*Do you spend 12 minutes or more a day eliminating spam?
*Assume you only make five dollars per hour. 12 minutes a day would cost you five dollars a week.
*Would you spend $3.33 a month to eliminate all spam and avoid the frustration and hassle?
*With Spam Arrest you will eliminate all spam from up to five e-mail accounts with no work on your part.

http://www.spamarrest.com/affl?4024146/

SPAM ARREST 30 DAY FREE TRIAL
(cut and paste the above link.)
DETAILS:
The Spam Arrest 30 day free trial gives you a chance to try out our service before purchasing a subscription.
There is no obligation, and you may cancel at any time.
6 month subscription for 5 E-Mail accounts is only $19.95.

If you have not subscribed to Spam Arrest by the end of the trial, your account will automatically be converted to a month-to-month subscription, and your credit card will be billed at the standard rate of $5.95 per month.
(6 months saves you $15.75 or 44.16.%.

If you wish to cancel your account before the end of the trial period, you may do so by visiting http://www.spamarrest.com/members/cancel.jsp
That's it! No strings attached.

Is This the Solution for SPAM?
Column published in DM Review Magazine
June 2005 Issue
By Clive Finkelstein
This column is dedicated to new technologies for the enterprise. In previous months, I have discussed enterprise architecture methods and technologies for service-oriented architecture (SOA). I will move away from these topics this month and address a solution to the scourge that afflicts us all - spam.

Only a few short years ago, I still used mail and fax to communicate. Today, all the communication that I receive is by e-mail. It has been years since I last wrote a letter that was sent by postal mail. In fact, the only time our company needs to fax is when hard copy receipts are sent to accompany an invoice. Like you, today my working life is totally dependent on e-mail.

Yet also like you, I am affected by spam. This is the electronic counterpart of junk mail that used to overflow our mailbox. Or it did, until I attached a sign below the mailbox slot for the letter carrier reading: "No Junk Mail Allowed." Its affect was amazing! The junk mail problem immediately disappeared!

Spam has been growing steadily - it now afflicts us all to a greater or lesser degree at home and at work. At first, I was pleasantly surprised to find the volume of my e-mail was growing greater by the day. This is how I communicate with the world. Yet increasingly I found a growing proportion of this e-mail was unsolicited junk. Much was offensive, while some was attempted fraud - whether from Nigeria promising to share untold millions or "phishing" attempts pretending to be from my bank.

The volume of my e-mail grew until I was receiving 500 to 600 e-mail messages per day, and there was no sign of it tapering off. Yet only two to three percent was valid e-mail that was truly meant for me. Filtering out the valid messages took me more and more time until I realized I was spending more than two hours each day scanning and deleting spam.

Sound familiar?
Large corporations, with financial and technical resources to draw upon, have been able to use hardware or software solutions that catch and eliminate junk before it reaches their employees' e-mail boxes, protecting them as a whole. However, small and medium enterprises have been less fortunate; they have fewer resources to allocate to solve this problem. We have had to rely on spam filtering software to separate out the spam, but it first must be downloaded to our e-mail inbox before this filtering occurs.
With permanent broadband connections at work or at home, this downloaded spam is not an out-of-pocket expense. However, on the road, using slow, dial-up connection in hotels, spam is indeed expensive. I use Global Roaming via our ISP. This provides me with a local dial-up number to make a 56K Internet connection at thousands of cities in hundreds of countries throughout the world. I can connect at any time, wherever I am. However, I pay for connect time with the local ISP. In some countries, local calls also incur timed charges, and the hotel often adds a fee for each local call. Therefore, on the road with dial-up, spam hits us all in the pocket. It typically takes an hour to download spam into my inbox, and then I need more time to eliminate it.

This became increasingly expensive - in connect fees and time. There seemed no solution to the insidious problem of spam. Then I found the answer! I am so delighted with the result that I must share it with you.
Many readers of this column have also opted-in to receive "The Enterprise Newsletter" (TEN). I publish this quarterly e-mail newsletter, which covers methods and technologies for the enterprise. When I distributed the last issue, I received in return from one subscriber a polite message saying he was trying to control the amount of spam reaching his inbox. TEN is not spam. It is only sent to those subscribers who have opted-in to receive it, and it immediately removes them if they later decide to opt-out.

