On WebProNews, Mike Sachoff, noted that more than 90% of e-mail is spam and while this doesn’t surprise me, it does make my realize something important: my wife doesn’t get any spam.

How does she avoid what countless others are unable to fend off? She uses Facebook as her e-mail service. Facebook is a popular website that includes almost all of my wife’s friends, co-workers, and family. She is able to communicate through Facebook to all of them, helping secure her from the normal issue with e-mail: anyone can send you a message.

Sure, anyone can contact her through Facebook, but for the most part, because it is a closed system, it is more difficult to spam, and she can also, for the most part control who has access to easily communicate with her.

These types of closed systems really make sense to me, especially when it comes to communication. Sure, we will always need a public facing address for people to contact, but for most interactions, I think a closed system, where only those you enable connections to, is a brilliant way to lessen the effects of spam.

Carole Theriault, of Sophos was quoted as saying, “As long as spammers continue to make money from these nasty ruses, the spam plague will continue. Businesses must wise-up to this threat and recognize the importance of quarantining spam messages before they are delivered to the unsuspecting user.”

Isn’t that the truth? How do you fight e-mail spam?

Originally posted on April 25, 2008 @ 8:12 am