Spam & Unsolicited Email
Spam (also known as Bulk Email) and U.C.E. (Unsolicited Commercial Email), are email that flood the Internet with many copies of the same message in an attempt to force it on those who would not otherwise choose to receive it. Most spam is unsolicited, commercial advertising. It is often disguised as get-rich-quick schemes, "revolutionary" products, or other scams to take your money. Spamming is also used to spread computer viruses, so one should be very careful when opening or replying to unfamiliar messages. It has become major problem worldwide, since it costs the sender very little to produce while most of the costs are paid for by the recipient or network carriers.
Spam email can take many forms. University of Michigan students may not realize that messages stating "I have extra football tickets!" or "Textbook for sale!" are spam. Typically, students who send these types of messages do not consider it to be spam until they are on the receiving end, when their mailbox is flooded with numerous messages. Note: When you receive this type of spam, if you reply, make sure that your response is to the sender only, not to the entire recipient list (i.e. do not Reply-to-all). This will help reduce the amount of traffic on the network, and irritation of the recipients.
Until stricter laws are passed, combating Spam can be difficult. There are two schools of thought on the issue of spam:
- Spam is one of life's little annoyances, and is not very different than telemarketers calling your home or people sending piles of solicitations/coupons to your residential mailbox. The only real differences are that Spam costs nothing for the sender and can often contain lewd material. Spam, however, is easier to deal with and better for the environment.
- Spam email is theft of service. Users pay for their connections and the time it takes to read/delete messages. Spam not only consumes massive amounts of disk space, but it also bogs down servers and eats up a network's bandwidth, slowing down everyone's service.
How do I keep from getting spammed?
Spammers pull (or harvest) email addresses from newsgroup posts, web pages, IM clients, web browsers, and other Internet software. Whenever you shop online, apply for a credit card...whenever you give out your email address (or even if you do not!), you can be sure your address will be sought out, and given or sold to third parties. If your email address is posted anywhere on the web, spammers will find it. The best way to prevent getting spam or being added to commercial email lists is to keep your email address private, especially from those you do not know. Give your email address out only when absolutely necessary, as you would with any personal information. For example:
- Never respond to the spam's instructions to reply with the word remove or unsubscribe in the Subject: field in order to remove yourself from their list. This is a common method spammers use to validate an email address. If you reply, your address will likely be placed on more lists, and you may receive more spam.
- Never sign up with sites that promise to remove your name from spam lists. They are only trying to validate your email address. Even though they may appear to be sincere, they are primarily spam address collectors. When you respond, a higher value is placed on your address because you have identified it as being an address that is actually read by a person.
- Never "mail-bomb" spam sites or engage in hacking to stop spammers. This only increases the amount of wasted Internet traffic. It is also in violation of the U-M Proper Use Policy and can ultimately prove detrimental to you.
Phishing & Identity Theft
Another form of Spam, known as Phishing or Spoofing, asks recipients to visit a web page and/or provide personal, financial information over the Internet. These types of email messages often appear to be genuine; using text and images from legitimate web sites (e.g. banks, charities, credit cards, etc.). But they are more likely an attempt to gain your personal information; anything from your Social Security Number, to your mother's maiden name. These messages are not from the institutions they claim to be from; most reputable financial institutions explicitly state that they do not send out email notifications regarding personal information.
These messages are most likely sent by someone trying to obtain your personal information for illegal use. If you are uncertain about such a request, check with the institution by calling their customer service phone number or visiting their offices directly, but never blindly respond to any solicitation for personal information over the Internet. Never reply to these email messages, never click on web links in the messages, and never open attachments in any Spam message.
You can read more about Phishing and other scams on the Protect Yourself! page of the U-M Identity Misrepresentation and Theft web site. Also, please visit the Federal Trade Commission site for more information:
Why do I keep getting these Returned Mail messages when I never sent the message?
This is likely the result of a common spamming practice to forge the From: field, or header, of a message to make it look like it comes from someone else. This can be a real or fake email address, and it could be yours. For more information, refer to the following page:
I've been spammed. What do I do?
The first step is to find out where the spam came from. You can look for the server that the spammer used to send out the junk email. To find this information, you need to view the email's header information. This is a trace of the servers the message went through to get into your inbox. Normally, an email's header is hidden because it contains information that is used for computer-to-computer routing. The only information you usually see is the Subject:, Date:, and the From: address. Spammers are generally clever enough to forge the From: address to either a fake address or an innocent victim, so a reply will usually not work in contacting the spammer.
The best course of action for students who have been spammed is to notify the proper University organization. If you were illegally Spammed at your University email address, you should contact the Information Technology User Advocate at itua @ umich.edu; please include the header information from the Spam messages:
Spam Busters
Spam Busters provides a comprehensive approach to spam management at U-M. For information on these anti-spam services, please see:
Where can I find more help with spam?
Listed below are links to more useful sites that provide information and instructions on dealing with spam:
