How to Deal with Junk E-mail

If you are reading this page, it is probably already too late. You are most likely already a victim of junk mail or "spamming". Here are some suggestions and resources to help you with your, and our, campaign against spam.

If you want to know about Internet Alaska's policies on spam you can read all about them on our spam policy page.

What Not To Do

• Do not delete the offending message. In order to help you fight junk mail, we need some critical information that is contained in the mail headers of this message.
• Do not reply back to the sender. If you do this, you may just be confirming your e-mail address for the offender. Often, this is just "bot" (a program that automatically responds to messages), which will reward you for your efforts with even more junk mail.
• Do not send an abusive message to support@alaska.net or to the offender's postmaster. If you truly want to be off the junk mailing lists, it is always best to remain on good terms with these people.
• Do not use a web page form that supposedly unsubscribes you from unwanted mail lists.

What Will Help

• Take a look at the mail message's full headers. This will contain information about where the unwanted mail message is coming from. Find out what the domain (e.g. alaska.net, aol.com) that the message came from. In Netscape 3.0, you can view the full headers for a message by opening the mail message and going to the Options menu and choosing Show Headers. Choose "All."
  
  
• Forward the full headers to abuse.net . They will then keep the complaint on file for future reference. For more information look at their web page.

  Compose a polite message to the postmaster of the site from which the unwanted message came from. The address will look something like this.

  abuse@host.domain

  In this message, explain politely that you are receiving unwanted, unsolicited mail from that system. Be sure to include the full text of the unwanted message with full headers of the message so that the postmaster has all the necessary information. The really important part here is that the message which you forward has the full headers of the message you received. Without the full headers there is very little that anyone can do to help.

  Almost all Internet Service Providers are helpful to the cause. No one likes the wastefulness of spam and more and more ISP's are adding spamming to the list of reason to terminate service to individuals and businesses.

• If you decide that you would like help from Internet Alaska with the junk mail message, please forward the message with the full headers to abuse@alaska.net. Remember that without those full headers, there is nothing that we can do to help you.

How to Avoid Getting Junk Mail
Many people use one or more of these suggestions to avoid help avoid being sent junk mail. Which steps you wish to take depend on your own personal preferences.

• Under no circumstances should you ever fill out a form online that asks for your e-mail address, unless you are willing to accept the consequences. The only exceptions for this are large known reputable sites, (e.g. CNET, CNN, MSNBC).
  
  
• If you are a news poster, put in a spam spoiler in your reply to address (e.g. nobodyNO.SPAM.PLEASE@alaska.net) with a note in your .signature explaining, to those who do not notice, that it needs to be removed. If you choose to do this, remember that any e-mail you send out will have an invalid return address in it. In Netscape, you will find this setup in the Options menu, in Mail and News Preferences, in the "Identity" section.
  
  
• Configure your web browser to tell you before accepting a cookie. A large quantity of e-mail addresses are grabbed by cookies, and it's a simple enough thing to do. When you are asked to accept a cookie, refuse. In Netscape 3.0, you can do this by going to the "Options" menu, then to "Network Preferences". Click on the "Protocols tab" and make sure that "Accepting a cookie" is not selected.
  
  
• Do not use your e-mail address as your anonymous FTP password. In Netscape 3.0, you will find this setting in the "Options" menu, under "Network Preferences", on the "Protocols" tab. Make sure that "Send E-mail Address as Anonymous FTP Password" is not selected.
  
  
• Disable Java and Javascript. Yes, Javascript is very cool, but it also allows web designers to access your e-mail address using Javascript cookies. To disable Javascript in Netscape 3.0, go to the "Options" menu, then to "Network Preferences". Choose "Languages" and make sure that both tick boxes and not selected (this does mean that you won't be able to use any site which takes advantage of Java or Javascript but will reduce the number of people that can collect your e-mail address).
  
  
• Use the Anonymizer . If you still do not trust that you are not giving out information about yourself as you surf the net, try using it. This service allows you to view web pages without giving out any information about yourself. Keep in mind that this does slow you down, since the sites you access will be going through a third party before they reach your computer.
  
  
• If all else fails, you can always just delete the offending message and pretend that you never received it. Or, you could change your e-mail address and start over, hoping that this does not start happening to you again.

Other Resources

The Cookie Trade

What cookies are and how they can be used to make a web site easier to use and how they can be used to help breach your personal privacy.

Who is watching you and what are you telling them? This page talks about what information people can find out about you and what they might be doing with it.

Stop Junk E-mail

Lots of ideas and information about how to help combat spam.

The Anonymizer

A public service to help you remain anonymous as you surf the web.