Reducing Spam

SPAM e-mails are one of the most annoying things that we encounter on the Internet, not only do SPAM e-mails fill our mailboxes up with junk, it also wastes our time when we have to continually delete it.

The Main Rule to help Prevent SPAM e-mails ~ Never reply to a SPAM e-mail

SPAM e-mails will almost always invite you to unsubscribe from their mailing list.
This is a way for them to confirm your e-mail address is real. It will offer a link, or it will say something like 'Reply to this e-mail with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject' - NEVER DO IT.

What is a SPAM e-mail?

A SPAM e-mail is an unsolicited commercial e-mail, in other words, an e-mail trying to sell you something which you have not requested.

Where do they get my e-mail address from?

Spammers get e-mail addresses by various methods, the most common are listed below:

• Dictionary Attacks - Some spammers use software to generate random e-mail addresses for standard e-mail providers. Commonly called dictionary attacks, the software will guess the first part of an e-mail address: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it - The way to avoid this is to use an e-mail address containing special characters such as underscores or numbers.
• Purchasing third party lists - Buying e-mail addresses from third parties. To avoid this only give your e-mail address to trusted sites.
• E-mail Harvesters - Some spammers use special software called e-mail harvesters which scan web pages for e-mail addresses. Common targets for e-mail harvesters are message boards and social networking web sites. To avoid your e-mail being picked up by this type of software, when including your e-mail address on a web page (for example when you use a message board) try to obscure it. For example, use yourname AT yourprovider DOT com instead of using the @ symbol & the actual dot itself.

Some SPAM e-mails appear to come from trusted sites ?

This is called e-mail spoofing, in these cases the spammer's apparent e-mail address will be a trusted domain name. The only way really to see where the e-mail has come from is by viewing the full header information of the SPAM e-mail.

How can I report SPAM e-mails ?

To do something about the SPAM problem you should report any SPAM e-mails you receive, there are different ways to go about it, depending on where you live.

How to Report SPAM e-mails in the United States?
In the US the legislation covering SPAM e-mails is the CAN-SPAM ACT (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act).

For more on the CAN-SPAM ACT visit the Federal Trade Commission website - http://www.ftc.gov/

How to Report SPAM e-mails in the United Kingdom?
In the UK there is The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003.

To report SPAM e-mails that have originated from the UK you can fill out a complaint form, this is a Microsoft Word document which you can find here http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/privacy_and_electronic/forms/pecr_complaints_form.doc

For more on SPAM e-mails in the UK visit the Information Commissioner's web site - http://www.ico.gov.uk/