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SPAM Happens : understand how, why, and what you can do.
First understand that CCAR has a firm policy of never allowing the distribution of a 'bulk' email address list.
CCAR has never, and never will, allow for or facilitate the distribution of such a list under any circumstances. Our member's privacy and ability to conduct business uninterrupted by unsolicited nuisance messages is of paramount importance. CCAR invests resources specifically in preventing this behavior, and in educating members how to best avoid being a target of such behavior.
So, while CCAR has never and never will distribute our members email addresses in bulk format, SPAM still happens. Understanding why, and what you can do, is a big part of preventing as much SPAM as possible.
'Normal' events can easily lead to your email address being added to SPAMMING lists. 'Normal' events would include things like registering for a service of some sort (credit reporting, updates from your favorite catalog, virtually anything where you supply an email address). Not all services and vendors are the same, of course. Some of these folks will sell address lists, others will simply not guard them very safely, and some will do an exceptional job of guarding your privacy. All of that can of course change over time. There is really no way of knowing for certain when it is sensible to provide an email address, and when you are asking for trouble. A good strategy to help with this to an extent is to have several email addresses, at least one of which you keep sacrosanct and never 'give away' online in this fashion (see below).
However, 'normal' events are not all that professionals like REALTORS® have to deal with. The particulars of the real estate business make it both relatively easy and desirable to SPAM its practitioners. Understanding that YOU ARE A TARGET, in many ways more than the average internet user, can help you minimize the problem to an extent. Not only are you a target, most practitioners have painted a convenient bulls-eye directly on their web presence. Let's take a step back to understand this.
You have a website. You want exposure and leads (this is why you have a website of course), so you place your email address and link it to a 'mailto:' command that when someone clicks it will generate and email to you. Your email address is thus typically displayed in both plain text on the page ('Click here to email me at something@somewhere.com' for instance), as well as being embedded in the html code on your page.
Now, the way that people find your website is typically by searching for it. Search engines facilitate this by first 'crawling' or 'spidering' the web to see what is out there. In doing so, they sample all of the text on your webpage, especially the links (like the mailto: link). Most of the time this is a harmless, and even beneficial thing. However, if someone wants to build a 'bulk' list of email addresses for REALTORS® in the bay area, the same techniques make it relatively easy to do so. 'Spidering' for web sites that discuss real estate, allow you to search the MLS, mention one or more city in the area, and have a mailto: link will give me a list to harvest from. Processing the content on those pages to end up with every email address from every page that fits that category is then relatively simple.
Best practices at this time is to avoid placing an actual email link, or your email address in plain text on your website. A picture of the text of your email address, for instance, is much preferable. A form that consumers can fill out on your page that then sends a message to you without ever exposing your address is ideal. Even simply typing your address with some obvious separator characters will help immensely (for example, something (@) somewhere (.) com).
Additional tips and techniques can be found below. Thank you for taking the time to understand that while you may receive a solicitation to your email to purchase a 'bulk' list of addresses, CCAR has never and never will sell, give away or facilitate the distribution of such a list.
Preventing Spam (or at least trying to)
Q: Is there a way to prevent junk mail from flooding my email?
A: Good question, but there isn't an easy answer.
We suggest to never Opt Out when provided with the option. It only confirms the validity of the email address originally sent to and often it increases the level of junk that shows up.
There are lots of suggestions on how to handle SPAM, but the best ways aren't going to work for REALTORS® as they naturally want to expose as many ways for potential clients to contact them as possible, so hiding contact information (email addresses) isn't an option (hiding email addresses reduce the harvesting and population of SPAM lists).
The next best solution is that you may want to use a SPAM guard type software or 3rd party mail filter. There are many on the market and we haven't done a head to head test on what products work better than others, so we cannot make any specific suggestions. The key components to look for are:
Accuracy, ease of use and automatic updating
Other quick suggestions:
Try not to send funnies or chain letters to your friends. When your friends send them to you, either ask them not to or create a free email for that purpose only. Because eventually one of those emails will fall into the hands of a list harvester and all the email addresses embedded inside (everyone it was sent to previously) will be added to SPAM lists.
Don't sign up for anything on the web using your primary email accounts.
Create a few free email addresses and use them for different purposes.