The message I received asked me to validate who I was, one time; the TEN e-mail issue would then be accepted. I clicked the link that was offered to me, ready to disappear if it appeared fraudulent.
The Web site that I was taken to addressed me by name. It asked me to type a word that was displayed in an animated image, explaining that automated spam programs cannot decipher this image. And, if I was sight-impaired, the site offered to speak the word to me, which I also tried. Being human and knowing the person had opted-in to receive TEN, I typed in that word. I was immediately accepted and my e-mail address was validated. I was told that the TEN e-mail message and all future e-mail sent by me were authorized and would be delivered without any challenge.

I was curious. I took the other links offered to me on that Web page to learn about this facility. I will share what I learned.

The service is called Spam Arrest (www.http://www.spamarrest.com/affl?4024146). When you visit their Web site, an online demo shows how Spam Arrest works and how to implement it. It does not require that you install any software on your machine. It works with most e-mail programs and with all browsers. It is inexpensive and can be evaluated in a free, 30-day trial. How does it work?

When you subscribe for a free 30-day trial or purchase a longer subscription, you are asked to nominate a username and password and supply your e-mail address. Spam Arrest needs to know the e-mail program that you use and your POP3 incoming e-mail server. A message is then e-mailed that shows you how to change your e-mail program settings to use the http://www.spamarrest.com/affl?4024146 incoming e-mail server and their SMTP outgoing e-mail server. That's it! Then Spam Arrest does the rest.

Spam Arrest immediately starts reading the e-mail already in your POP3 e-mail server inbox, polling this every two to five minutes. For the free 30-day trial, it offers a Web Mail facility that you can use from your browser. When you log in at www.http://www.spamarrest.com/affl?4024146 with your nominated username and password, you can see all of your e-mail in the "unverified folder." Much of this is junk. You leave that there and it is automatically deleted after seven days.

Valid e-mails in the unverified folder can be selected. When you click on the Authorize button, they immediately move to your "inbox folder." Any messages in your inbox that should not be there can be moved back to the unverified folder by selecting them and clicking the Block button. As with any Web Mail facility, you reply to valid e-mails in your inbox. You can also add e-mail addresses as "authorized" and also authorize complete domains.

For the free trial of the Web Mail facility, this is all that you receive. However, as soon as you subscribe, the contents of your authorized http://www.spamarrest.com/affl?4024146 inbox are automatically downloaded into the account that you add to your e-mail program as username@http://www.spamarrest.com/affl?4024146. You receive pure, valid e-mail
unsullied by any hint of spam. Let me tell you, I had not seen e-mail with out spam for many years. I was absolutely over the moon!

Just as junk mail stopped being delivered when I attached my "No Junk Mail Allowed" sign to my mailbox slot, so spam no longer reaches me. I have now been using http://www.spamarrest.com/affl?4024146 for one week, checking the unverified folder from my browser and authorizing valid e-mails. Many people have already validated themselves by responding to the animated image challenge.

Overnight my life has changed! I no longer receive 500 to 600 messages a day, of which only two to three percent are valid. Today, 100 percent of the e-mail that I receive is valid. This is simple technology, yet it works so elegantly. There may be better solutions to the spam problem out there, but I have not seen them. This seems to be the solution for me. It may also be the solution to your spam problem.
Try it now. E-mail me at cfink@ies.aust.com. You will be challenged, but respond to that challenge. Visit the Spam Arrest Web site and investigate. Then, make up your own mind. So far I have not found any problems, only blissful safety from the spam avalanche that I have been inundated with until now.

Several people have asked me if, "MAGNETIC SPONSORING" and, "SPAM ARREST" are really MLM'S.

SPAM ARREST is definitely not and MLM if you just sign up and join it. There is an affiliate program with a link on the page. It is free to join and does not require you to be a subscriber to the SPAM ARREST system.

This makes it into a true MLM. That is not the reason I have it listed. No one should be subjected to SPAM. If you are truly running your MLM as a business you should not be wasting your time with SPAM. SPAM ARRESTS will totally eliminate it for you at a cost of less than $20.00 for six months. You should do this and concentrate on productive things instead of dealing with SPAM. As a bonus, become an affiliate.

