Spam

What Is It & What Can You Do?

What is it?

Spam is named from the Monty Python song of the same name. It means meaningless, valueless, time wasting email messages sent to you in the hope that you will part with your hard-earned money.

It usually has a commercial aim but can be used for worthier causes such as drawing attention to a website, attracting charitable donations etc. Regardless of the aim, the annoyance of having unsolicited junk thrust at you makes it worth doing what little you can to limit the nuisance.

Spam originates when your email address finds its way onto a list of some sort. Commercial enterprises will buy lists, especially lists of names with some sort of qualification (like orthopaedic surgeons) so that they can direct their clients to people who might be thought to be receptive. The only way to reduce spam is to remove your name from these lists - a nearly hopeless task. The best you can do is reduce the chances that you will get on new lists.

What you can do?

To avoid getting your name on spammers' lists completely is impossible. If you sign up on a mailing list that list will be reviewer by spammers. However, in a mailing list you can

• keep the list members' addresses private
• remove any spammers from the list
• impose filters on the list

There are some other things to do

• never reply to spam

  some spammers offer to "take you off the list" if you respond. All that actually happens is that they confirm that the address is "live"

• change your email address

  most ISPs will allow you to do this. The big problem is that all your friends and business partners will have to be notified of the change.

• reduce cookies on your browser

  Cookies are invisible tags attached to your browser which signal which websites you have been to. They can be "read" by some of the sites you visit which thereby gain an idea of your interests.
  In Windows visit the folder Windows\Cookies to see how many you have accumulated.

• report the spammer

  Most servers and nearly all email lists will do something about spam. The email list owner will usually act to remove the offender from the the list without being asked. If you can discover the origin of the spam the webmaster or the ISP should also take action. However, it is quite difficult to find the source of spam. It is hardly ever the return address. If you want to pursue the issue here are the steps.

1. Select the offending email message. A number user ID and a multiple ISP are giveaways
2.Select Properties from the File Menu
3. Select Details
4. This gives you the information you need. You are interested in the last source from which the message was received. In this case it is through a Relay number so is inaccessible any further back. However, eSafe are a reputable Internet Security corporation who will have an anti-spam clause in their contract. You can ask them nicely if they could stop their client from using their service for an inapporpriate purposes. Click on Message Source

5. Copy the details of the routing and send a message to the postmaster of the ultimate source. The most that might happen is that the ISP will discontinue service to the spammer, but you may never hear back. In this particular message you might try contacting msn and excite and ask them to take action. However it's highly likely that these accounts are shadowy and temporary.

Writing a nice message to the postmaster of the last known relaying station can't do any harm. Make sure you forward on the details you have copied from the message source otherwise the postmaster won't be able to take action. Don't expect a reply. There will be thousands of other people who have received the same message and many of them will trace it down like this.

This sequence is described in How to complain to the Spammer's ISP at http://spam.abuse.net

If you want to continue the subjects in order this was # 17 (i.e. the end)