I have received many inquiries about SPAM, what to do, and how to stop
it. I have a few links to some very helpful web sites, but they never really
explain, in plain ENGLISH, what our rights are and what we can do about
it. I hope you will take the time to read this page.
SPAM, Junk email, Chain Email and yes, even those emailings you get
from someone whose guestbook you signed, are considered UNSOLICITED EMAIL.
Meaning, you did NOT ask for these people to send you this email, you did
not register your email address to be added to someone's mailing list.
It is a FACT that certain Online Services and even the places you
have registered your homepage (for promotional reasons) SELL your
email address or just GIVE IT AWAY.
- First: If you are a member of AOL, your email address is your
screen name. There is no way around this. AOL was not using their brains
when they decided to do this. When you fill out your online profile and
provide information about your occupation, hobbies etc etc, you are basically
allowing SPAMmers a means to SPAM you. Because your email address IS your
screen name, they can look up your profile, see your interests and use
this information against you. If you do not wish to receive ANY internet
email what-so-ever, simply go to KEYWORD MAILCONTROLS (you must be
logged on as your MAIN screename to do this). You have an option to
allow all email, block all email, allow only email from addresses you provide
OR block email from addresses OR domain's you provide. It is best that
you do not fill out the profile on your main screen name, or on any of
your screen names for that matter.
- Second: Guestbooks. Never, never, never leave your email
address in a guestbook, especially Lpage. I have an Lpage Guestbook, and
I like it for its options and its reliabililty, but this SPAMGuard they
offer really is NOT SPAMguarding the people who sign the books. The owner
of an Lpage Guestbooks has 2 options when they wish to email the people
who signed. 1. Do not resend email if already sent or 2. Send it anyway!
First of all, I do not agree with emailing the guests of your guestbook.
To avoid the possibility of this, I do not leave my email address. If it
is a REQUIRED field and you cannot avoid it, but do want to leave your
mark, you can leave an alternative email address , instead of your main
email addy, (hotmail.com, its free) or you can do what I do: ashtonleighREMOVETHIS@domain.com.
What this does is it forces the person wishing to email you to physically
delete the words REMOVETHIS. Unless he does this, and he tries to email
you anyway, he will get a MAIL-DAEMON telling his that address was unknown.
- Third: ACK! You got SPAMmed! What do you do! DO NOT EMAIL THEM BACK WHEN IT SAYS REPLY TO
BE REMOVED! When you reply to an emailing
like this, you are providing this person a VALID EMAIL ADDRESS.
Let me explain. The majority of SPAM comes from people who use a program
to simply mass email. They have no clue who they are emailing. When you
reply to them, you give them a REAL VALID address, and instead of
being removed from the list, you are PLACED on it and you end up being
SPAMmed over and over and over. Instead of replying to it, look at the
HEADERS. See WHERE it originated from. The best way to handle this is to
find the ISP (Internet Service Provider) by physically going to the site.
Look for their TERMS OF SERVICES. Read what they have to say
about their users using their email for SPAMming purposes. Most ISP have
a policy about this and do not allow it. Next step, find an mail link:
support, tech, webmaster etc etc. Most ISP's have a postmaster or abuse
address. If the domain name is (for example, GeoCities), you would contact
abuse@geocities.com . When you send the email, inform them of what you
received, that it came from their domain. Ask them to look into it, but
never threaten to sue unless you plan to act on it. We use this so much
these days, that most people do not take it seriously anymore, and in rare
cases, they do take it seriously and the next thing you know, their attorney
is emailing you. The most important thing you need to include in your email
is the HEADERS, the PROOF it came from their domain. If headers
confuse you and you are not sure where the email came from, feel free to
email
me. I can help you read them. With the headers you need to copy and
paste the SPAM. You will most likely receive email from the System Administrator
of the ISP, letting you know they took care of it etc etc. Reply back to
them with a HUGE thank you!
- Footnote to Guestbooks SPAMS: Contacting
the ISP is probably the last thing you want to do when you get email from
a guestbook owner. Usually, you can email them, depending on the content
of the SPAM. Most of the time, they are emailing you to inform you of an
update to their hompeage , or they are in the Site Fites and are begging
for your vote. If you email them back to ask them to stop and remove you
from the mailing list, be SURE that there is NOT a cc: list. If you respond
to it, you MIGHT be sending everyone on the cc: list (and sometimes there
might be a bcc: list which is a blind list that you cannot see). The best
way around NOT SPAMming those on the cc: or bcc: list is to compase a NEW
document and manually type the email address of the Guestbook SPAMmer.
This is where you CAN say: "If you do not ceace and desist, I will
contact the System Administrator of your ISP or Online Service and report
this email as UNSOLICATED, aka SPAM." Wham-o! You scare them. They
probably do not even realize that they SPAMmed anyone.
- Last: Register with deleteme.com and abuse.net
(links are linked at the bottom of the page..
I hope this helped. It IS time consuming to fight
SPAM on your own, but an empty email box or one with wanted email is better
than 20 SPAMs. By simply deleting it and thinking they will go away only
encourages them to continue.
Got a comment? More helpful hints that I
may not have covered? Let
me know!
Let them know YOU FIGHT SPAM!
