Email Security...

Securing and locking down your email address is key in the prevention of spam.

To give your email address to a spammer, would be pure stupidity right? Guess, what. 1000s of websites (and people who use the web) do it daily without realising and the same people wonder why they get spammed. 90% of 4N'ers seem to be "at risk" shall we say.

I've seen it today, several times over on a thread where people wondered why they all got spammed.

Some of you may know, I'm in the business of email. I design it, build it, sometimes I systemise it too. I know most of what there is to know about it, as I do other parts of the web. It's been a "passion" (dare I say it) for a little longer than a long while.

What I'm wondering, is, would you pay, to:

a) learn whether you are at risk of spam?
b) find out where the open doors are?
c) receive the info that tells you "how to close the doors"?
d) shows you who is responsible for it?
e) who to approach to correct it?

Is this a cool service? Or What?

What's it worth? one-off. I'm assuming, the info is valuable, as people hate spam. An assessment would simply include someone disclosing their whereabouts online and a followup analysis, with a set of info coming back. Most would actually be geared around your website and other main places you join in with.

Please complete the poll. I'm interested what people think this is worth to them. Part of the feedback, is the stuff to go and tell your developer off about, other parts you'll have to have a strong conversation with yourself about. If you're going to "build websites on the cheap", you may as well get the best advice, right?

Look forward to any comments. we'll see.

Personally I'm not that bothered by spam

Thanks Simon, neither am I.

I was asking "what it's worth to find out" who/how/where/when to close the doors on it.
(not asking "how bothered you are" by it)

If you think (zero), just put £ 5.00, as tbh, that says it all really.

This is the thread this has spourned from:
http://www.4networking.biz/forum/5/72981.htm?Page=4

My concern is simply that the "developer community" is not informing the people buying the websites. In other words, not finishing the job properly. I suppose it's like buying protective armour and other things to help take things forward.

I come across this daily with email customers, but, never really felt there was a sensible answer to help solve the problem for them. this might be it.

On behalf of the developer community, we do inform the people buying the websites and once they are a customer it is our job to prevent this. However many websites, hosting, email are not sourced directly through website developers - so the clients are left open to this risk. And how many clients say that they don't care about spam. So I think you are right on the risk, but not right thinking that it is through the developer community.

Very interesting

Hi Doug, were those figures an annual or one off?

Michelle,

• someone builds the website.
• someone owns the website.
• someone leaves the door open.
• people leave more doors open

BTW: the code base of this webpage offers me your email address, by virtue of example, as a spammer, I've now got your personal email address..!!!
AND, coming from a systems background, I kinda understand it more than I should.

Quite clearly, even developers forget the rules of times past.

In terms of evidence, I've seen developers on here offering websites out without email locked down. There seems to be a lack of background understanding, from people who call themselves "developers", "designers". BTW: your stuff, I like it.

I was thinking this might be a good way to reset the balance by means of mini audit.

Just a one off.

Digital Stationery only deals in one-offs
(we're not a contracted services company, neither a projects company, everything runs as a jobbing shop, one job comes in, it's done, it's gone) People do re-buy.

The only people I supply contracted services to are "trade".

Most of the technical side of my business is HTML, Graphics and Browsers

Hi Doug,

You are totally right, and I completely agree with you. It often becomes a case of do as I say not as I do. Please let me know how you get on with the results of the survey and perhaps we can have a chat?

Cheers

It's public, you can see it too.

There are zero answers.

ha ha. obviously moaning does not equal willingness to act. no one has filled it in, as I expected.

I'll probably sell this to the next customer who complains about spam. Probably 1 in 5 custmers complain, so it is highly marketable for me. (I find on this forum, as soon as you start talking "products and services" people go all coy; as a lot of what I do in the spare time is market testing, it makes the forum a little cumbersome, oh well).

Anyway, I know what I'm comfy selling it in the market place for.

If you fancy a chat, call me :-)

I suspect the reason there are no responses is because there is no £0 option. You'd have at least one from me if there were.

Agreed. I also dont think it is a service people would pay for as essentially it is all information that can be found on Google. If it was a product then perhaps but then the poll is pro - payment bias.

Also to add: would this not be better suited as free advice considering your offering?

Bukk,

I give a lot of advice already to customers, like I said, I already do it. It is slightly annoying, as it can take a long time, but I look out for my customers, so that's fine. Something like this, is actually, well off topic. The problem I have, is I do not charge as I am so giving.

I'm thinking, that this extra curricular piece, I should mabe charge for.

When people phone and their request for info is massively off topic, which they do, I usually ask them to call back. It's slightly a annoying scenario, especially as not only can I identify the issues, train others to, but am at point of sale to do so.

For example, there can be anything from:

1. A series of webpages that need changing

2. A series of webpages, where the email address is unnecessarily public (or given)

3. Incorrect use of a form

4. The above might actually be mulit-plied, depending on how widespread the bad-practice is.

Plus a series of follow on things "not to do".

>> FREE? perhaps a 3 minute conversation, but not a systematic approach to closing the doors, no.

>> AND this information, is not, available on Google, as it would be specifically to do with their situation. Perhaps you can enlighten me.

I do appreciate, 4N People are not my customer group, so naturally, there is a big gap, but I thought I'd ask the question.

For what it's worth, I would welcome any initiative which attempts to educate people about the risks of being care-free about their email addresses, I would certainly welcome any initiative that make the spammer's lives more difficult.

But my opinion is probably not a common opinion, and my understanding of the risks and importance of spam prevention techniques is not a common one either. The majority feeling, and IMO the wrong majority feeling, about spam nowadays is that it is just something that you have to accept, somthing that is inevitable, and something that is dealt with via cure, i.e. spam filters, rather than prevention in the first place, i.e. minimising the chance of your email addresses getting picked up by spammers.

So whilst I personally think such a service would be a good idea, and I was impressed with you finding the email exposed under the Apply button in the other thread, I also think you would find such a service a hard sell, mainly because of the general public's preconceptions about spam.

If it helps, the ways I normally try to educate people about the the importance of not getting their email addresses on spammer's lists include saying things like:

1. Once your address is on a spam list, using a spam filter does not cure all the problems, because spammers will also use your email address as the from email address in the spam emails they send out, so it looks like you are sending spam too

2. Spam isn't just used for selling, it is also used for phishing attacks. So a spam filter might filter out most spam, but there is still a chance that spammers find some new clever way of getting a phishing email to you, and if you are not paying attention, you could end up giving away your logins to your twitter, facebook, forum, or worse still your paypal or online banking account, or your credit card details.

As for pricing, I've selected a low amount mainly because I think such a service should be an ongoing one (monthly subscription), and the service should also monitor not just the web presence of the client, but also common places where the client's customers post information on the web too (e.g. forums).

Paul,

thanks. I personally feel, that with our existing business being email and so many people coming to us with email design issues, that we can probably retail this to decision makers who need it for just under the hundred pound mark. I have to listen to people in fits sometimes about their supposed spam problem, which is often self induced.

I appreciate everything you've said. I also totally agree with it.

Many thanks