MAGNETIC SPONSORING is definitely NOT a MLM. It is so important to anyone that seriously wants to be in the business that I give it the importance I believe it deserves. The 10 free reports on MLM and Mike's 54 page $37.00 book are so valuable that I want to emphasize their importance as emphatically as possible.

The 10 reports which can be read in less than a total of one half hour and the book which can be read in less than two hours will save you many months and probably many years of trial and effort. Of course, that is only of importance if you implement some of Mike's ideas.
Bob

It's hard to get your email through to clients, friends and family with all the Spam Filtering going on these days. If you are a Home Based Business owner that sends out a newsletter regularly you'll want to keep the following tips in mind to make certain your Work At Home Newsletter is getting through all the Spam Filters.

Spam is defintly a problem. At one time I was receiving almost 300 per day, spending a good part an hour sifting through the mass of junk was more than I could tolerate. So I too enlisted the help of a Spam Filter - Http://www.spamarrest.com/affl?4024146.
I do worry about losing out on emails that are important and interesting, but this is the price we all have to pay for those Spammers that have abused and are abusing the Internet.

Most Spam Filters use a Blacklist - these are clusters of email addresses and domain names that are known for sending out a lot of Spam. Recipients of Spam generate most Blacklists'. So your newsletter could fall victim to a click happy Spam identifier that clicks your email into the dreaded Blacklist vault.

Spam Assassin, Cloudmark's SpamNet and Http://www.spamarrest.com/affl?4024146 all use different methods of blocking spam. Spam Assassin uses a point system to conclude whether or not an email is Spam. If your Newsletter scores high it will surely be treated as spam and blocked. SpamNet blocks Spam two ways; the first, filters email based on keywords like "Free", and the second allows users to mark email and submit identified Spam to be blocked to other users of SpamNet.

My personal favorite is Http://www.spamarrest.com/affl?4024146, because it offers you total control over your inbox. You can decide who is allowed to send you email by importing your personal address book, or entering your known and approved contact addresses directly into the system.

Emails from unknown senders will receive an auto-reply message containing a "challenge" -- if or when the sender completes the challenge (the response), their email is forwarded to your inbox, and they are then added to your authorized sender list.

The challenge is easy for people, but impossible for automated systems (i.e. spambots) to complete.

The Http://www.spamarrest.com/affl?4024146 challenge/response system effectively blocks all the spam while still allowing friends, family and trusted contacts to email you without the risk of being filtered out by imprecise software systems.

So How Do You Keep Your Newsletter From Being Blocked?
Here are some tips to help your Newsletter reach your subscribers:
DO NOT send your newsletter unsolicited. Be sure your customers have requested to be on your subscriber distribution list - using an auto responder, like Aweber, that requires your subscribers to opt-in and confirm that then have requested your Newsletter will help keep you off the blacklists.

Use your Newsletter's name in the subject line. Your subscribers should recognize your Newsletters name. Using subject lines that are full of hype and so called trigger words may get your Newsletter blocked by the Spam filters.

NEVER TYPE IN ALL CAPS. This will surely get the Spam filter red flags raised and your email forwarded to the dreaded blacklists.

Words like "Free", "Limited Offer", "Money" even "home business" will engage most Spam filters.
The simplest words like "remove" should be avoided as well. Use "unsubscribe" in your directions to subscribers that want to stop receiving your Newsletter.

Spammers most often use free email addresses - so you should avoid using them at all costs. Send your Newsletter from a reputable domain name - one that matches your own website would be best.
Never send attachments with your Newsletter. Attachments put a fear in most email recipients and will tag your email as Spam.

