Dear miller9,
What you received is an unsolicited mail, or in other words, "Spam"
e-mail. It is quiet a common phenomenon in the contemporary computer
age that troubles many people around the world.
If you search the Internet, or even only "Google Answers" for the word
"spam", you'll find many reports and advices on this problem.
What you could do:
If you are receiving Spam:
1. be sure that you have a good anti-Virus and a good mail screening system.
2. Do not answer to it, do not click on "unsubscribe" links should they appear.
3. Report it (see instructions bellow).
Check your mailing software. If you use a POP-3 mail, such as
"Eudora", "Microsoft Outlook" or "Outlook Express", it probably means
that you get your mail delivered to you by your Internet Service
Provider (ISP). You could report it to them, forwarding them the mail.
Usually, the address is abuse@[name of the ISP], for example,
abuse@aol.com, if you're an AOL customer.
If you use web-based mail service, such as Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail, you
could also report abuse or spam, by forwarding them the letter. In
Yahoo! Mail, you also have the opportunity to make it automatically,
by clicking a link next to the address, "This is Spam".
Several e-mail services, like Yahoo!, route mail that they identify as
Spam to another folder. You could check your email options, perhaps
you also have that possibility.
The legal path is problematic. Not all US states and not all countries
in the world have laws against spamming. If you have one (you can see
a list of states who do here - http://law.spamcon.org/), file a suit -
that is the only way you'll make them hurt.
If you don't have legal options, you can still complain to the
spammers' ISP. You can read more about it here ? Tracking Spammers -
http://www.claws-and-paws.com/spam-l/tracking.html
- I won't repeat the great advices there for copyright, but they
answer your question (about tracking the b*stards) fully! For example,
you must learn to identify the *real* sender, as opposing to their
disguise as another user. You can find details on how to track
information from the *real* header here: Fighting them -
http://eddie.cis.uoguelph.ca/~tburgess/local/spam.html
If the ISP refuses to help, you can file a complaint against it here -
http://www.mail-abuse.org/rbl/
There are also organizations that try to fight spam. Some promote
legislation and lawsuits against the perpetrators. For example,
http://www.cauce.org/
This is a more of a strategic approach - see this page to understand
that you should pressure your representatives and get anti=spam
legislation. http://www.cauce.org/legislation/index.shtml
This PDF document also deals with the legislation efforts:
http://www.law.syr.edu/studentlife/pdf/fasano1.pdf
Other sites to report Spam to, and that help you fight evil:
http://www.junkemail.org/ and http://spam.abuse.net/
Spamcon http://www.spamcon.org/marketers/index.shtml also have this
discussion and information for marketers, on avoiding spamming or
being spammed.
A personal user, who wants to protect him/herself against Spam, can do
this also with software and programs mentioned in this page -
http://www.ualberta.ca/CNS/Security/else.html
http://www.itservices.ubc.ca/support/tutorials/else.shtml
My search strategy included the following:
getting rid of spam (google and google groups)
spam busters
anti spam
and of course.
I think that answered your question. However, feel free to contact me
with any further clarification requests. |
