Product Description
"People are stupid", Davis Wolfgang Hawke thought as he stared at the nearly empty box of Swastika pendants on his desk. So begins Spam Kings, an investigative look into the shady world of email spammers and the people trying to stop them.

More than sixty percent of today's email traffic is spam. In 2004 alone, five trillion spam messages clogged Internet users‚ in-boxes, costing society an estimated $10 billion in filtering software and lost productivity.

This compelling exposé explores the shadowy world of the people responsible for today‚s rapidly spreading junk-email epidemic. Investigative journalist Brian S. McWilliams delivers a fascinating account of the cat-and-mouse game played by spam entrepreneurs in search of easy fortunes and those who are trying to stop them.

McWilliams chronicles the activities of several spam kings, including Davis Wolfgang Hawke, a notorious Jewish-born neo-Nazi leader who began his spamming career 1999. The book traces this twenty-year-old neophyte's rise in the trade, where he became a major player in the lucrative penis pill market--a business that would eventually make him a millionaire and the target of lawsuits from AOL and others.

Spam Kings also tells the parallel story of Susan Gunn, a computer novice in California who was reluctantly drawn into the spam wars and eventually joined a group of anti-spam activists. Her volunteer sleuthing put her on a collision course with Hawke and other spammers, who sought revenge on their pursuers. Other intriguing anti-spam cyber-vigilantes appear throughout the book, as well as a cast of quirky characters who comprise Hawke's business associates.

The book sheds light on the technical sleight-of-hand and sleazy business practices that spammers use–forged headers, open relays, harvesting tools, and bulletproof hosting. It also explores the work of top anti-spam attorneys, the surprising new partnership developing between spammers and computer hackers, the ominous rise of a new breed of computer viruses designed to turn the PCs of innocent bystanders into secret spam factories, and the troubling advent of cell phone spamming.

Brian McWilliams is a veteran investigative journalist who has covered business and technology for Web magazines including Wired News and Salon as well as the Washington Post, PC World, Computerworld, and Inc. magazine. The author of hundreds of articles about spam, Internet security, and online consumer protection, McWilliams gained international attention in 2002 when he wrote about the contents of Saddam Hussein's email inbox for Wired News. He has appeared on NBC Nightly News, Fox News, BBC Radio, NPR's "Here and Now" and PRI's "Marketplace" programs, and has been quoted by the International Herald Tribune, the Boston Globe, and the New York Times. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (23)

I went to high school with Hawke!
Quite a fun read.I've been following the downward spiral of Westwood High School's class of 1996's best known alumni since he became an internet nazi.I was a member of the class of 96 and saw Britt Greenbaum as he was then known in the library all the time.I will say, Hawke is the product of the same type of enviornment that the Columbine killers were.Outcasts do odd things.Worth a read

excellent book on spam
This book is a page turner. The book provides a fast-paced account of spammers and spam fighters, their business practices and respective struggles online and offline. I had picked up the book, simply because I was curious about the motivations of spammers and often wondered: What kind of a person is a spammer and who would respond to those emails and actually buy from them anyway? This book can be an eye-opener and I certainly learned a lot from it. Fun side note: A lot of supporting material is available online, as the spam wars are being fought mostly online.Chances are, you'll find yourself browsing news groups and forums to research and find out more about the various people being discussed in the book. The author also provides a blog where he discusses spam and other topics close to his book.

It's A Dirty World
After reading this book I felt the need to take a shower.

The world of spam isn't for those who don't want to get their hands dirty... really dirty.

A unique look at the world of spamming, Brian McWilliams outlines what the life of a spammer is like, profiling a handful of spam magnates from the early 2000s (the book focuses on the years 2000-2004 when this was published), and the individuals that work on stopping them from achieving their #1 priority, separating you from YOUR money.

When you read 'Spam Kings' you will discover the lifestyle of a spammer and how/why so many e-mails get into your inbox every day promoting anything from viagra to pirated software and anything else inbetween.You will learn about why when you click the 'From' part of an e-mail you are not able to always determine where this message originated from, and how so many messages (hint: we're talking more than just millions) get delivered in such a little amount of time.

Before reading this book I had a general idea of the type of person that would send spam - what they might look like, how they act, the software used to push so many messages out, but what I was ignorant of was the type and amount of people out there fighting the flow of spam from getting into users email accounts.As much as there is a sect of individuals trying to get spam moved to your inbox, there is another group trying to get this email to never grace your eyes.Anti-spammers (as they are called) frequent discussion groups, contact spammers on their own, and manage lists that are used to make sure that ISPs don't allow spammers to even reach you as hard as they might try.

Brian McWilliams covers a lot of ground in this book, and it's a fascinating look at the underground world of spam.Whether you are a major or minor part of the computer world, this analysis is well worth a look to discover more about why there are so many spammers out there in cyberspace and why many of them are filthy rich.

