Client Protection Techniques

If you don't run an Exchange server, you can use several methods tofilter out unsolicited commercial email (UCE) at your mail client. Since Istarted filtering my email, I have received significantly less junk mail. Everyemail program handles filtering differently, but the following suggestions willget you started.

Many programs that junk emailers use for UCE place a bogus timestamp, suchas -0700 (EDT) or -0600 (EST), in the Received header of the message.These time zones don't exist, so you can safely filter messages that list thisinformation in the headers.

One UCE program puts the domain name ybecker.net or ybeckers.net in theReceived header of messages it sends. No one owned the ybecker.netdomain until recently, when the Forum for Responsible and Ethical Email (FREE)purchased it. FREE uses the domain only to educate Internet users about junkemail, so you can safely filter messages that contain this domain name in theheaders. You will also discover other common junk emailer domains to filter.

Junk emailers want you to think they're your friend, so they often addressmessages to [email protected]. The owners of public.com had to quit using thedomain because of complaints. Thus, you can safely filter messages [email protected] in the header. You might want to filter all messages [email protected], and messages addressed to friend@.

To aggressively filter junk email, you can filter messages that aren'tspecifically addressed to you. Most junk emailers load hundreds of emailaddresses in the Bcc line of a message, so you can eliminate a lot ofUCE if you filter messages that don't have your address in the To orCc headers. You'll want to use this option carefully, because it alsofilters mailing lists, newsletters, and legitimate Bcc email.