SPAM and Unsolicited E-mail

Almost everybody gets them. E-mail messages advertising stock market tips, office supplies and pornographic sites or promising easy money or miracle cures. Messages warning of dire consequences or lost fortunes if the messages aren't forwarded to everyone we know. They're a nuisance, wasting our time and computing resources. Some are shocking, others are fraudulent and illegal.

Unfortunately, they are also a fact of life on today's Internet.

300 million people have the ability to send us e-mail. There is no way for IT or any other organization to determine with any certainty that a particular piece of e-mail is SPAM or whether it is desired by the recipient.

While our e-mail system uses various methods to block over 17,000 messages per day that are identified as SPAM, there is no way to stop it all at our end. Moreover, the more the process is automated, the more likely it is that legitimate e-mail will be blocked. SPAM identification is extremely low tech and crude:

• Keyword filtering may often block desirable e-mail and be controversial. For example, what words in the subject line should be cause for e-mail to be rejected?
• Address filtering of individual sites or based on lists of "known SPAM sites" may block legitimate mail in several different ways.
• People have differing opinions on what constitutes unwanted e-mail and solicitations.
• When certain sites or message properties are found to be good indicators of SPAM, spammers often quickly change sites and/or properties to foil detection methods.

Regardless of what is done, SPAM will be with us into the foreseeable future.

 

Tips for Handling Unsolicited E-mail

1. If a threatening message is received, contact law enforcement. Do NOT delete the e-mail.
2. The most efficient and safe way to handle SPAM is to delete it. Never reply to it, click on any links, or follow instructions about removing yourself from a list. Doing so informs the SPAMMER that they've found a live mail box and you may find yourself getting more e-mail than before.
3. Never purchase something from the sender of SPAM. If it wasn't profitable, it wouldn't exist. However, you cannot blame a manufacturer for deceptive, fraudulent, or inappropriate behavior by an unauthorized dealer. Some manufacturers have become targets of what amounts to smear campaigns by spammers. Symantec is one example.
4. If you get more than 5-10 messages per day from the same source, there are several things you may try to decrease the number of messages you see. None of them are guaranteed to make a difference. Sometimes its just more efficient to exercise our index finger on the mouse just like we toss junk mail in the trash can.

    

   1. Use your e-mail client's filtering functionality to filter unwanted messages. Doing so lets you determine what is appropriate and desirable.  Basic configuration steps are described in the E-mail Client Filtering section below. The JMU Helpdesk or your local support provider(s) may be able to provide some additional assistance.
   2. Complain to the sender's Internet Service Provider. One service that tries to make this easy is SpamCop.
   3. If you forward samples and the number of messages being received to spamreport@jmu.edu, IT will investigate, as time permits, the feasibility of central mail server filtering. You must include the full headers for any action to be taken. Instructions for obtaining the full headers can be found by clicking here. The full headers contain more information about the source of the e-mail than what is available in a forwarded message and are necessary for any follow-up.

      Central mail filtering affects all users and can block legitimate e-mail so it is not always an option. Configuring your e-mail client to filter the messages you deem inappropriate is less likely to affect other users.

      IT may also send complaints to the sender's Internet Service Provider. However, this has limited success as many ISPs do not enforce adequate Appropriate Use Policies, some SPAM is sent through unrelated, inadequately managed servers, some spammers forge the mail headers, and some spammers move from place to place as they're discovered.

      Considering that we block more than 17,000 messages per day and receive many times that number, attempting to be the e-mail traffic cop for other organizations' irresponsibility is not always practical. If you feel strongly about this subject, you may want to consider contacting your congressional representative to urge stronger laws restricting unsolicited e-mail. Keep in mind, though, that we receive e-mail, including SPAM, from all over the world.