The only complaint I might have with this book is it seems a bit too long (even at 333 pages) and the author bounces all over the place when he discusses different spammers throughout the book.I understand that he is trying to give many examples and track spammers movements all along the same timelines throughout the book, but it seemed a little too jumpy at times.Not enough so that a reader couldn't follow what was going on, but if a case study approach (chapter by chapter analysis of different spammers) was used instead, this might have been the better approach.

Still, an enlightening read and well worth the time to pick up.

**** RECOMMENDED

too long, not enough technical detail
Maybe I am being unkind with 3 stars. The prose style is good. The author has done plenty of research into the background of the spammers and anti-spammers and the book is an intereesting read.
At 300 pages (excluding intro, glossary, notes, index) it is too long. It could usefully have been trimmed to 200 pages.
Anyone wanting nitty-gritty technical detail is out of luck. There is almost none. [I suspect Inside the Spam Cartel is better from that point of view, but I have only glanced at it so far.]
The book is also unbalanced. Yes, spammers are awful. They make email hard to use (one of my email addresses is widely publicised and as a result I get over 100 spam/day, sometimes rising to two or three times that). They have almost wrecked a direct marketing tool that could have benefited consumers and producers alike. But civilised societies do not support lynch mobs etc, and if you read the book carefully, the anti-spammers often seem to break as many laws as the spammers (in a good cause, of course). I was reminded sometimes of the animal rights protesters in the UK (except that the anti-spammers have not physically attacked people or property).
Part of the problem is that the lawmakers seem to be technically inept - CAN-SPAM is not an inspiring achievement.

Left Me Feeling Covered In Ick
This is the story of spammers, and those who despise them, the anti-spammers. Basically the spammers do as they please (spam, do Joe-jobs, etc.)and enjoy their money and their power to annoy and frustrate, while the anti-spammers spend hours on-line in efforts to out the identity of the spammers.All this is good of the anti-spammers, of course if the government would get it together we wouldn't have to worry about this problem...or if people weren't so stupid as to order the stuff spammers offer.

Unfortunately, I could not muster any interest in either the spammers or anti-spammers.The spammers were, as the author stated, "arrogant" and "psychopaths," and the anti-spammers seemed quite pitiful - all wrapped up in their very time-consuming on-line battles with the disgusting spammers.

This book left me feeling as though I had eavesdropped for months on people I couldn't care less about. And although the author describes in detail the various activities that spammers engage in, it offers no help to the decent among us who would like to protect themselves from their cruel onslaught. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (16)

A bit vague
The title is a bit deceiving. Picked up one or two tips, that's all.
A quick & great introduction into the world of email marketing for the beginner.

Great book for complex sales cycle
Good insights into email marketing without getting bogged down in the weeds.

I highly recommend this book.

Powerful, relevant, to the point - exactly what I needed
A practical, actionable book without all the blather and theory.Easy to use, and to use immediately.

Excellent book- easy to understand
Loved the book! Thanks for breaking "Email Marketing" down to a language us non-techies can understand. Great information.

Churchill makes the complex simple
Not all email is the same. Books like "Email Marketing for Dummies" or "The Complete Guide to Email Marketing" were good, but none really addressed the challenges of complex sale cycles. Churchill does and he does it with great depth of understanding. He's wise enough to know that there's no one right answer for everyone, but that the mistakes can drown you if you don't know how to avoid them. Churchill is very readable and easy to understand. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a book about spam -- unwanted email messages and inappropriatenews articles -- and what you can do to prevent it, stop it, andeven outlaw it. It's a book for people who have seen their mailboxesfill up with useless messages and unsolicited advertisements, andwho are tired of footing the bill for them in their Internet service charges. It covers:

• What spam is: why it's a problem, who the spammers are, types ofspam (e.g., spam that sells, spam that contains political messages,spam that hurts reputations), its history, and its impact on the Internet
• Internet messaging: a brief look at the technical underpinnings ofInternet messaging to explain how email, news, and spam work
• User's guides to email and news spam: how to protect your emailaddress, filter email and news articles, and respond to spam
• Administrator's guide: how to trace spam, make site policy choices, block incoming and outgoing spam, and select the right technical tools
• Community responses: simply delete spam, complain to spammers and/ortheir service providers, share information, trap spammers, litigate,campaign for legislative solutions, use the media
• Other resources: offline and online documents, tools, mailing lists,and more

Schwartz and Garfinkel demonstrate technical,political, and social approaches to keeping spam out of your mailboxand off your system. They discuss the many ways spammers falsify theirmail, using fraudulent techniques to disguise where they comefrom. The authors show you how to avoid being fooled and what you cando to help catch abusers and make them responsible for theirmisbehavior. --Elizabeth Lewis ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

Supports our Patent Pending on blacklist against body links
The book was written in 1998. Parts of it are heavily outdated. Especially one new antispam method that arose in 2003/4. If you have a blacklist of spammer domains, and you are a sysadmin, then you can do this against incoming or outgoing email - Find the links in the email body. If there are links, then find the domains in these, and compare with the blacklist. If any are in the blacklist, then you can classify the message as spam. (And perhaps delete it.)

