The Anti-Anti Spam

You see it every morning, all day, every day. The dreaded spam. And not the kind that comes in a can, either. It’s the kind that likes to launch gremlins in your computer – spyware that monitors your every move and slows down your computer if you get too much of it.

But before you run out and download the newest, fanciest anti-spam fighter, none of them will ever work as good as the delete button.

The danger of anti-spam software is that the program sometimes groups legitimate emails with the stock reports, Viagra advertisements, and the please-help-me letters from Africa.

Big deal, you say. Well, if 90 percent of your business relies on your email, yes it is a very big deal and could be a costly one at that. So you get a lot of emails in a day. Unless you don’t need the business, you do risk losing a contract or two by entrusting your Outlook or Outlook Express to Mr. Anti-Spam.

The spam is a nuisance, but I'd rather put up with it than miss an important email that means business in my pocket. Not to mention, those anti-spam programs that ask every sender to resend their emails or fill out an e-business card are actually worse than the spam itself. The recipient is usually put off by the return email and you can be sure that the president of XYZ is not going to bother.

I receive, over the course of a day, 300 or so emails in and out, so deleting spam has become a habit. While spam does launch all sorts of spyware on your computer, whether or not you’ve opened it, you can download Ad-Aware SE Personal for free from Lavasoft.com and it will zap these gremlins off your computer.

There are already enough reasons that emails go array. So next time, before you begin to say these words to your biggest customer or prospect, “I didn’t get your email,” perhaps you ought to think twice about your anti-spam program. Just think, you may be missing that big book deal, too.