       

5. If you are being "mail bombed", that is, someone is filling your mailbox intentionally with hundreds of messages, contact abuse@jmu.edu or call the JMU helpdesk and IT will take steps to help stop the activity.
6. If you receive a message that warns of a deadly new virus, offers advice on configuring a computer to prevent viruses, or offers a patch, please check with official support staff, hoax information sites, or the JMU Computer Security Hot Topics page before following its instructions or forwarding it. There are many virus related hoaxes. Some just cause needless concern and mail traffic. Others offer damaging advice or actually deliver a virus.
7. Any unsolicited e-mail attachment should be treated with a little caution. Viruses often send these out under the names of people you know. It goes without saying that if you receive one from someone you don't know you should proceed with caution. If there is any hint of suspicion, check with the sender before opening the attachment.

 

How They Get Your E-mail Address

• Trolling through web sites looking for e-mail addresses...particularly mailto links.
• Trolling through newsgroups.
• Purchasing or otherwise obtaining lists from commercial and other sources. Be wary of giving your e-mail address out without reading the organization's privacy policy.
• Some web browsers will provide your e-mail address to web sites that you visit. You can check to see if your web browser gives out your e-mail address by visiting http://www.junkbusters.com/cgi-bin/privacy

In addition, HTML (web) based e-mail messages can contain "web bugs" that let the sender know when you read their e-mail. The only way to prevent this is to disable HTML based e-mail in your e-mail client.

 

E-mail Client Filtering

E-mail client filtering offers many of the same options available on the central mail server. However, instead of affecting tens of thousands of users, they only affect your e-mail. They let you be the judge of what is and is not appropriate for your viewing and who should or should not be contacting you. You can make them as strict or as lenient as you see fit.

Mulberry 2.0.8

The version of Mulberry currently being distributed at JMU does not support mail filters. A new version is being evaluated for distribution but no date has yet been set.

Outlook Express 6

Outlook Express does not support filters for the type of e-mail server we have at JMU (IMAP). If you are using a POP mail server you can filter messages with Outlook Express. From the main menu select Tools -> Message Rules -> Mail

Outlook 2002

From the main menu, select Tools -> Rules Wizard

Microsoft Knowledgebase article on SPAM filters in Outlook 2000

Netscape Messenger 4.77

From the main menu, select Edit -> Message Filters

Netscape Messenger 6.2

Mozilla

From the main menu, select Tools -> Message Filters

 

Additional SPAM Resources

Information Technology Services at the University of Iowa has a fairly detailed page showing filtering setup and capabilities of Outlook, Outlook Express for MacIntosh and Windows, Eudora for MacIntosh and Windows, and Netscape for MacIntosh and Windows. It can be found here.

Click here to view a list of sending sites and phrases in e-mail messages that result in blocked messages at JMU as well as current SPAM statistics.

Places to report fraud, pyramid schemes, health claims, child pornography, and other illegal activity as listed by the SpamCon Foundation. General SPAM complaints can be forwarded directly to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission at uce@ftc.gov.

SPAM Information at other universities:

• George Mason University
• Princeton University
• Purdue University
• University of Iowa
• University of Kansas
• University of Maryland
• University of Minnesota
• University of Virginia

 

SPAM in the News

Spam to overtake real e-mail in 2003

The deleterious effects of SPAM as described by CAUCE

Canning spam without eating up real mail - c/net

Recent news stories have covered a survey about e-mail performed by Pew Internet and American Life. The news reports and survey report seem to downplay the amount of SPAM in the workplace. The report says in part:

"According to our survey results, relatively little spam is finding its way to at-work e-mail inboxes. More than half of work e-mailers (52%) reported no spam in their e-mail accounts. Another 19% reported less than 10% of their incoming mail at work was spam. Eleven percent reported about two thirds or more of their inbox was spam. By contrast, 21% of respondents reported no spam in their personal accounts; another 16% reported less than 10% incoming spam. Thirty percent reported about two thirds or more of their incoming email personal email was spam. "

This could also be rewritten as:

Almost half of work e-mailers (48%) report SPAM in their e-mail accounts. Almost a third ( 29%) reported more than 10% of their incoming e-mail at work was spam and 11% reported two thirds (66%) or more of their inbox was spam.

While a large number of people are not affected by spam, a significant number are. It appears to be a little early to discount the frequency and deleterious effects of spam.