Sounds obvious? Only in retrospect. In 1998, spam was already enough of a problem that this book was written. Has many ways to fight it. Including using a blacklist against the relays in the header. Yet nowhere in the book is the next crucial step. Applying it against body links.

But starting in mid/late 2003, almost all the major ISPs and message providers (like AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail), started doing the latter. It has proved one of the simplest and most effective antispam methods. The entire antispam field converted to this by 2004.

Technically, the method could have been done in 1998 or earlier. No obstacle to it. The book is key proof that the method was not obvious beforehand. A necessary criterion for patentability.

I rarely rate a book with 5. Here I do. Because we can cite this in support of our US Patent Pending, "System and Method for the Classification of Electronic Communications". Filed in March 2003. One portion of it described this method.

I thank the authors of the book. :)

A dated book.
It is an old book so some of the info is rather dated.

However, it is good for a historical perspective and it gives an ok overview of the whole concept.

It will not give you answers to what you need to do as much of the spamming techniques have changed since it's publishing.

For example HTML based spam, spam fighing software, and Baysean formula came after this.

It was a book for its time but it has passed.

No userful information
Yes, ORDB does recommend this book for server administrators with open relay.However, this server administrator found no information in the book that would be helpful in closing an open relay.Complete waste of money and time.

details the broad issues - not specifics
Heavy on pressenting and summarizing issues without many praticalities.It should be titled - Techniques to use in reducing Spam.I would have liked to be presented with the techniques that summarize how Spam companies think as I get most, if not all, of my Spam through one or more junk email companies.

Awesome book with real solutions
Don't let the publication date scare you off. This book is timeless in its applicability. It covers all types of spam very nicely, and is acutely aware of the potential speech-related issues content-based filtering can bring about.

This book offers many options for combatting spam on the user and system levels, and makes sure to present the best way to stop spam: by teaching responsible system administration and shutting down open mail relays and public NNTP servers that allow posting.

I have had to admin mail and news servers for clients in the past, and I personally receive about 30 pieces of unwanted email daily. I've been particularly interested in the Procmail-based "friendly sender database", and the book presents the solution in a clear, concise fashion.

If you're tired of receiving more spam than real email, or having to really look hard for high quality, on topic postings in your newsgroups, then I strongly recommend this book. ... Read more

Product Description
E-mail offers a broader reach, higher measurability, quicker delivery, and easier consumer feedback for a lower cost than any other marketing medium. This detailed reference provides advice on how to expand and improve marketing opportunities, communications, and online relationships with this valuable tool. Marketers are guided through a step-by-step process of creating and implementing an e-mail marketing plan for their specific needs. This updated edition includes the latest information on e-mail newsletters, online networking, signature files, and e-mail promotions. Small businesses will appreciate information on how to level the playing field with larger competitors by leveraging unique opportunities available through e-mail. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Best Book On E-mail Marketing Around
Working in advertising, I've read more books on e-mail marketing than I care to count. Most, I've found, repeat themselves. Not this one. Ms. Kinnard is an eloquent writer, making it simple for anyone new to e-mail marketing to execute the book's many ideas on the best uses of the medium. In fact, I'm recommending it to all users of our e-mail service. If you have a small business and want to start e-mail marketing, buy this book. You won't need another. ... Read more

Product Description
It seems like everywhere you go on the Internet, there is spam, spyware, and the risk of viruses infecting your computer and ruining your online experience. In businesses alone, according to Nucleus Research Inc. spam costs more than $712 per employee each year in productivity and computing resources. Spyware slows computers, ruins files, and can result in stolen information. According to the same Nucleus Research report, the estimation on money lost by businesses due to computer viruses ranges between $100 million and $2 billion annually depending on how the total is calculated, and the cost continues to rise as every major company moves to fully digital workplaces. What this means for everyday users like you and the business you work for is that every time you download a computer virus or click on a spam e-mail on accident, you are wasting money, endangering your computer, and risking the loss of information. This complete, revolutionary book has compiled all of the vital information you need to make sure that you are able to combat the billion dollar risk of incursive software infecting your home and work computers. You will learn why there is so much spam in your inbox, how the spammer thinks and what the goals of spyware and viruses actually are. You will then learn how you can start spam proofing your inbox by never giving away personal information and using secure e-mail clients. You will learn how companies get spyware onto your hard drive and what you can do to block it from appearing. Learn which viruses have caused the most damage and how they infect your computer and which software is most effective in blocking the download and infestation of them onto your hard drives. You will learn the value of a good firewall, what it does to stop the ill will of spammers and hackers and what actions you can take to block the breach of your firewall and your computer s defenses. Learn how to remove spyware from your computer and make sure you are not giving away personal or valuable work information and then learn how to lock down your inbox and desktop to keep that software from returning. Learn what to do when you do get a virus and how to return your computer to the state of security it was in beforehand. Most importantly, with the valued input gathered from countless interviews with computer security and safety experts, you will learn how you became such a large target for all that spam. Learn what is it that you are doing that makes it so easy for spammers to fill your inbox. Once you have tackled the source of the problems, as outlined in this book, you will never again need to worry about the incursive, destructive effects of spam, spyware, and computer viruses. ... Read more

