We have recently received numerous calls and emails asking what to do about all the junk email (unaffectionately called "spam") that many people receive.  This is a problem for nearly everyone.  The amount of traffic that spam generates requires us to purchase more bandwidth and more powerful servers to handle the load.  This raises our cost to provide the Internet service to you.  In this way, spam is a very expensive nuisance, for us and for you.

A very detailed explanation of how spam affects us all can be found here.  To summarize this article:

"Spam is based on theft of service, fraud and deceit as well as cost shifting to the recipient. The great preponderance of products and services marketed by UCE are of dubious legality. Any business that depends on stealing from its customers, preying on the innocent, and abusing the open standards of the Internet is -- and should be -- doomed to failure."

Runestone Internet Services and REA-ALP began offering the Postini Junk Email and Spam filtering service beginning Jan 7, 2002.  For more information on this service, see our announcement page.

Below are some suggestions of things you should (or shouldn't) do if you wish to avoid receiving spam.

• We recommend that you do NOT respond to the links to "remove your address" from their mailing list.  Most of the time this will not take place.
  
  There are, however, a few possibilities:
  1. The address is false and your mail will be bounced back to you as undeliverable.
  2. The address is real, but is for a completely innocent third-party who the spammers decided to exploit.
      This person will usually receive thousands of requests to get off some mailing list that they have nothing to do with.
  3. The address is real, and does go back to the spammer, but they only want to collect a list of email addresses for people who check their email often.  In this way, asking to be removed may actually get your address on more lists.
  
  This isn't to say that some honest advertisers don't provide legitimate remove links, but there isn't any way to determine who will honor your request.
  
  NOTE: This suggestion does not apply to mailing lists that you have signed up for.  If you signed up for the list and wish to be removed, follow their instructions as detailed on the email or in the original subscription confirmation.
  Some websites will automatically add you to their mailing list if you provide them your email address.  These sites will usually honor your "remove" request.  (Read further for advice on registering with web sites.)
  
  
  
• Never buy anything from a spam message 
  
  Again, never buy anything from a spam message.  Well, go ahead if you enjoy receiving junk mail...
  If you make a purchase through an unsolicited email, you should count on your address being shared throughout the community of spammers.  They make their money by people buying the product, visiting the site, etc... and then selling their mailing list.  Spam exists because enough people respond to make it profitable; if no one makes a purchase, there isn't any profit in spamming.  
  
  
• Only give out your email address if you want to receive email from someone.
  
  We recommend that you do not use your primary email address to enter online sweepstakes, register at web sites (other than shopping sites, such as Amazon.com, who may need to contact you regarding orders), post in chat rooms or bulletin boards, or use in posting messages to newsgroups. 
  
  You could use Hotmail.com , Yahoo! Mail , or any of a large number of free online email services to create a throw-away address.  Use this address for the items mentioned above and only give your real email address to people you want to receive mail from.
  
  
• Much of the spam you receive is probably sent randomly, the senders likely don't have your specific address on a list. 
  
  They do this by maintaining a list of common usernames (e.g., 'johndoe', 'janedoe' and 'babydoe' might be frequent choices) and when they find a certain domain (e.g., 'runestone.net' or 'rea-alp.com') they will just send mail to all of these usernames at the particular domain.  In this way, a spammer might send thousands of messages into our system assuming that most of them will reach someone's mailbox.
  
  This is the hardest method of delivery to fight.  Really the only thing you can do as a user is choose an uncommon username.  If your email address is, as an extreme example, 1z2y3x4w@some-domain.com you would probably receive less junk mail. 
  
  Most people like to have a combination of their name or an actual word as their username, so a very complicated address is often not an attractive option.
  
  
• Don't post your email address on your site in plain text.
  
  This is a very complicated issue and will not affect most people, for a description of how you can disguise your email address on your web site, please visit
  JunkBuster's Anti-harvesting page
  
  There are a number of programs that will assist you in disguising the email address.  One such program is Anti-Spam Script Maker.
  

Below is a list of sites regarding spam, how to avoid it and what to do about it. 
Most of the suggestions should be helpful and accurate, but, as always, be careful when making configuration changes to your computer.  In short, don't blindly follow the suggestions at these sites; if they recommend something that doesn't seem right, don't do it.

    From The Internet Tourbus (a good mailing list for any Internet user)
    Nov 6, 2001 - War on Spam
    May 8, 2001 - Dealing with Spam

    ZDNet AnchorDesk "How to win the war against spam"
    ZDNet AnchorDesk - some programs to help fight spam

    Abuse.net spam resources

    The Great C|Net spam-off

    The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email (CAUCE)

    Direct Marketing Association's e-Mail Preference Service

    JunkBusters - helps you fight spam, junk postal mail, telemarketers, and more
        - the page specifically on spam is here

    The SpamCon Foundation

    SpamCop

    TechTV - The Screen Savers "Top Five Tips to Squash Spam"

Any comments, suggestions or requests?  the author.

This document was last updated on Thursday, January 22, 2004, at 06:31 PM