The word "Spam" as applied to Email means Unsolicited Bulk Email. This unsolicited bulk email can clog your inbox requiring you to waste a lot of time deleting unwanted messages.

Here's what we're doing to minimize and eliminate these unsolicited bulk emails from your inbox.

How Spammers get your email address...

There are many ways, but let's focus on the top 3.

1. From mailing lists.
Spammers regularly attempt to get the lists of subscribers to mailing lists. (some mail servers give those upon request) our mail servers do not! We also keep all your email addresses listed in the email marketing system secure and away from spammers. And of course, we never provide your email addresses to anyone.

2. From web pages.
Spammers have programs which automatically spider or crawl through web pages looking for email addresses. This month we modified our site manager to obfuscate / encrypt every email address on your site so these spam spiders can't collect your email address.

3. From web forms.
Spammers also spider through web pages looking for web forms on your site. Web forms are often used to help your website visitors communicate with you. Visitors use your web forms to ask you questions, request more information, and even request appointments. Those requests are sent to you via email. Once a spammer finds a web form they automatically submit advertisements to you.

This month we wrote and implemented a special program that identifies and removes over 95% of all the spam messages sent through the web forms on your site.

What to do if the spammers already have your email address...

The above precautions won't help you much if the spammers already have your email address. If you're fed up with the amount of spam you have to sift through each morning, then we have another solution.

Challenge/Response Spam filtering
Challenge/Response Spam filters asks unknown senders to prove they're human (not a program) by sending them a challenge. The challenge asks senders to look at a graphic representation of a word and type it into a form. If the word matches that sender is automatically added to your whitelist and all future emails will go directly to your inbox. (Senders only have to do it once.)

You can import all the email addresses in your address book into your whitelist so many of the people who send you valid email will never get the challenge.

I used to have to sift through over 400 spam messages a day. I started most days frustrated with the amount of time I was wasting. Once I implemented this challenge response filter I never received another spam message again.

The program I use is called SpamArrest and it has worked perfectly keeping spam messages out of my inbox for over a year now. SpamArrest costs $5.99 a month per person. That $6 is well worth it. And I imagine that if you get a lot of spam, you're not going to want to go through it every day through tax season.

We are in the early stages of implementing a new email system that will allow you to filter your email with a Challenge/Response system like SpamArrest. Our target release date is May 1, 2007.

In the mean time, you may want to look into SpamArrest if you're getting a lot of Spam messages. They have a special 6 month introductory offer for only $19.95 that will get you through this tax season and bridge the gap until we have our system up.

The new 2006 interactive tax organizer is up and available to you. You can add or remove questions and completely customize this 2006 organizer to meet your needs. If you haven't had a chance to check out this interactive organizer, you may want to take a few minutes to see if this is something you want to use this tax season.

Recent Improvements
If you think you've missed one of our recent improvements, you can click on the link below to read our previous improvement letters.
http://www.cpasitesolutions.com/updates/

How To Modify Your Website
If you'd like help adding new features, modifying pages, or adding pages, please click on the link below to read our complete listing of website modification instructions. http://www.cpasitesolutions.com/help

Kevin Leary
kevinl@cpasitesolutions.com
800-896-4500 x106