Product Description
Written for network and system administrators, this concise, practical
guide offers step-by-step instructions for installing and configuring an
effective email system for your organization. The specific book focus is
on the growing problem of spam--unwanted electronic junk mail. This
book shows how to utilize mail-filtering tools and techniques to keep your
system and users as spam-free as possible.

Centered around real-world problems and issues, Removing the Spam
will save you hours of frustration as you get your email system up and
running. You will find in-depth coverage of major email systems and
subsystems--sendmail, Procmail, Majordomo, and SmartList--and
essential information about the following:

How to stop spam at the mail server and user levels
The most simple and effective way of generating the sendmail configuration file
Maintaining your sendmail configuration
Building and managing simple sendmail aliases and filters
Virtual domains
Filtering and sorting mail with Procmail
Procmail recipe files
Creating and administrating automated and manual mailing lists with Majordomo and SmartList
How to spot and combat mailing list abuse by spammers and list terrorists

The book's numerous practical examples (compatible with Solaris and
FreeBSD) include controlling the procmailrc file, sorting mail, working
with auto-responders, and many others.

With this book you will be well equipped to install and run an efficient
email system that won't be overrun by spam.Amazon.com Review
No one likes unsolicited electronic mail. Even though you caneasily delete messages describing ways to MAKE MONEY FAST, theytake a toll on network bandwidth and reduce your productivity. The keyto gaining the upper hand in the battle against spam is to understandthe tools at your disposal. In Removing the Spam, GeoffMulligan names those tools and then describes how to use several ofthem.

Mulligan begins explaining the operation and management oftwo widely distributed Unix e-mail tools: Sendmail and Procmail. Inhis section on Sendmail, the author answers the question asked byeveryone who's ever been harassed on e-mail: How do I automaticallytrash mail from X? He shows you how to block mail based on mailattributes like sender, subject line, message size and several otherparameters.

Coverage of Procmail in Removing the Spamincludes the essentials of recipe files, but more ready-to-usemail-management recipes would be welcome. In addition to coveringSendmail and Procmail, the author addresses mailing lists underMajordomo and SmartList. He also provides a handy guide to the userand administrator commands that control these popular programs--justthe thing you need the next time you're on a list and want tounsubscribe.

If you're generally unfamiliar with Unix and use aUnix-based Internet Service Provider (ISP), you will find this book tobe an adequate orientation to how Unix machines manage e-mail. Ifyou're more familiar with Unix mail programs, you'll find this book tobe too elementary and lacking in details. It's a matter of yourperspective. --David Wall ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Not the generic book its title claims
Here is a book worthy of the saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover."In this case, you may judge this book to address the general topic of email spam, processing and filtering.Not so.This books focuseson the unix tools, sendmail and procmail.If you are looking for a book toguide you through the process of installing and configuring sendmail andprocmail, this may be the book you're looking for.I couldn't tell youbecause I quit reading at that point.But, if you are looking for ageneral source on email spam and techniques for reducing or eliminating it,look elsewhere. A better title for this book would have been,"Sendmail and Procmail: Installation and Configuration."

well written
This book is easy to understand by the new listserver admin. It provides information sources throughout that are very useful.I am not familiar with the unix type platforms, and yet this book helped me wade through the plethora of pitfalls and find the answers. A real headache saver

Useful, but flawed by errors
I bought this book for the procmail chapter (Chapter 3) but the other chapters, on sendmail and mailing lists, are also very useful.There is also an enlightening chapter on the history of email.The bulk of the bookis a collection clear recipes along with explanatory text, in a practicalhow-to-get-tasks-done approach.In contrast to other encyclopedic books(in the case of sendmail) or disorganized masses of inconsistent webinformation (in the case of mailing lists), this book cuts to the chase andgives the key information you need.

Unfortunately, however, in thechapter I needed most (and the chapter I have scrutinized most), I foundthere are serious flaws.For example, the first two procmail recipes givenunder 3.5.2 on page 102 resulted in several days worth of my email gettingdeleted; they simply do not work as described on my system; when I removedthese two recipes my email again worked fine.

