Spam is the term used for any unsolicited email. A better description of spam is email
that is unsolicited and does not have a legitimate return address label. There are
email messages that you receive that are still unsolicited; however, they are coming
from legitimate sources.
There are many ways your email address could have been submitted to a list. First,
you may have subscribed to an email distribution list or filled out an online form
for a company that does not have a privacy policy. The distribution list owner most
likely sold the list to an email distributor.
Another method is by specialized software that hunts for email addresses. The software
is set loose on web sites, bulletin boards, Usenet, and other documents published
on the internet. These address hunters, create their lists, and use them for email
distributors.
Finally, there's the sneaky way... The spammers send a message to some list that they
have. However, that list may have lots of invalid addresses. So, they clean it up
by putting a link on the bottom of a message telling you to "click here" to remove
yourself from the list. Once you click here, the spammer now knows that this was a
valid address, and moves your email address to a "good" list.
This is a difficult question to answer. The answer is "it depends." If it is true
spam, there may not be an easy way to get your address off their lists. However, if
it is unsolicited email from a legitimate company, you can compose a new message (don't
reply) to the company that is "advertised". Ask them to remove your email address
from their list. Many times legitimate companies have a generic address such as abuse@company.com,
or postmaster@company.com.
With true spam, the return address is usually invalid. Therefore, it is difficult
to determine who really sent it. Many times you'll see spam from Gmail.com or Yahoo.com.
These are just about impossible to trace without a lot of technical research to trace
the message. These messages probably traversed many networks or even countries before
it ended up in your Inbox.
This is another tough question. Make sure that you verify any web site's privacy policy
before submitting your email address or name to the site. This includes online purchases
and subscriptions. If you do receive unsolicited email, don't reply to the message
or click on the "unsubscribe" option, unless you know it's a valid option.
If you have any questions about spam or unsolicited email that you received, you can
contact the Help Desk for assistance.
Links
