Is your mailbox being clogged up with unwanted messages? Here's some medication

What is spam?

Spam is any message or posting, regardless of its content, that is sent to multiple recipients who have not specifically requested the message. Spam can also be multiple postings of the same message to newsgroups or list servers that aren't related to the topic of the message. Other common terms for spam include UCE (unsolicited commercial email) and UBE (unsolicited bulk email). The individuals who send spam are typically people who purchased or harvested a list of email addresses. They send messages from numerous different addresses to all areas of the Web.

What should I not do with spam?

Never respond to unsolicited email (i.e., spam). To the individuals who send spam, one reponse or "hit" among thousands of mailings is enough to justify the practice. Never respond to the spam email's instructions to reply with the word "remove." This is a ploy to get you to react to the email and will alert the sender that your email address is open and available to receive mail, which greatly increases its value. If you reply, your address may be placed on more lists, resulting in more spam. Never click on a URL or web site address listed within a spam email. This could alert the site to the validity of your email address, potentially resulting in more spam. Never sign up with sites that promise to remove your name from spam lists. Although some of these sites may be legitimate, more often than not, they are address collectors. The legitimate sites are ignored (or exploited) by the spammers, and the address collection sites are owned by spammers. In both cases, your address is recorded and valued more highly because you have just identified that your address is active.

How do I report unsolicited mail?

If you've been "spammed" by someone you don't know, don't reply to the sender or follow any removal instructions that might be included. Instead, complain to the sender's ISP. Before it ever reaches your Inbox, each piece of email must be sent from a server. Most server administrators are responsible and don't want their machines used for spamming. ISPs typically have policies prohibiting spamming through their accounts. Once they are notified that a user has been abusing their account, many ISPs will shut down the offender. How do you find out whom to contact? Look at the domain. This is the part after the "@" sign in an email address or the last part of the server name in a URL. For example, the URL of http://www.abc-bds.bogus.net/somepage.html has a domain of "bogus.net." Once you know the domain, email the entire message (including full headers) to "abuse@" that domain name and explain your situation. For example, if you received spam from spammer@anydomain.com, send the original email and your complaint to abuse@anydomain.com. The ISP may have further requirements, but this is the person or group you need to contact.

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