How to keep your life junk free

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GMT 15:40 UK How to keep your life junk free

Be careful when you surrender personal information

By Mark Ward BBC News Online technology correspondent Junk mail gets you through your letterbox, your inbox, and increasingly through your phone. But there are some simple steps to cut it out. You, and every detail of your life, are valuable - especially to the people who sell stuff. Your name, age, occupation, salary, phone number, e-mail address, number of dependents, almost every detail that defines you, is coveted by direct marketers.

When you hand over this information, unwittingly or otherwise, the result is usually junk mail.

Top Five Tips

Guard personal information closely

Never respond to junk mail

Set up disposable e-mail addresses

Filter spam and monitor cookies

Get your name on opt-out databases But there are simple steps to limit the amount of unwanted junk you get. For it is, at best, a waste of dead trees and, at worst, something that may endanger a respondent's life.

In the past decade, first faxes and increasingly by e-mail, many have received messages asking for help to "rescue" money.

The communication usually comes from Nigeria and is called 419 fraud after the section of the Nigerian penal code dealing with such criminal schemes.

Some may think that such a blatant come-on would net few victims, but 419 fraud is a vibrant industry in many countries. The US Secret Service estimates that it "grosses hundreds of millions of dollars annually".

Some of those taken in by it have been murdered to stop them identifying the conmen.

The lesson to learn here is never to respond to the blandishments of junk mailers, even when they say a response will mean you are left alone.

Live and dangerous

This is just as true for the mail coming through the letterbox as for the e-mail in an inbox. Once the junk mailers know there is someone behind an e-mail address, fax or phone number it can become harder to avoid their attentions.

However, it is worth distinguishing here between legitimate direct mail and random spam.

Perhaps you could not decide whether to tick a box which asked you not to mark it only if you did not want to accept the chance to refuse to choose to have your details shared with other unnamed companies. (Confused? That's the marketers' intention)

In the UK the Direct Marketing Association can help limit the amount of this type of junk mail you receive.

It operates a series of lists and directories of those who do not want to receive direct mail, faxes or phone calls. Sign up for these "preference services" and the amount of legitimate junk could drop off.

Choose and control

The DMA started the It's Your Choice campaign to let people know their rights and has set up a series of websites detailing how to get on the lists and stop the spam.

If a direct marketer keeps sending junk, complain to the Information Commissioner which has imposed fines on incorrigible mailers. A spokeswoman for the DMA says that the current regime means that people must choose to opt out of receiving mail, hence the need for the directories.

New EU laws, due to come in by October 2003, will mean that you have to opt in to get junk mail.

Tactics to avoid the legitimate stuff also include ensuring your number is unlisted, or even ex-directory. That way it will not show up on the databases direct marketers buy.

Alternatively, ask to be put on a company's "don't call" list when a marketer calls.

Websites like Junkbusters offer other tips and good advice.

But, as the DMA spokeswoman says, such steps do not work with spam e-mail.

"That's completely random, normally generated overseas and there's little you can do to stop it," she says.

While it may be impossible to block all spam e-mail, net users can avoid much of it by being careful.

Junking junk

Firstly, guard personal information carefully - it is very valuable and should be treated as such. Many websites ask you to register and give them all kinds of information before giving access to their content.

Most do not need it and get nothing from it that they cannot gather through the cookies they put on your machine. Cookies are little files websites use to identify users.

Avoid sites that demand too much information. Many people who object to giving away their details complain to sites which ask for them, or even give false information.

It is worth having a few e-mail addresses for different purposes. One should be very personal for close friends, relations and trusted companies such as your bank.

The others can be used to represent you in online discussions or when asking for details from a website.

Ditch overloaded e-mails

Net service providers usually let you maintain a series of aliases, and free e-mail services abound on the web. If you have several e-mail addresses, abandon those that become spam magnets. And those who own a web domain should not put their personal e-mail address on it. It will be harvested by robots that trawl the web.

Check that you are not inadvertently leaking information by visiting the browser analysers run by privacy organisations.

And use a web browser that lets you manage the cookies placed on your machine by online advertisers.

The Opera browser and Internet Explorer 6 have good tools that enable users to keep an eye on these little text files.

But the golden rule is to guard your information and give nothing away if you can possibly help it.

-- Anonymous, August 05, 2002

Answers

[Suggestions are solicited at the site. Some answers follow.]

Most of the 450 junk e-mails I receive monthly originate in the US, Russia and China. EU rules will unfortunately have little influence on that. Respectable companies will abide by the new rules but most respectable companies had opt-in policies already anyway. Jan Weijers, Netherlands

If you need to put your e-mail address on your own website, try putting the ascii codes for the characters instead. This shows up perfectly well in the web browser and works fine in any hyperlink, but the robots that trawl sites won't be able to pick it up. Matt, UK

If you want a free, spam-free online e-mail, use a small domain - the best is nameplanet.com, which gives you a personalised domain name. Never reply to spam; and never "opt-out" as you'll be put on a new list of "confirmed active" addresses and will receive more spam, not less. Joe, Belgium

Use spamcop.net to report spam and help get it stopped at source Hil, UK

When I get junk mail through the post, I look for any pre-paid envelope that may be included. If there is one, I put all the junk mail that will fit in it and send it back. Pete, UK

-- Anonymous, August 05, 2002


I'm all for people using the prepaid envelopes to send junk mail stuff back.

We make money, have work, and the customers are happy. Well, some of them, anyway.

eventually the companies will alter their mailing habits, but for now...

Be sure to make sure that anything you send back does NOT have your name or address on it. Lot's of magazines these days are putting your name and address on all those annoying little subscription cards that fall out as you read the mags. Same is true for many of those junk mailers. Watch out.

I recall reading about one person who was mixing up the stuff, sending stuff from one mailer back to another, and so on. I thought that was funny.

Remember, make sure your name and or address are not on anything you send back.

-- Anonymous, August 05, 2002


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