or commercial Web site interaction.
Do not post their address on newsgroups or public Web discussions.
Avoid publishing their e-mail address in public "people finder" directories or
Instant Messaging directories.
Avoid using standard e-mail addresses for domain name registration
contacts; instead, create accounts specifically to manage registration contact.
Have users avoid using "e-invite" or "postcard" services with their
organizational e-mail address: these services often sell or solicit to the e-mail
addresses that they gather.
Make sure that users know to read the privacy statements on Web sites that
they provide information to.
Your public Internet site is also a target for address harvesting; here are some
tips to make your Web site difficult for spammers to target:
Do not create public directories available on the Internet without some form of
protection from harvesters. Consider making this area a "sign in" area
requiring some form of authorization, or confusing harvesters (as described in
the next section).
Be selective about which addresses are provided as contact points for the
organization and try not to make them easy picking for spammers.
Have public feedback mail delivered to a "mail in" mailbox so that spam
doesn't clutter up a user's mailbox.
Chapter 2. Preventing unwanted e-mail and spam
9
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