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Click here for more information

Golden rules

Never reply to spam: You will only let the spammer know that yours is a valid e-mail address and the spammer will continue to spam you and will likely sell your address to other spammers. Most spam addresses are forged, anyway. Also, never click on a Web site or anything else -- especially those "unsubscribe here" prompts -- in a spam message for the same reasons.

Report properly: Spam is a huge, unwieldy problem for all concerned, not the least of whom are the ISPs who must sift through untold numbers of useless spam complaints. If you send complaints to the wrong ISP or send spam with unparsed headers for them to deal with, it really doesn't help the situation. Just because a spam says it's from Yahoo! doesn't mean it's from a Yahoo! account. Spammers forge addresses and bounce messages anonymously, which can make finding their addresses, ISPs or Web-site hosts difficult.

Get educated: If you are going to wage war with spammers, get a spam education and stay on top of it. Spammers constantly change the rules to stay in business. If you are not willing to keep up with reporting methods, header parsing, etc., then the best thing you can do for the fight against spam is to simply delete it from your mailbox without responding or reporting. And that is no small contribution. Keep the ISPs' abuse mailboxes full of spam complaints they can use and we'll all be better off.

Protect yourself: The bottom line -- never give your personal e-mail address to anyone you don't know. Among the places spammers get your address are from newsgroup postings, your Web site, other spam lists and membership lists to mailing groups or web services.

If you have a PC, obviously, you can install spam-protection software. In addition, PCers can post to newsgroups with fake addresses. You can add a word -- maybe SPAM -- into your e-mail address so spam programs are less likely to find you. Then in your signature, advise posters to take the SPAM out of your address to reply by e-mail. WebTVers can't do that. What they can do, however, is reserve one of the six WebTV logons for newsgroup posting and turn off the e-mail feature for that logon.

As for registering at Web sites that demand a valid e-mail address, use a free e-mail account somewhere in Cyberville from MailCity, Yahoo!, Angelfire, Deja.com, etc. Use one of those and avoid the ensuing spam to your main account. These can work for newsgroup postings, also.

And never put your personal e-mail address on your Web site. Spammers run web-crawler robot programs through sites and pick up all those addresses.

Where to report

All spam:
uce@ftc.gov
net-abuse@nocs.insp.irs.gov

In addition, for Webtv users only:
Spam@corp.webtv.net
if it is from outside outside WebTV
abuse@webtv.net
if it is from a WebTV address

Chain letters/pyramid schemes:
pyramid@ftc.gov

Seeks money through U.S. Mail:
fraud@uspis.gov

"Great stock opportunity":
enforcement@sec.gov

"Snake oil cures":
lrd@cfsan.fda.gov

Child pornography:
(Web site, click on enforcement)
http://www.customs.ustreas.gov

List lifted from a newsgroup posting
by the webmaster at the OneHairyDJ Web site.

More information

Death of a Spammer: WebTV guru Paul Ericsson's information page. Everything WebTVers need to know about spam.

OneHairyDJ: Great linkage to spam-fighting sites, especially for WebTVers.

Junkbusters: More great links for PCers and Webbers.

CAUCE: The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail sponsors this informative site.

WebTV's antispam site: WebTV explains its attempts to stop UCE -- unsolicited commercial e-mail -- and lists domains and machines blocked from WebTV.

SpamCop: Cut and paste a parsed message here and SpamCop will do all the detective work for you. Free. (Note: Use a free e-mail address from elsewhere to use this site. I've read that spammers love to troll SpamCop for new blood.)