Spam Protection: PDF Spam and Protecting Your kids

With PDF type of spam, a junk email is sent out with a PDF file attachment, which most anti-spam filters cannot or do not read. These attachments range from rudimentary to professional-looking documents. The text in the body of the email is usually nonsensical gobbledygook that the spam-filter does not recognize as junk mail.

The upside to the use of image and PDF spam is that so far, there is no hard evidence that either one can be used to embed malicious software on the recipient's computer. The only harm is done to those who do what the message says. Spammers have also begun to experiment with attachments in different file types such as excel and zip files.

Protecting Your Children

Today, many children have an email address that they use to email their friends, submit homework, etc. It is a fun, inexpensive and instant way to keep in touch. However, as the volume of spam keeps rising, the need to protect children from the dangers of spam is a growing concern.

Email Filters - Your email service comes with email filters built in. You can use these to filter your child's email into specific folders, and filter spam into the trash folder. This involves setting up rules that your email program will follow in determining what action to take on incoming messages: to let it through to the inbox, send it to trash or to block the sender.

Web beacons: A web beacon, also called an "invisible GIF," is an image sent out with spam that is invisible to the recipient. When the email is opened, the spammer will be alerted that your email address is "live."

Using your email spam filter, you can set up a rule that will ensure that a copy of every email that is sent and received on your child's account is forwarded to your own email address

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