Spam Awareness
Spam is both an annoyance and a danger. We have a spam filter installed on our network to look at all the email that comes into our system. Currently 80 - 90% of the email that comes into our system is either blocked as spam or “tagged” with a bulk tag. We regularly fine tune the spam filter to improve its ability to identify spam. Even so, a good deal of unwanted email makes it through the filter and into your mail box.
If you don’t recognize the From: address the safest thing to do is delete the email without opening it. If you do open email from an unknown user you should NEVER click on any links in the message. Some of these links download unwanted software and viruses.
The following tips can help you avoid spam. These tips were taken from Mount Holyoke College.
- Try to avoid listing your email in public. Once it is public, it becomes a target for spam.
- Do not respond to unsolicited email; this alerts an organization that may have randomly hit your email address that the account is active and may subject you to further emails, some of which may not even appear to come from the same place.
- Spammers can get addresses from jokes, pleas for emails going to a sick person, or any other forwarded email with a list of addresses. Do not forward such lists; if there is content in the email you wish to forward, cut that content and paste into a new email without forwarding all those addresses. This avoids inadvertently sending your friend’s address(es) back to the person collecting them.
November 12, 2007 @ 5:28 pm
Thanks for posting this information about spam. I know there are several teachers at my school who are very concerned about this. I hope this alleviates some of their questions and concerns.
November 13, 2007 @ 7:53 am
Thanks for the good tips…I have gotten many “spam” messages myself, some with rather racy titles and after I get done blushing I delete them!;-)
Hopefully everyone will check out the blog and follow these tips…
November 13, 2007 @ 9:25 pm
Thanks for the info….spam is quite an aggravation! Even though I delete the emails from addresses that I do not recognize, I am always fearful that I will delete something that I shouldn’t! A couple of times I have deleted emails from parents because I didn’t recognize the address….
November 14, 2007 @ 11:05 pm
Some of the “bulk” email has some pretty questionable content. This is revealed in the subject line. It makes it seem as though it were solicited. Is there any way to “clean up” an account so that it no longer receives these hits? Also, what is with the spam that has names and addresses that seem to be randomly generated? Are they there for any real purpose, or just to make one’s life more difficult?
November 30, 2007 @ 4:54 pm
Thanks for the info concerning spam. It is time consuming to sort through unknown addresses. The content of some messages are inappropriate to say the least. I appreciate the tips!
March 17, 2008 @ 3:35 pm
Paul,
Thanks for the information. Like Diane, I appreciate the tips.