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| Q:What is "spam"? | |
| A: | SPAMŽ, as you are probably aware, is a canned
meat product manufactured by Hormel. On the Internet, however, the word
spam has acquired a very different meaning, referring to either Unsolicited
Commercial Email ("UCE") or inappropriately off-topic UseNet
newsgroup postings. This has become one of the more annoying aspects of
the modern Internet, nearly as common as the more familiar junk postal
mailing and telemarketing phone call. |
| Q:Can Velocitus block spam from arriving in my email? | |
| A: | Yes! We have a product called Velocitus Spam and Virus Filter to block spam on your incoming email. We have found that it blocks about 75+% of incoming spam mail. If you are interested in adding the Spam and Virus Filter to your account please contact our Customer Service Department. |
| Q:Can I filter spam out of my own email? | |
| A: |
Yes! You can establish an email "Filter" or "Message
Rule" in your own email program (in Outlook Express for Windows,
look under the "Tools" menu). Using such a filter or rule,
any email from a particularly pesky spammer (e.g., multiple spam messages
from the same source, with a consistently recognizable word, phrase,
or name in the "Subject:" or "From:" line) could
be automatically deleted or moved to a separate mail folder for your
later examination. E.g., if you add a message to the "Blocked Senders"
roster, then all future messages coming from that exact email address
will be blocked (but not, obviously, if they change the email address
they're using); likewise, if you add a Rule to delete all messages which
contain the words lose weight or XXX in the subject line, then those
will be instantly deleted as soon as they are received.
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| Q:Does Velocitus give any email addresses to spammers? | |
| A: | No, never. |
| Q:Why do I get spam that isn't even addressed to me? | |
| A: | Spammers frequently use a variety of methods, for a variety of reasons,
to conceal, forge, or alter their actual recipients' email addresses.
Spammers usually conceal their actual recipients' addresses to prevent
those recipients from discovering who else received such messages and
then joining forces against the spammer. Hiding recipients' addresses
also prevents their competitors from stealing the addresses on their junk
mailing lists, and it helps their messages avoid automated detection and
filtering schemes based on unusually long recipient lists on any one message.
Furthermore, this practice lends a more deceptively "personal"
appearance to their junk messages, concealing the fact that dozens, hundreds,
or even thousands of people are recipients of that very same message,
while also making it appear that the message may have been "misrouted"
to you. |
| Q:Does Velocitus allow its customers to send spam? | |
| A: |
No, never. As a responsible member of the Internet community, Velocitus has always enforced a strict policy which prohibits our own users from sending spam. As soon as our Email-Abuse Administrator (abuse@velocitus.net) confirms a complaint that one of our own users has been sending spam, we suspend the offending user's account and access to our services. SpamCop (http://www.spamcop.net)
offers a wealth of information on combating spam, including an extensive
selection of instructions for revealing/preserving Internet email headers
in most email programs out there, and they also provide a spam-reporting
service, which you may wish to use to report spam which originates outside
of Velocitus' network and is thus outside of our control. SpamCop is
the preferred method of reporting spam. Even if an email message appears
to originate from a Velocitus customer @velocitus.net or @rmci.net it
is most likely forged (see below) and SpamCop will send the spam report
to the correct Internet Service Provider (ISP). |
| Q:Why does some spam appear to come from a user "@velocitus.net" or "@rmci.net" (since Velocitus prohibits sending spam)? | |
| A: | For a variety of reasons, spammers frequently use any of a variety of
methods to conceal, forge, or alter the "From:" and/or "Reply-To:"
email addresses in their messages. Spammers usually try to conceal their
messages' true point of origin to evade discovery of their actual identity
and avoid responsibility for their actions. They also commonly custom-tailor
the forged "From:" address, so that it may appear to come from
the same ISP or domain as their recipients (e.g., when they are sending
a batch of spam to addresses @velocitus.net, they fake the "From:"
address as some fictitious person also @velocitus.net). By faking the
"From:" address, they can avoid the "heat" of the
hundreds or thousands of complaints sent in reply to most spam messages,
which typically flood back to the apparent (but again, usually faked)
"From:" address. See next question and answer (below) for more
details. |
| Q:Should I reply to spam, to complain or ask to be removed from their mailing list? | |
| A: | Replying directly to any spam message is usually fruitless, and may
often be treacherous. As noted above, the apparent "From:" and/or
"Reply-To:" address is usually forged. Even if they do provide
a real email address, that email account has usually already been terminated
due to spam complaints by the time you might try sending any reply to
it. Even worse, many spammers have a special computer program receiving
email at their forged (but still valid and functional) "From:"
or "Reply-To:" address. This program then simply adds the complainers'
addresses to even more spam lists; this is the main reason why recipients
of spam should never reply directly to any spam, even in complaint. After
all, if you're sending them a complaint in reply to their first spam,
that means your address is valid, and you received the first message;
they have nothing to lose by sending you even more, now that they know
you actually exist. Even if you are interested in an apparently legitimate
offer which arrives unsolicited in your email, you might want to consider
not responding. Every interested response to any spam message counts as
a "success" in the eyes of spammers and their advertising clients.
