Dear Readership, Even though I am an online marketer, I too have had my fill of unwanted Email. The following article is from the InterNic Organization. We at the Future Health Technologies group thank them for their efforts on our behalf ! |
Keeping Your Mailbox Junk-Free By: Julie Robichaux, InterNIC Information and Education Services "" Does this sound like the mail you find in your mailbox at home? Most of us are used to the junk mail we receive every day, and hardly blink at mail addressed to "Occupant," "Resident," or even "Our friend at..." But deliver the same kind of commercially-oriented mail to our electronic mailboxes and we sit up and take notice. The Internet in its incarnation as the NSFnet had been passing research and education-related commercial traffic for years, but this use was subject to an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP), which stipulated fairly strict provisions for the transmission of commercial traffic. However, it wasn't until around 1994 that businesses really began to take notice of the Internet as a way to reach potential customers and clients. When the NSFnet was decommissioned in 1995, no further barriers to commercial use of the Internet remained. That is, no further legal barriers remained. Even though commercial users greatly outnumber users in research-oriented disciplines, the strong anti-commercial bias that was fostered by the Internet's original R&E culture remains among seasoned Internet users. The Internet Community Is Not Amused While commerce has found a natural niche on the World Wide Web, its place in USENET newsgroups and e-mail is a bit more controversial. Many users will remember, for example, the tremendous backlash that occurred in 1994 after Canter and Siegel's massive cross-posting of their Green Card Lottery advertisement to thousands of USENET newsgroups. Martha Siegel insisted that the vehemently negative reaction they encountered as a result of their aggressive crossposting was simply the reaction of "a group of old-timers who don't want their private domain invaded." This contention is, of course, arguable. However, it's undeniable that many Internet users react with annoyance to such antics. "Spamming"--the practice of sending unsolicited commercial mail or posting to inappropriate newsgroups--is an extremely unpopular practice, one that can have unpleasant repercussions for the "spammer." In the case of Canter and Siegel, there were reports of hostile attempts to overload their Internet service provider's mail servers. This kind of reaction is extreme, and not one we'd recommend. How can you respond to unsolicited commercial e-mail? Return to Sender If you're subscribed to mailing lists or have made postings to USENET newsgroups, it's likely that you've also received unwanted commercial e-mail. How can you prevent this from happening again? Unfortunately, you can't entirely prevent Internet-based entrepreneurs from sending you advertisements via e-mail. Your e-mail address, far from being private and unlisted, is available to others through many different avenues. However, you can take certain measures that may bring you some relief from excessive spamming. Write to The Sender of The Post A polite note to the original sender is the first step. The sender's e-mail address should be listed in the mail header of the message you received, in the "From:" field:
Difficulties may arise, though, if the mail has been forged, as is often the case when the real sender does not wish to be traced. In this case, mail sent to the address in the "From:" or "Reply-to:" field may be returned to you with an error message. You may then decide to proceed to the next step. Write to The Postmaster at The Sender's Site How can you determine what the sender's site is, though, if the mail has been forged? Look at the header again. Find the line that begins, "Message-Id:":
You'll notice that to the right of the long, random message ID number is the @ symbol and a hostname and domain name, in this case, moses.internic.net. The hostname and domain name to the right of the @ symbol should tell you where the mail originated. As a rule, sending mail to the postmaster of the site from which the mail originated (postmaster@example.com) is a sensible action to take. Again, be polite; it is unlikely that the site's administrator is aware that one of the site's users is making a nuisance of himself. In this mail, you should include the original message with the full headers of the mail intact. This will help the site's administrator(s) determine what the problem is and how their system has been exploited in the case of a forged mail message. Higher-level solutions include mail filtering and autoresponders. You can find out more about these options in the resources listed below. In the case of inappropriate crosspostings to USENET, it's advisable to leave it to the professionals to respond. If you're annoyed, rest assured that others are, too. In fact, there is an entire newsgroup that addresses the problem of junk postings and e-mail, news.admin.net-abuse.misc. Similarly, unsolicited advertisements sent to mailing lists are best dealt with by the list owner or moderator. Finding Out More To learn more about mail spamming and how recipients handle it, you can investigate the following resources: The Net Abuse FAQ You can also visit the following ANTI-SPAM related Web sites for more information on how to combat SPAM and what you can do about it. "Help stop Scam Spammers!" Maintainer of the SPAM-L FAQ Complaint Addresses (GoodGuys|Unresponsive|Foe) "If you want to improve your spam-fighting skills, check
out" Anchor Desk "Special Spam Fighting Edition" How to Get Rid of Junk Mail, and Telemarketers |
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