Spam Information1

Spam Information

Q. What is Spam?
A. Spam is unsolicited Email, Spammers (people that send spam) gather Email address from mailing lists, list serves, free email account providers (yahoo, hotmail, AOL etc).

There are many ways to prevent spam, one of them is never give out or enter your address in any internet polls, do not subscribe to any mailing lists. If you receive spam never reply to it, if you see a link to click or an address to unsubscribe don’t even think about it.

OK, I just got spammed. Now what? First, please make sure that it is indeed Spam and that you didn't subscribe yourself to a list and ended up forgetting about it. This is more common than you might think -- ever fill out one of those web forms and forget to check whether the "Send me Info" box was checked or unchecked? It's usually set on by default. Also make certain that it's not from someone you met or corresponded with briefly, and have since forgotten. (It's happened to me!)

Here's a list of things to look for:

Sent from a throwaway account. Common ISP's that supply throwaway account include CompuServe, Prodigy, and Netcom.
Relayed through a third-party mail server. Promotes a webpage on another site.
Directs replies to an e-mail address on another system. Common examples include AOL and hotmail accounts. If you're certain it's Spam, continue on!

To elaborate, you don't need to. If it looks like Spam and smells like it (be sure to check the headers for signs of forgery), it's best to complain to the ISPs involved and let them make that determination. If yours is the only complaint they have received, then perhaps it wasn't a Spam at all. If however the ISP receives hundreds of complaints, they can then conclude that their client did Spam and take appropriate action against them.

Q. How do I report Spam?
A. If you receive Spam that you would like to report, you must follow these instructions listed below. Before you decide to report it, ensure that it is spam. Only send one piece of mail per report to spam@ncmail.net and do not send messages that are older than 48 hours old.

Desktop procedures:

   1. Open the Email from your desktop email client.
   2. Copy the full message source with headers and paste it into the body of a new Email.
   3. Send the email to spam@ncmail.net.

Webmail procedures:

   1. Open the email from webmail.
   2. Click 'Filter Junk Mail' on the right hand side of the opened email.
   3. This opens a Junk Mail window. Select 'Block sender and report mail as Junk Mail' and click OK. This automatically sends the message to spam@ncmail.net.

Q.How do I reduce Spam?
A. Spam is common, often frustrating and a side effect to having an email account. Although you will probably not be able to eliminate it, there are ways to reduce it. Click here for more information.