spam

What is Spam?

Spam means flooding Internet email with thousands of copies of the same commercial advertising, usually for dubious products, get-rich-quick schemes, or quasi-legal services, in an attempt to force the message on you when you would otherwise choose not to receive it.

Spam can be sent to an individual email address or it can blanket whole groups. Either way it costs you. If you are paying for telephone time while on the Internet, reading spam wastes your precious minutes. It also costs money for Internet providers to transmit Spam and those costs are passed along to you.

How can I reduce the amount of Spam that I receive?

Try not to display your email address in public. That includes newsgroup, chat rooms, websites or in an online service’s membership directory. You may not want to list your email address in a member directory because it's an easy source of information for spammers.

Check the privacy policy anytime you give out your email address to a website. Be sure to find out if the policy lets the website sell your email address and if it will allow you to opt out. If the website won't protect your email address, you're setting yourself up as a target for spammers.

Read and understand everything you're getting before you give out personal information to a website. Some websites allow you to opt out of receiving email from their “partners” — but you may have to uncheck a pre-selected box if you want to opt out.

Decide if you want to use two email addresses. — Sometimes its makes sense to have two addresses, one for personal messages and one for newsgroups, chat rooms, and other websites that ask you to submit an email address. You also might consider using a disposable email address. A disposable email address is a separate address that forwards email to your permanent account. If spam begins to show up in one of the disposable addresses, you can shut it off without affecting your permanent address.

Use a unique email address. Your choice of an email addresses can make a difference in the amount of spam you receive. Spammers use “dictionary attacks” to sort through possible name combinations at large ISPs or email services, hoping to find a valid address. An email address using a common name such as bsmith may get more spam than an email address with a more unique name like b410xsth. There is a downside — it’s harder to remember an unusual email address.

Use an email filter. Check the services your email service provides to see if it has a tool to filter out potential spam or a way to channel spam into a bulk email folder. You might want to consider these options when you’re choosing which Internet Service Provider (ISP) or email service to use. Most of the big email services like Yahoo provide a spam filter.

What can I do with the Spam in my In-Box?

Report it to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Send a copy of unwanted or deceptive messages to spam@uce.gov. The FTC uses the unsolicited emails stored in this database to pursue law enforcement actions against people who send deceptive spam email.

Let the FTC know a website doesn't honor your request to be removed from its mailing list. If you want to complain about a removal link that doesn’t work or not being able to unsubscribe from a list, you can fill out the FTC’s online complaint form at www.ftc.gov. Your complaint will be added to the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel database and made available to hundreds of law enforcement and consumer protection agencies. Whenever you complain about spam, it’s important to include the full email header. The information in the header makes it possible for consumer protection agencies to follow up on your complaint.

Send a copy of the spam to your ISP’s abuse desk. Check with your ISP or email service to see if they have a way to report spam. By doing this, you can let the ISP or email service know about a spam problem on their system and help them to stop it. Make sure to include a copy of the spam, along with the full email header. At the top of the message, say that you’re complaining about being spammed.

Complain to the sender’s ISP. Most ISPs want to cut off spammers who abuse their system. Again, make sure to include a copy of the message and header information and say that you’re complaining about spam.

Here's what the FTC says about avoiding Spam Scams.

Treat commercial email solicitations the same way you would treat an unsolicited telemarketing sales call. Don’t believe promises from strangers. Greet money making opportunities that arrive at your in box with skepticism. Most of the time, these are old fashioned scams delivered via the newest technology.

Here are some of the most common scam offers likely to arrive by email:

Chain letters. Chain letters that involve money or valuable items and promise big returns are illegal. If you start one or send one on, you are breaking the law. Chances are you will receive little or no money back on your “investment.” Despite the claims, a chain letter will never make you rich. For more information on chain emails, check out www.ftc.gov/chainmail.

Work-At-Home Schemes. Not all work at home opportunities deliver on their promises. Many ads omit the fact that you may have to work many hours without pay. Or they don’t disclose all the costs you will have to pay. Countless work at home schemes require you to spend your own money to place newspaper ads; make photocopies; or buy the envelopes, paper, stamps, and other supplies or equipment you need to do the job. The companies sponsoring the ads also may demand that you pay for instructions or “tutorial” software. Consumers deceived by these ads have lost thousands of dollars, in addition to their time and energy.

Weight Loss Claims. Programs or products that promote easy or effortless long term weight loss don’t work. Taking off weight, and keeping it off, requires exercise and permanent changes in your diet. All the testimonials and guarantees in your email are not worth the space they take up on your hard drive.

Credit Repair Offers. Ignore offers to erase accurate negative information from your credit record. There’s no legal way to do that.

Advance Fee Loan Scams. Be wary of promises to provide a loan for a fee, regardless of your past credit history. Remember, legitimate banks don’t issue credit cards without first checking your credit.

Adult Entertainment. You may get an email from an adult entertainment site that claims to offer content for “free” and doesn’t require a credit card number for access. All you have to do is download a “viewer” or “dialer” program. However, once the program is downloaded onto your computer, it may disconnect your Internet connection and reconnect to an international long distance phone number, at rates between $2 and $7 a minute. Be skeptical when you see opportunities to view “free” content on the web.