What can I do about "junk mail" or SPAM?

You have probably seen an increase in the amount of "junk mail" which shows up in your email box, or on your favorite newsgroups. The activities of a small number of people are becoming a bigger problem for the Internet. Sending unsolicited e-mail is not allowed on NC State's network. The university's Computer Use Regulation states:

3. Personal Use

3.7. The use does not involve sending or soliciting chain letters, nor does it involve sending unsolicited bulk mail messages (e.g., "junk mail," or "spam," or "MLM.").

4. Use of Computing Facilities for Commercial, Advertising, and Broadcast Purposes

4.4. University computer account holders may not "broadcast" E-mail messages without prior approval from the Chancellor, Provost, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Business, Vice Chancellor for Information Technology, or their designees. "Broadcast," means transmission of an unsolicited message to a significant number of computer accounts on a University server or servers; the intent is to prevent mass mailings from tying up employee time and computer resources.

How can I reduce the amount of Spam I get?

In order to reduce the amount of junk mail you get, try following these tips:

1. Never Respond to SPAM
   Most spammer include an "unsubscribe" address to allow you to be taken off their list. In reality, this is just a ploy to check whether the email address that is being spammed is a live one or not. If you respond, they will sell your address to every spammer out there, hence increasing the amount of spam you get.
2. Don't post your email address on your web site
   While having your email address on your web site is a great idea, most spammers employ "bots" to harvest email addresses from web pages. These "bots" are software programs that search web pages for text strings in the form of something@something.something. When an address is found it adds it to its database of email addresses.
3. Have a "Public" email address
   Get yourself a free "web-based" email account from a provider such as Hotmail, Yahoo, or Gmail Use this e-mail address when subscribing to any web sites etc. This will allow you to keep your "private" account such as your Unity account free of unwanted mail. Also use this address for posting to newsgroups. Another trick used when posting to newsgroups is to add a modifier to the address to fool "bots". A message can be added to the body asking people to remove this from the address before replying to you. For example joe@isp.com will change to joe@_removethis_isp.com. You can also substitute full words for the symbols in your email address like joe_at_isp_dot_com.
4. What does NC State do to help you manage spam?

• Manages "block" lists for the campus mail relays to stop viruses, mail loops, bad hosts and spam directed at our entire user installation.
• Periodically scans the network for machines accepting mail and performs third party (open) relay checks.
• Provides Postini Message Security to filter out viruses and spam at the campus e-mail relays. 

Also see Safe Computing at NC State.

For more information:

Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial email
Fight Spam on the Internet
The Anti-Spam Homepage
The Spamhaus Project
Spam Cop

Information in part provided by The Spam Recycling Center.