Fight Back At Spam

This page shows you how to fight back at spam, and how to make the owners of web sites who spam you pay a price for doing so, using the WOT browser plugin.

Spam is everywhere these days isn't it. Not only do we find dozens or even hundreds of Spam emails in our Inbox, the Spammers are also now promoting their websites through Guestbooks and Forums.

Whether you are a lensmaster on Squidoo, have your own Blogs or Web Sites, participate in Forums or write articles on other Author Sites, chances are that you have seen numerous comments from Spammers, advertising their junk all over the place.

You might think that there is little that we can do to stop this, but that is not strictly true.

There are in fact various tools in place that can be used for reporting Spam websites, and the more that people that use them, the more the awareness of Spam web sites will grow, and this will greatly reduce the amount of money that they earn from these sites.

While we can't stop the Spammers from promoting their sites, we can help to make it a waste of time for them to do so.

Are you ready to help join me in fighting back at the Spammer?

Then read on...

Some people say that we can fight back at Spam, and others just feel that the best we can do is to put up with it.

Do you think that there are actions that we can take, or are you just resigned to your fate along with the other sheep?

If you do believe that we have a choice, please add your ideas to the list so that others may follow in your path.

Do You Believe We Can Fight Back?

Note that not every link that is sent to you may be from a spam site.

Very often, uneducated people will promote their pages on a web site by spamming, but it doesn't mean that the site itself is a spam site.

A prime example is Squidoo itself, where some new lensmasters have been known to add links to their lenses all over the place, but we know that Squidoo is a site that denounces spam, not one that promotes it.

Similar examples are any legitimate writing sites, like Hubpages, Helium, Associated Content, Examiner etc.

If you want to do anything, go into WOT and give these sites a GOOD rating, since some people have flagged them as promoting spam, and that needs to be negated.

If someone left a comment on a lens, in a guestbook, on an article, or sent you a message, and the content and web site link that is left has nothing to do with the lens, article etc that it was left on, then there is a 99% chance that this is a web site which is being promoted by link Spam.

Most of these sites are a single page, and often either promote a single product, or in many cases they might be about a service in a given area, but without any substance, like Construction Companies In Los Angeles. Sites like the latter look legitimate, but apart from the legitimate data, the rest of the page is usually filled with Google ads. The Spammers make their money from Google Adsense or other adverts.

If you have been on Squidoo for any time you will I am sure have seen these added to your Plexos on more than one occasion.

We Have The Tools - Surf The Web Safely

The first step in fighting back is to let other people know that a website that is being promoted by Spamming should be avoided.

One of the best ways to do this is to use a Browser Plugin called Web Of Trust or WOT for short. WOT is available for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari, and it allow you to safely surf the internet.

If you have the WOT plugin installed in your browser, whenever you visit a web site, a WOT symbol in the toolbar shows Green is the site is safe, and Red if it is not.

Also, whenever you do a web search, all of the web sites that are listed in the search results show whether that site is safe to visit or not.

This instantly protects you by warning you of any web sites that are dangerous, but how is this going to help us in our fight against people who promote their web sites by using spam?

Read on and find out...

Pass The Word Around

WOT is a wonderful Safe Surfing tool, but like any tool, it's only any good if you use it.

Registering Spam web sites on WOT is a great thing to do, but it it only going to help those people who have it installed.

If you agree with me that WOT is an essential add-on for everyone to have in their browser, please help by telling your friends about it, and then they too can surf safely.

You can tell people about WOT very easily as follows:

• Add a link to WOT in your email signature

• Share the link to WOT on Twitter, Facebook etc

• Write about WOT in your blog

By spreading the word, we can help make more people that sites they are about to visit are Spam sites, and if they don't visit and buy things, the Spammers will lose money, and that is our goal. If we can make it not worthwhile for them to do this, the battle is on, and we can cost them dearly by taking away their business.

How To Deal With Spam Comments

Those annoying emails, messages or comments you how you can buy Viagra cheaply, enhance your manhood - or breasts, but the Spammers have moved on from this to creating their own web sites that sell legitimate products, or that are full of affiliate links.

There are in fact groups of Chinese families who are creating hundreds and thousands of web sites and promoting them using Spamming of all sorts of sites.

Deleting the messages and comments that you receive is just the tip of the iceberg.

It's essential that we all help to promote the use of WOT and other tools, so that more people add these plugins to their browsers and surf safely, and also it's our duty to make sure that these Spam sites are listed on WOT, to make sure people are aware.

The recommended action to take when you receive a Spam message is as follows:

• Visit the site to make sure it is indeed a spam site

• Copy the URL for the Spam web site

• Click on the WOT symbol in the browser toolbar, give the website a low rating, add a comment to mark it as being promoted using Link Spam.

• Visit this lens and add the URL for the Spam web site to the link list for others to see.

Then finally, delete the message or comment.

To make things easier, add THIS LINK to your favorites/bookmarks so you can go direct to the Spam List module on this lens whenever you need.

Now, you have told an ever growing group of Spam Fighters about this Spam web site, and done your bit to help make people aware.