If you are going to buythis book, wait for the author to put up an errata page, and then be sureto check that page before relying on the recipes in the book.In themeantime I still think the book has its merits since it explains thingsclearly.

Great for EMAIL administrators
I really liked this book.It is well organized and easy to use.There isn't a lot of hype about SPAM, just the essentials and exactly what you can do about it! If you have to deal with EMAIL get this book.

A must have book!!!!
This is an excellent reference book for system administrators.I was able to set up a mailing list using the cook book instructions in a matter of minutes.I was also able to install my initial SPAM filtering using theinstructions in the procmail chapter and had it up and running with littleeffor.Geoff is to be commended for writing a book the makes these thingssimple to do!!! ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Community College Week, published by Cox, Matthews & Associates on June 10, 2002. The length of the article is 753 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Bulk e-mail doesn't have to be spam. (A Tech Perspective).(Brief Article)
Author: Reid Goldsborough
Publication: Community College Week (Newspaper)
Date: June 10, 2002
Publisher: Cox, Matthews & Associates
Volume: 14Issue: 22Page: 15(2)

Article Type: Brief Article

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
From the man behind TheSpamLetters.com – featured in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, and Slashdot – comes a collection of brilliant and entertaining correspondence with the people who send out mass junk emailings (a.k.a. spam). Compiled from the nearly 200 entries written by Jonathan Land, The Spam Letters taunts, prods, and parodies the faceless salespeople in your inbox, giving you a chuckle at their expense. If you hate spam, you'll love The Spam Letters. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Funny funny funny
Ah, sweet revenge.His letters made me laugh so hard and I can't help but wonder what the person on the other end was thinking when they read them (if they did).Hilarious, a must read.

Fun reading, some much better than others
The curse of the electronic age, SPAM eventually forces its way into the life of anyone with an email address.While there are many books and articles about how to reduce this problem, Jonathan Lund has taken his own personal war back to the spammers.Instead of just deleting the emails he responds to them.Of course he doesn't respond quite the way the spammers expect.His responses are an attempt at humor and wit that often falls short of the mark, but then again at times is absolutely hysterical.

Particularly funny is his correspondence with people who are naive enough to accept his satirical comments at face value.His correspondence with textile manufacturers and the infamous Nigerian money launderer is brilliant.

With writing that covers the whole range from a poor attempt at humor to laugh-out-loud funny, to bizarre, the reader is sure to find several emails entertaining no matter what your preference in humor.The Spam Letters is a recommended read.

Experience a vicarious victory!
Have you ever wanted to "strike back" at the spammers and the con artists?If so, you'll enjoy The Spam Letters by Jonathan Land (No Starch Press).This is a funny read...

Chapter list: Introduction; Products for Prey: Part 1; Foreign Affairs: Part 1; Spam Potpourri: Part 1; A Quick Buck; Interlude: Bad Impressions; Products for Prey: Part 2; Foreign Affairs: Part 2: Nigerian Scam Artists; Sex Sells; Spam Potpourri: Part 2; Warning/Disclaimer: Do Not Try This At Home

This isn't a book that is going to give you any technical insights or strategies for dealing with spam.Actually, it *will* give you a strategy...yank their chains...HARD!.Land has taken various spam emails he's received (or that have been forwarded to him by co-conspirators) and let his warped creative writing skills loose.Some of his efforts were more for his own benefit, as it was obvious that the return address was not going anywhere that was real.But his real classics were with real emails who decided to scam or spam the wrong person.His exchange with the fabric wholesaler in the middle east is funny.The series with the stainless steel broker is just plausible enough to be real (and the broker played along well).The best efforts were reserved for the Nigerian scam artists.His scenarios of playing off scammers against each other, asking for bigger cuts, and playing the role of both financial advisor and committed asylum patient gives any reader who has received one of these emails a vicarious thrill.

This is an excellent recreational read, but I probably shouldn't have opened it.I'm just warped enough to think I could do this too...:-)

This should be required reading.
This is one of those books that everyone should read - so that we can all vicariously through Jon Land's dive into the land of spammers... and in agreement with others - catching him on NPR is more than a treat - its an addiction waiting to happen (think chocolate).
For the geek and for the not-so-geekish, this book serves as a living history of the frustrations we all have felt when dealing with SPAM. Mr. Land just found a great way give some of that frustration back to the SPAMMERS - and to give us geeks something to chuckle about when reading about V|AGRA or the fortunes that await us in Nigeria... and we can take comfort in knowing that we're not alone in out frustrations.
Thank you, Jon!

