SPAM

Spam is the telemarketer of e-mail: messages from people and companies that you have never even heard of before who have somehow discovered your e-mail account and are now trying to get your to buy their product, visit their website, download their program, or become infected by their virus.

Spam invariably comes in 7 forms:

• Refinance your home now!
• Buy prescription drugs online!
• HOTHOTSEX!
• this is not a virus i swear lol
• Your <insert account type here> account has expired. Please send us all of your personal information so we can steal your identity and buy stuff with your money!
• (*#&$()*&@*$^!(@^*$
• Hello Sir or Madam. Iam Nigerean royelty and want togive you money. Please disregrd thefact that i cant spell Nigeran. Or royelty.

Where does spam come from?

Well, it depends on the type of spam. Some of it comes from scam artists trying to get your money. Some of it comes from hackers who want to spread viruses and/or get access to your personal information. The rest of it (a much smaller amount) comes from legitimate companies in a misguided attempt at promotion. The first two sources are malicious, while the latter is just annoying.

How can I avoid getting spam?

Most spam comes from the random things you register for online. Luckily, there are ways to get around this. Here are some things to keep in mind when a commercial site asks for your e-mail address.

Read the registration form carefully

What you're looking for here are the little checkboxes, usually located at the bottom, that say something along the lines of "Send me updates/offers/lots of junk." Make sure these boxes are unchecked before continuing. Also, you should check to see if the registration process requires e-mail confirmation (that is, if it makes you click a link in an e-mail to complete the process).

Use a fake e-mail address

If you don't need to confirm your e-mail address, there's no reason for you to be honest here. Simply make up an e-mail address ( sherlock@holmes.net is a personal favorite) and continue. You can also check out http://www.dodgeit.com which provides the wonderful service of disposable emails. You can create any email <Anything>@dodgeit.com and then go recieve it at dodgeit.com. Don't use dodgeit for any personal info because anyone can access it.

Set up a separate account for spam

Lots of companies have realized that people are feeding them fake e-mail addresses, so they now require you to confirm that your e-mail account actually exists. For this reason, it's often good to have a separate e-mail account that you only use for stuff like that. By diverting that sort of e-mail to another account, you can keep your main inbox spam-free. When your secondary e-mail inbox gets too spammy you can simply shut it down and get another one.

Does Pomona provide a spam filter?

Yes! Pomona uses Postini to block junk mail (as well as virus-infected messages) from reaching your inbox. You can access blocked messages and adjust your settings by going to http://spam.pomona.edu.

I'm already getting lots of spam. What can I do?

Most e-mail providers offer protection from spam and other junk mail in the form of filters. These automatically send suspicious messages to a separate folder before they ever reach your inbox. However, these filters are not perfect. Some messages that are perfectly legitimate can get blocked (for instance, if you've set your Pomona e-mail to forward to a Hotmail account, the filter will detect it as junk) while spam can still leak through. Check your junk mail folders often to make sure you're getting all of your mail, and be sure to zap any messages that slip through the cracks. (There's almost always some sort of option to mark individual messages as junk, which blacklists the sender.) If the problem has spiraled out of all control, you might need to move to a different e-mail address. Luckily, spam filters are pretty effective, so this is rarely necessary anymore.