Wednesday November 25 2009
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CAN THE spam!

Dealing with spam

While the IT User Advocate is available to help, you are your own best resource for eliminating (or at least minimizing) spam. Follow these simple guidelines:

  • Just Delete It!
    If you suspect a message is junk mail, treat it as such by deleting it—even without opening it. Common clues include information in the subject headings and unknown senders.

  • Don't Reply!
    A reply can perpetuate what you're trying to stop. Especially with advertising, your reply verifies to spammers that they have reached a valid e-mail address, thus making certain you're included on future lists. Advertisements frequently offer a URL or toll-free number to delete yourself from future mailings. Before you do, reread this paragraph.

  • Don't "Reply to All"!
    If you must reply, make certain you're only including the offender. You weren't happy receiving the spam, so don't mistakenly create more.

  • Use the Filtering Capabilities of Your E-mail Program
    We recommend you first read our filtering overview document.

    • Eudora (both Light and Pro) — view Eudora's online help, available from Eudora's Help menu.
    • Mail.app (Mac OS X 10.2 and later) — view Mail's online help, available from the Mail Help menu.
    • mail.umich.edu — see Appendix C: Setting Mail Filters in Using mail.umich.edu for E-Mail on the Web (S4297).
    • Mulberry 3.0.3 (available on the Blue Disk) — read our documentation; you can also look in the "Rules and Filtering" section of Mulberry's Reference Guide (an Adobe Reader file included in the Mulberry folder).
    • Pine — read our documentation; within Pine, you can also type ? to view Pine's online help table of contents. Move down the list, and select Filtering.

  • Forward Problem E-Mails to the IT User Advocate (abuse@umich.edu)
    Make sure you include full headers so that the User Advocate can attempt to trace the source. Although spammers can forge them, there is nothing the User Advocate can do about problem e-mail if you don't include full headers.

    But before forwarding an e-mail, please read What Is spam?

« CAN THE spam!