Perfect gift for the serious computer geek
Author Jonathan Land actually has running dialogs with spam writers, published in such prestigious places as New York Times and Entertainment Weekly, so it's not surprising The Spam Letters provides such a delightful package bringing all the dialogs to one place, under one cover. Land's favorite exchanges with spammers are a laugh a moment- and all too real - making The Spam Letters that perfect gift for the serious computer geek who 'has everything' but too much humor.
... Read more

Product Description
In Degunking Your Email, Spam, and Viruses, Jeff Duntemann, co-author of the best-selling book Degunking Windows, shows you how to keep annoying e-mail clutter at bay, how to quickly organize your e-mail so you can find what you need, how to eradicate and prevent spam and pop-ups, how to protect yourself from Internet scams, hackers, and dangerous viruses, and much more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Internet Gunk 101 and then some
This is the third book on email, spam and viruses and such that I've read in the last couple of weeks, and it is the best.One of the other two, Black Hat: Misfits, Criminals, and Spammers in the Internet Age (2004) by John Biggs, covers much of the same material as covered here but not in as much depth, while the other, Spam Kings (2005) by Brian McWilliams, is more a narrative about the personalities in the spam world than a how-to.(Nonetheless both books are good.)

Duntemann's book has a kind of "Dummies..." or "Idiots..." feel to it with lots of sidebars and photos of computer screens and tips and hints and numbered lists, and even some "Gunkbuster's Notebook" pages; but Duntemann's treatment is more comprehensive than usually found in an introductory book.He goes into considerable detail not only on how to "degunk" your email, but explains how email filters work and how spam, viruses and worms propagate, and what you can do about them.He also looks at various scams and the scary subject of identity theft and advises on how to not fall victim.This book will work for beginners and the experienced alike.

It will be noted that Duntemann doesn't directly address the problems that plague users of the big Internet Service Providers like Yahoo! and AOL, mainly because some of the very measures he recommends are currently being used by the big providers.One of my email addresses is at Yahoo! (Duntemann recommends that you have at least two email addresses) and it gets a lot of spam.But I don't see any of it because Yahoo! has a spam filter that puts it in my bulk folder which I almost never open.I didn't think much of this until I learned how email filters work.I used to think that somehow the ISP identified spam by the number of identical emails sent to its customers (and they may do that); but after reading Duntemann's explanation I now realize that filters usually work on key words and other bits of evidence in the actual email.Certain words like "free" and "mortgage" and especially "unsubscribe" (a near-certain indicator of spam since spammers hope you'll click on that to prove that your email address is a live one) trigger the filters.Another technique, Duntemann explains is so-called Bayesian filtering which uses a "statistical analysis of message length and the distribution of words present in a message" to arrive at a probability of the message being spam.

But this made me wonder if--and Duntemann warns about this possibility--if some legitimate emails were being caught as spam.So I checked my Yahoo! bulk filter and didn't find any.My guess is that the latest filtering tools used by the big ISPs like Yahoo! and AOL are even more sophisticated than those that Duntemann describes in this book.

Duntemann also warns against spam control methods that don't work.Surprisingly, one of these, in his opinion, is making spam illegal.I've always liked that idea, but after reading Duntemann's argument, I'm convinced that it doesn't work, can't be enforced, and only the good guys would comply with such a law.Duntemann points out that the "much ballyhooed [but gutted] CAN-SPAM Act," passed by Congress that went into effect January 1, 2004, "had no effect that can be measured."

There is also a chapter on how to "Avoid Becoming a Spam Magnet!"Naturally the first rule (and this should be the Golden Rule of the Internet) is "Don't patronize spammers."But also don't respond to "surveys" or "dating service" spams "which," as Duntemann explains, "only exist to verify your email address and will lead to even more spam."And whatever you do, DON'T EVER "unsubscribe" to a spammer's mailing list.Spammers love it when you do because that makes your email address valuable to them, either for their own spamming or to sell to other spammers.(Yes, I repeated that.Actually I should also repeat "Don't patronize spammers!" with an exclamation mark.After all, junior's not going to get any bigger no matter what pills you take, and there's no such thing as a reliable "Spanish fly," etc., etc.)

Throughout the book Duntemann gives email addresses and the names of software that can help you in your fight against spam, worms, viruses, and scams.He recommends using "disposable email addresses when dealing with all but the biggest and most reputable online commerce sites."

By the way, I always thought that the reason Microsoft's Outlook Express, its Internet Explorer, and in general Microsoft products were more subject to hacking than other software was that Microsoft's code wasn't as good as say Linux's or that of some other email providers.But if I am reading Duntemann correctly, the real reason is that Microsoft is the biggest target.Why write a virus that can only affect a fraction of the computers on the Net when you can write one that will attack the near-monopoly?