Your Newsletter will most likely have words within the text that trigger Spam filters - these words like "Free" and "Home Business" can be easily disguised by adding a period or hyphen between two letters - do not over do it though. It will not be long before this tactic will be a trigger for the top Spam filters, so keep up with all aspects of the best Spam filters so your Newsletter will reach your subscribers.
Copyright 2005 - Tim Somers, 3G Enterprises, LLC

Why Spam Filters Do not Work
The best analogy might be comparing a spam filter to a cigarette filter -- the heaviest duty cigarette filters still let toxins, fibers and tar through.
By Brian Cartnell, SpamArrest

Editor's Note: About eight months ago, I wrote a blog about the inconsistency of Internet users (including me) who regularly employ a challenge/response system for instant messaging, but who eschew such a system for e-mail (see Internet Users Have BIG Minds). The folks at SpamArrest have always believed me to be way off base on this, and have recently asked to make their case, so here it is. -- John Dickinson, Editor, Messaging Pipeline

Over the past decade, e-mail spam has come perilously close to destroying one of the most c
onvenient and efficient communication methods yet devised. A postal box can be stuffed only so far as its physical dimensions will allow, and there is an actual cost associated with the printing and postage for postal junk mail. But an e-mail inbox has no physical limitations on the amount of junk e-mail it can contain, and the costs of sending out tens of thousands, or even millions, of e-mail spam are negligible.

In response to this situation, numerous methods have been devised to prevent the proliferation of spam. These methods include keyword-matching filters, genetic algorithms, e-mail bombs and lawsuits, to name just a few. To date, none have worked completely, and have left e-mail users feeling like they're armed with only a squirt gun at a pyromaniac convention.

It was only a few years ago that I was receiving thousands of junk e-mails on a daily basis. At the time, I tried everything -- from constantly modifying my own e-mail filters to wasting hours out of every day sorting through spam. In order to uncover my valid messages within the sea of daily e-mail, I realized that something more effective than mere filtering had to be done to combat what had become an unacceptable obstacle to communicating effectively via e-mail with my list of business and personal associates. This is where the challenge/response solution entered the picture.

Some of the best e-mail filters eliminate 90 to 98 percent of spam, which at first blush sounds pretty good -- that is, until you realize that a single spamming operation can easily send out 100 million messages a day, which means that between two and ten million messages are still getting past even the most effective filtering systems, causing major headaches for everyone in the spammer's path.

Tar, Nicotine, and Spam
The best analogy might be comparing a spam filter to a cigarette filter. The heaviest duty cigarette filters still let toxins, fibers and tar through -- much like the best e-mail filters still let two to ten percent of all junk e-mail through. So the answer to the health problems associated with smoking is not to keep tweaking the cigarette filter, but to stop smoking
entirely.

Similarly, the solution to the spam problem is not another filter, but to utilize a different method entirely -- the challenge/response system.
When I founded SpamArrest back in 2001, I realized the challenge/response method was the only available means of controlling the "Trouble With Tribbles"-like proliferation of spam. An estimated 85 percent of the customers who presently sign up to SpamArrest already have spam filters installed on their computers, or use services with spam filters built in, but because of the sheer number of spammers pushing their junk e-mail across the Internet, the filters can't keep up. As a result, e-mail users still find themselves inundated with spam. Challenge/response is the only method for blocking spam that truly works.

When someone sends an e-mail to a person who's using a challenge/response system like SpamArrest, they're greeted with a message (the "challenge") which asks them to complete a task, such as going to a website and typing in a set of characters graphically represented on their computer screen. Successfully completing this task (the "response") adds their e-mail address to the recipient's authorized contact list, and from then on, all their e-mails are allowed through to the recipient with no further challenges. This method requires a human to be at the sending end of the e-mail -- and as a result, blocks 100 percent of all auto-generated junk mail.

Note To Critics: It's Worth That Little Inconvenience!
The challenge/response system has its critics, with some complaining that the burden of keeping a customer's e-mail inbox spam-free is then placed on real e-mail senders. It's also been said that it makes mailing lists a hassle, and that two challenge/response messages could bounce back and forth in an eternal loop. But problems like these are simple enough to solve once the larger spam problem itself has been dealt with. For example, SpamArrest has functions that automatically authorize anyone a SpamArrest customer e-mails. Our system also allows clients to import their entire address books so that all known contacts are pre-approved before a challenge e-mail even needs to be sent.

Today, challenge/response systems may not be for everyone, but as a growing amount of spam continues to find its way into mailboxes, I believe that challenge/response systems will be at the forefront of spam solutions as the public does whatever it takes to eliminate junk e-mail, and, in the end, take back control of their time and their communications.

Brian Cartmell is the president and CEO of SpamArrest, which makes a well-known challenge/response spam prevention system.