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This message has been posted on the news group alt.kill.spammers by anonymous
author. It has a few good points about fighting the spam, so we decided to make it available to you.
- First of all, for the love of god, NEVER respond to a "remove-me" link or e-mail address on a spam e-mail, 99.999%
of the time that will just validate your e-mail address as good. However feel free to call any toll-free phone numbers
the spammers list, and try to keep them on the phone as long as legally possible (toll free calls cost the operator of
the toll free number money).
- All unsolicited commercial e-mail (spam) should ALWAYS be forwarded to uce@ftc.gov.
Also their homepage is: www.ftc.gov in case you would like to check them out.
- I also make it a habit to forward all unsolicited commercial e-mail (spam) to spamrecycle@chooseyourmail.com
- If you get a chain-letter/pyramid scheme e-mail, where you are asked to send the letter onwards, and put your name
on a list that is supposed to use the United States Federal Postal Service to send the money, they report their arse to
pyramid@ftc.gov & fraud@uspis.gov. Here is a nifty website on this subject:
www.cs.rutgers.edu/~watrous/chain-letters.html, here is the official USPS website on the matter:
www.usps.gov/websites/depart/inspect/chainlet.htm,
here is the actual law if you would like to see it: www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/1302.html.
- To report internet crimes, such as the donate money to Nigeria scam or help to transfer money to the US, I use this website:
www.unitedstates-investigators.org/index_main.htm,
and this website: www.fraud.org to report fraud.
- I just recently looked up how to report crimes to the Australian Law Enforcement Agencies, this is what I have so
far: www.afp.gov.au,
www.afp.gov.au/page.asp?ref=/Crime/ReportCrime/
- A GREAT, and FREE e-mail filtering service is at www.despammed.com simply sign up for an e-mail address with
them, then tell them where you want all mail sent to that address to go (I.E. your main address) and you are good to go,
they even let you send web based e-mails from your account should you get mail you want to respond to, but don't want to
reveal your real e-mail address with.
- Here is a nifty little FAQ on spam put out by PacBell, almost ALL ISPs have something like this now:
public.pacbell.net/faq/spam.html.
- This was just recently posted, but lets post it again for good measure, spam laws, by country, and state:
www.spamlaws.com (always fun to cite these in a spam complaint).
- Good resources for anti-spam activities: www.cauce.org,
www.mail-abuse.org, www.spamcon.org.
- The two most commonly used methods to report spammers (that I know of) www.samspade.org,
spamcop.net.
- Some filter info: www.spamcon.org/directories/filtered-mailboxes.shtml.
- To help curb the hysteria that the internet seems to cause in some people (people that still use their computer as a
glorified typewriter and that is about it) you can use these two sites to look up the facts on various "Virus Warnings
(I dunno about you people, but I am starting to seriously want THESE damn things outlawed as well), and urban legends
and hoaxes that circulate the internet every day. You usually get these in droves from friends and family that are new
to the internet, and since they are your friends as family you don't want to report them (generally) so look up the
facts instead, and then reply to every on in the e-mail they sent you with the truth, and maybe a canned standard form
letter on what you should do BEFORE sending out e-mails with virus warnings, or messages that look suspicious:
vmyths.com and www.snopes.com
a good example of when I have used these resources is when I got the infamous "Federal Bill 602P - The hoax letter
saying there is a 'Federal Bill' getting ready to charge internet users a tax on e-mails (which of course just pisses
EVERYONE off)" chain letter from my grandmother. Quick as lightning I looked it up on snopes
(www.snopes.com/business/taxes/602p.htm)
then shot a letter out to EVERYONE in the e-mail she had sent telling them to truth, and telling them to back up the
line they had forwarded to, and tell everyone that had sent it to them that is was a hoax, and to STOP SENDING crap like
that out.
- Here is a website on the various hacking and spamming laws for the USA, parts of the UK and Canada:
vx.netlux.org/texts/laws/laws.htm.
- The last one is the email address from the Securities and Exchange Commission website to report "pump and dump" or
other securities-related SPAMS. You can forward spam (junk email) or copies of message board postings to
enforcement@sec.gov. Please do not use this email box for general complaints
or questions. More information here: www.sec.gov/complaint.shtml.
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