Spam Control Help

Main Menu | View Current Settings | Log Out
Whitelist | Blacklist | Spam Control Sensitivity | Spam Digest | Parental Control
View/Process Your Spam Digests | Message Headers | Help

Why are some spam messages still slipping through?

Why are messages from my friends/acquaintances treated as spam?

How to I retrieve messages held in the Spam Digest?

Why are some messages that I requested from the Spam Digest not delivered?

Why am I not receiving a spam digest?

Why do messages sent to me get bounced back to some senders?

Someone sent me an email but I didn't receive it. Where is it?

Why aren't there more whitelisting options?

Why aren't there more blacklisting options?

Where can I find out more about spam?

Spam is unsolicited junk email--something that has become increasingly annoying to everyone but the spammers--the ones who create and distribute the garbage.
See the following references for all sorts of useful information about spam:

Why do I get bounced (returned) messages from mail I didn't send?

Since spam and viruses are often distributed the same way and recipients' email addresses are often harvested the same way, the information here applies to both spam and viruses.

Most spam is now sent with spoofed (falsified) From addresses--which either has already or probably will include your own email address. This benefits the spammers in at least two ways:

  1. It makes it harder for people to determine the message's true origin, so complaints are often misdirected to invalid addresses or unsuspecting innocent people.
  2. When messages are bounced back for some reason (e.g. the recipient's mailbox doesn't exist or is full, etc.), the bounced messages won't fill up the distributor's mailbox--it'll go elsewhere.

Unfortunately, because so many people's email addresses have already been harvested by spammers and virus creators, virtually everyone has received bounced messages that make it seem as if they (you) have sent a message to someone that you don't know, yet it's bouncing back to you. There's little you can do to prevent this from happening, so unless you have the time to research email message headers to determine the true origin of the junk, just delete the messages keeping in mind that some of the bounced messages may contain virues as attachments.

How can you prevent someone from sending out mail using your email address? For the most part, you can't. It's essentially the same thing as putting someone else's address in the upper-left corner of an envelope and sending off the mail. If it gets returned for some reason, it'll go to the address in the upper-left corner regardless of who really sent the mail. You can't stop that or the email version.

Why am I receiving email that's being sent to someone else?

How did my email address get on someone's spam/virus recipient list?

See also:
Email Address Harvesting: How Spammers Reap What You Sow
Network Tallahassee Support: Internet Security

Spammers and virus creators often use specialized software to search the internet for email addresses that appear on websites, archived newsgroup postings, message boards, etc. If your email address is visible somewhere on the internet, you can bet that you will receive spam at one point or another.

Any time you enter your email address into a form on a website (e.g. for purchasing products, signing up for some kind of service, etc.) read the fine-print! You may be granting them permission to distribute some/all of the information you enter into the forms.

Any time you install software onto your computer--especially software obtained from the internet, read the EULA (End-User License Agreement)--the very long agreement that no one wants to read. You may be granting them permission to distribute some/all of the information you enter into the registration forms.

Another method for harvesting email addresses is by using address books and cached webpages that exist on computers that have been infected by viruses and/or spyware / adware. Some spyware/adware does nothing but cause annoying pop-up advertisements to appear on your computer for no apparent reason. Other forms of spyware can be used to cause all sorts of mayhem on your computer--similar in ways to some viruses or worms. Trying to manually remove some of this garbage is often nearly impossible.

Luckily, there exists software that can remove much of this mysterious trouble-making garbage on your computer. A few popular anti-spyware/adware utilities are:

For an in-depth article on spyware/adware (including reviews of anti-spyware/adware software), see this:
Spyware--It's lurking on your machine

How can I filter mail once it has arrived in my mail program?

Main Menu | View Current Settings | Log Out
Whitelist | Blacklist | Spam Control Sensitivity | Spam Digest | Parental Control
View/Process Your Spam Digests | Message Headers | Help