For one thing, they will probably add your address to even more spamming
lists; if you responded to one, they have nothing to lose (and possibly
another "success" to gain) by sending you even more spam, and
they might even be able to sell your address at a premium, as a proven
responder to spam. Furthermore, the combined "success" of even
a few interested responses only encourages the general practice of spamming
even more, reinforcing and rewarding the perception, in the eyes of spamming
services and their advertising clients, that "spam works." Just
think, if nobody ever replied to spam with any genuine interest in doing
business with the spam-borne advertiser, the for-hire spamming services
would have only their say-so, and no real results, to convince people
to use spam as an "effective" advertising tactic. |
| Q:How do spammers get my email address? | |
| A: | Spammers typically purchase a block of hundreds or thousands of email
addresses which have been either "harvested" from various public
sources (UseNet newsgroups, message/bulletin boards, discussion forums,
email links on webpages, etc.) or bought outright from, websites which
prompt you to enter an email address. Furthermore, after a spammer obtains
your email address in the first place, they often buy, sell, trade, share
and steal email addresses among each other. This is similar to marketing
groups who buy your name, address and phone number from the phone company,
from state agencies, from catalog retailers, from other marketers, etc.
and use that information to pester you with junk postal mailings and telemarketing
calls during dinnertime. Responsible websites which ask for your email
address will also either state their privacy policy on sharing or withholding
any personal information you provide, and/or they will offer you the option
to "opt in" or "opt out" of receiving any additional
mailings (in which case, it's usually safest to "Just say 'No'.").
Lately, many spammers have developed even craftier ways of composing their mailing lists, without having to obtain valid email addresses from their recipients, nor even from any other parties at all. They have adopted the use of "war mailer" programs, which simply generate permutations of possible email addresses (e.g., aaa@velocitus.net, aab@velocitus.net, aac@velocitus.net, etc.); the spammers then dispatch an email message to every single variation on their auto-generated list. You might see this technique in action, if the spammers don't also conceal their recipients' addresses, when you receive a spam message addressed to yourself and also to several other, similar addresses, all @velocitus.net or @rmci.net. |
| Q:How do I avoid or stop receiving spam? | |
| A: | Unfortunately, once your email address appears on the spammers' mailing
lists in the first place, it's almost impossible to remove yourself completely;
your address is already "out there" and circulating, being bought,
sold, traded, shared and stolen on the spammers' market. However, you
can avoid winding up on even more lists than you already are. For just
this reason, many people set up an alternate email address with a "freemail"
website such as Yahoo, Mail.com, or Hotmail, so that when they post messages
to a public forum or provide a website with a contact email address, they
can provide this alternate address as a "disposable spam catcher"
instead of running the risk of drawing spam to their primary address.
As long as you only use your primary email address @velocitus.net or @rmci.net
in direct email correspondence with actual individuals, you run little
risk of winding up on any spammers' mailing lists. You can also change
your email address with us, so that any new email (including spam) sent
to your original address will be undeliverable. You would then need to
notify your friends, family, and associates about your change of address,
and you should also then take precautions, as described above, to keep
your new address off of spammers' mailing lists in the future. |
| Q:Where can I learn more about spam and what I can do about it? | |
| A: | If you would like to start taking more of a proactive role in curtailing spam, here's a few good places to start: Anti-Spam Legislation Advocacy and Information: CAUCE - Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email Spam Laws Email Spam and Counter-Spam Tactics: Spam Cop (beginners) Abuse.net (intermediate) UseNet Newsgroup Spam and Counter-Spam Tactics: S.P.U.T.U.M. |