Bottom line: Internet Gunk 101 in a book.Definitely worth the plastic.

degunk your junk
Duntemann is a co-founder of Paraglyph Press, the publisher of this how-to computer book. His previous publications include Degunking Windows (Paraglyph) and Assembly Language Step-by-Step (Wiley), and he has been writing technical books for the geeks and the plebes for many years. I was immediately drawn to the accessible, common language used in the book. Although, I did find it difficult that he tends to use some non-standard terms several times before actually defining them (ie mailbase).

The first six chapters of the book focus on organizational strategies and software to help manage the flow of email to and from the user. Dunteman describes four profiles of an email user: Public Professional, Private Professional, Student Enthusiast, and Casual Communicator. Most of his recommendations for software and organization focused more on the Private Professional or home user, although the organizational tips could be applied to all four profiles.

The next four chapters examine spam prevention and elimination. He discusses ways to avoid becoming a spam magnet in the first place (guard your email address) and options for blocking incoming spam (filters) and some spam control methods that aren't effective. He is critical of services like SpamCop that offer blackhole filtering because they tend to create more false positives in the attempt to eliminate spam. I have used SpamCop's web mail service for three years, and only occasionally has this been a problem for me. Compared to the amount of spam I was getting from "free" web mail services, I consider it worth the $30 a year. However, I use it only for my personal email, and in that arena, I lean towards the Student Enthusiast profile. A Public or Private Professional might not be as tolerant to false positives from their spam filters.

The rest of the book defines viruses, Trojan horses, and worms, and how to prevent getting them, as well as what to do if your computer becomes infected. This section is geared more towards home users and small businesses, since most large companies have firewalls and antivirus measures in place. The chapter on worms made me wish that I had read this book before I turned on my new laptop last spring. My previous computer was a Pentium II Linux machine connecting to the web via dialup. As far as I know, it was never infected. Within hours of dialing up on this Athlon XP-M machine, my computer had four or five worms crawling around inside. I quickly obtained an antivirus utility and set up the Windows XP firewall. Duntemann recommends using a two-way firewall, rather than relying on the Windows firewall, which I intend to do as soon as possible.

The last section of the book includes a chapter on spyware and adware, generally referred to as malware. Duntemann recommends two common software programs that scan your computer for malware and eliminates it. He also lays out web surfing strategies that will help prevent malware from being installed on your computer. I took great pleasure in reading the many recommendations to switch from using Internet Explorer to some other browser scattered throughout the book. Duntemann gives more coverage of Mozilla Firefox than other browsers, which is likely to be helpful in increasing the visibility of that robust little open source browser since this book is directed towards the less-than-savvy Internet user.

This book is not for advanced email users and web surfers, and it makes no pretension of being so. However, I was able to glean a few tips and tricks from it, so it may be worthwhile for the geeks to give it a once-over. New email users and those overwhelmed by the size of their inboxes will find this to be a great tool for maximizing the email experience.

Clean it up and keep it tidy
If you have used email for more than a couple of months you realize the problem of spam, viruses, adware, and other aggravations.Resolving that problem, at least to the extent possible given your user environment is the purpose of this book.The approach is simple - create a gunk-free email strategy, degunk your email, degunk your spam, degunk viruses, worms, and spyware, and then keep it from happening again.

While not a technical treatise for the power user this is an excellent resource for the average Internet user who wants to know what is happening with their email, slow system performance, and other annoyances.This book explains in simple layman's terms what is happening, how to clean it up, and how to greatly reduce the rate at which it happens again.Degunking Your Email, Spam, and Viruses is highly recommended for the every-day user who wants to regain control of their in-box.

Excellent coverage of a timely topic
Spam and computer viruses are taking some of the pleasure and productivity out of using computers. Not many people have e-mail accounts that are free of spam. Every moment you are connected to the Internet, you run the risk of being infected with spyware or adware. Everyone who is sent files by e-mail is at risk for getting a computer virus.

"Debunking Your Email, Spam, and Viruses" is a very friendly book with all kinds of strategies for keeping your computer from getting infected. I bought this book chiefly because I was curious how I could keep spam from flooding my e-mail account, but only half of this book's 16 chapters are devoted to spam. You will also get information about viruses, adware and spyware, and firewalls. There is also an amusing chapter about Internet scams -- "phishing" is the term -- and how to avoid them.

This is not your run-of-the-mill computer book. It is extremely well written and well organized. The writing is clear, friendly, and humorous at times. I wish more computer book publishers would take a cue from the Paraglyph Press, publishers of the book. The design is professional and a far cry from the slammed-together books you usually get in the computer field.

My only quarrel with this book is the author's enthusiasm for Bayesian spam filtering. The author devotes a chapter to Bayesian filtering, which I think is not near as effective has he thinks it is. Other than that, "Debunking Your Email, Spam, and Viruses" sets a standard for computer books that I hope more computer books meet in the future.

