You have probably seen an increase in the amount of SPAM or "junk mail" which shows up in your inbox. SPAM is an international problem that the Internet community is constantly dealing with. The activities of a small number of people are becoming a bigger problem for everyone. TAMU has been actively engaged in fighting SPAM for years. Through advances in technology, we currently filter out nearly 3/4 of all incoming SPAM. Unfortunately we can't make it all go away. Although, there are some ways that you can help protect your email account(s). Below are measures that you can implement to help limit the amount of SPAM that you receive.
How to Reduce SPAM in Your Email Accounts
Immediate Steps you can take to reduce SPAM
Example of a Real Spammer
SPAM and the Law
Filing SPAM Complaints
How to Reduce SPAM in Your Email Accounts
It's important to remember three things about SPAM -
- First, one person's SPAM is another's valuable email. SPAM is email you don't want. Others may want it and that is a primary reason why SPAM is so hard to control before it gets to the final recipient.
- Second, if you use email you are going to get some SPAM. There is no existing technology or software which is mainframe, server, or PC based, that can screen out all SPAM or even most of it over any time period longer than a few weeks, unless that software is constantly updated.
- In the end, at least for the foreseeable future, your best SPAM protection is what you do to protect your email accounts from email that is SPAM to you.
"There is no existing technology or software that can screen out all SPAM"
Immediate Steps you can take to reduce SPAM
If you don't get but a few SPAM emails the simplest and most economical thing to do thing is just delete them.
Don't respond to the SPAM email. This just lets them know you are a "live" email address and will probably insure that you will get more SPAM and that the SPAMMER will sell or trade your email address to other SPAMMERS. (There are a few exceptions to this rule - see below).
Remove your address from any web pages you may have.
Do not post messages to chat rooms or newsgroups using your email address.
Don't forward one email address to another if at all possible. This insures that whatever SPAMMERS had your "forward from" address can now get the SPAM to the "forward to address".
Set mail filters
- The university "tags" incoming e-mail messages with a SPAM tag that allows you to write your own mail filtering rules. For more information, see example filters
- How you set e-mail filters or "rules" depends on the e-mail client you use. You can usually find information on creating and managing filters under the help function using terms like "email" or "filter" or "rules".
- For Microsoft Outlook select tools from the main menu bar, then rules wizard and follow the instructions. See http://www.sitedeveloper.ws/tutorials/spam.htm for a "SPAM Tutorial". For Microsoft Outlook Express select tools and then "message rules" and follow the intructions.
- For Novell's Groupwise select the "Tools" menu and then select "rules".
- In the case of Netscape double click on "Help" at the top right of the main menu bar and search for "email" and then click filters.
- In Eudora select tools, then filters and following the instructions. Detailed instructions on how to set filters in Eudora can be found at http://www.eudora.com/techsupport/tutorials/win_filters.html
Example of a Real Spammer
Ever wondered how all that SPAM gets sent to you and millions of others everyday.
- SPAMMING is a multi-billion dollar international business.
- Although anyone with access to the internet and email can send SPAM there are firms that specialize in providing mass emailings and doing it in a manner that is hard to trace.
- For an example of how these organizations work see this page
SPAMMING or Unsolicited Bulk Email (UBE) is legal in 25 of the 50 United States.
SPAM and the Law
The legality of sending SPAM or UBE varies widely from country to country and state to state. Twenty five of the fifty states of the United States have laws pertaining to SPAM.
- See http://www.spamlaws.com/federal/index.asp for pending Federal Regulation.
- See http://www.spamlaws.com/state/index.asp for state laws
- For more information about SPAM laws and court cases see www.spamlaws.com.
- For other information and hints about spam management see www.spam.org
Filing SPAM Complaints
Please carefully follow the instructions below:
If the spam originated from outside the Texas A&M domain you can file a complaint directly with the ISP and if you wish, send a copy to the Federal Trade Commission. For the email address and more information see http://www.ftc.gov/ and click on "File a Complaint Online". (Note the FTC does not investigate individual complaints but uses all the information to conduct investigations of major spammers).
Careful use of the tools and methods above should significantly reduce the SPAM you receive. If you wish to file a SPAM complaint follow the guidelines below.
- Send an email to abuse@xxx where xxx is the source or suspected source of the SPAM. For example if a detailed header line read in part "Received from: xxx.yahoo.com or xxx@yahoo.com then the abuse address would be abuse@yahoo.com.
- Include SPAM in the subject line and politely state your complaint in the body of the email. Ask that they stop the person or company that sent the SPAM from doing so in the future.
- Remember portions of almost all SPAM email headers are fake so be careful about being accusatory unless you are sure that a particular ISP or their customer was the source of the SPAM. Just ask them to help stop the SPAM.
- Be sure and include a complete copy of the SPAM email with the detailed headers as above. The ISP cannot investigate your complaint without those headers. (see http://itim.tamu.edu/htmlfs/mailheaders.html for instructions on how to display the detailed mail headers).
If the complaint came from within the Texas A&M domain please go to SPAM complaint form and follow the instructions.