Great resource focuses the most on email
Before reaching the title page inside the book, the first few pages quickly cover the 12-step degunking program with a list followed by 15-minute, 30-minute, one-hour, and three-hour to half-day steps for degunking email and viruses with time limitations. This section finishes off with top 20 tasks for clearing the email cobwebs. Excellent start.

If you're overwhelmed at the thought of following a 12-step program and spending more than a day going through each step, the time limitations section should ease your mind. It's a good way to begin, baby steps. Don't stop there, however. Make it part of a long-term program and pick up some of the habits it covers.

I already use many of the tips, but that's no surprise as obsessed with organization as I am. Though I have implemented many of the suggestions, the book provides value because it offers a process for cleaning up as well as tips I hadn't considered. It took me years to come up with many of the tips covered. So don't wait years to figure it out yourself when you can get it right now with one resource, this book.

Sure, it covers the usual, "have a firewall running" and "ensure your anti-virus program is running and up to date." However, you'd be surprised how many people don't have either in place. This book would be incomplete without these recommendations.

Though a majority use Outlook or Outlook Express for managing email, Duntemann discusses other clients including The Bat!, Thunderbird, Pegasus, and Eudora. Like many things in life, everyone has different needs when it comes to email. The author discusses four email profiles and mentions them throughout the book so whichever you are, follow the advice for that profile.

Like the other books in Paraglyph's Degunking series, this one is easy to read and addresses the advantages and disadvantages of various tools. Anyone who gets the book and follows its steps will experience a leaner, cleaner email box and possibly a faster-running computer. Most users of all levels should benefit from this book. The only group that might not invest in it are those who know everything inside out about spam, viruses, malware, and adware and how to deal with them. ... Read more

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Email Spam Filtering: A Systematic Review surveys current and proposed spam filtering techniques with particular emphasis on how well they work. The primary focus is on spam filtering in email, while similarities and differences with spam filtering in other communication and storage media - such as instant messaging and the Web - are addressed peripherally.Email Spam Filtering: A Systematic Review examines the definition of spam, the user's information requirements and the role of the spam filter as one component of a large and complex information universe. Well known methods are detailed sufficiently to make the exposition self-contained; however, the focus is on considerations unique to spam. Comparisons, wherever possible, use common evaluation measures and control for differences in experimental setup. Such comparisons are not easy, as benchmarks, measures and methods for evaluating spam filters are still evolving. The author surveys these efforts, their results and their limitations. In spite of recent advances in evaluation methodology, many uncertainties (including widely held but unsubstantiated beliefs) remain as to the effectiveness of spam filtering techniques and as to the validity of spam filter evaluation methods. Email Spam Filtering: A Systematic Review outlines several uncertainties and proposes experimental methods to address them.Email Spam Filtering: A Systematic Review is a highly recommended read for anyone conducting research in the area or charged with controlling spam in a corporate environment. ... Read more

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Title: Runaway e-mail: external spam-blockers are often too cumbersome and time consuming.(Column)
Author: Sam Stearman
Publication: The National Public Accountant (Magazine/Journal)
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From the author: The First Conference on E-mail and Anti-Spam was held from July 30 to July 31, 2004 in Mountain View, California. The conference, attended by 180 researchers, featured 29 papers that covered a number of topics, including e-mail in general, nonstatistical techniques for stopping spare, machine learning techniques, issues of identity in e-mail, as well as law and policy. The 200S conference will be held at Stanford University from July 21 to 22.

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Title: The First Conference on E-mail and Anti-Spam.(Reports)
Author: David Heckerman
Publication: AI Magazine (Refereed)
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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! X-ASVP is a proposed anti-spam protocol that includes an algorithm to derive a set of URL's from an e-mail address. The X-ASVP algorithm produces three URL's, the first URL points to a document on a webserver with hostname "x-asvp" in the same domain as the e-mail address. The second URL is on the host "www.x-asvp" in the same top level domain as the e-mail address, and the third is on the "www.x-asvp.info" webserver run by the X-ASVP controlling committee. The owner of an e-mail address, or the domain ISP, can post what is known as a meta-document at any of the derived URL's. The meta-document can contain any number of entities defined by the protocol, or by extensions to the protocol. ... Read more

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Title: Spamfire for Windows announced; virtually eliminates email spam from inboxes.(from Matterform Media)(Brief Article)
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Title: CAN SPAM: techniques to filter out unwanted e-mail.(Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003)
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Title: Faxes and e-mail: don't forget the opt outs!(CAN-SPAM Act of 2003)
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Title: Smothered by spam: more than half of all e-mail messages are now 'junk.' Recently passed legislation should bring some relief. Until then, you can take steps to keep spam from clogging your computer system and bogging down your practice.
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Title: Choking on spam: hazardous and offensive e-mail threatens every district. (the online edge).
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