Spam

• What is spam?
• What is not spam?
• Where did they get my email address?
• What does NC State do to stop spam?
• What happens when a campus level event occurs?
• What does NC State not do to stop spam?
• How can I filter spam out of my email?
• If I filter out spam, does it still take up part of my email storage space (quota)?
• What else can I do to avoid spam?
• Additional Resources

Spam is the unsolicited email, also known as junk mail or bulk mail that floods the Internet each day. Some of it is from legitimate marketers, but much is from scam artists who make promises they have no intention of keeping.

What is spam?

• Chain letters
• Get rich quick schemes
• Health products
• Offers for pornographic Web sites
• Pyramid schemes
• Stock offerings

What is not spam?

• Campus broadcast messages
• Crime alerts
• Broadcast emails

Where did they get my email address?

• Free email accounts (e.g., Hotmail) not related to your Internet service provider
• Free email groups
• Free Web hosting companies (e.g., Geocities, Tripod and Freespace)
• "Get paid to surf" programs
• Open lists
• Shareware
• Web pages that contain your address

What does NC State do to stop spam?

• Manages "block" lists for the campus mail relays to stop viruses, mail loops, bad hosts and spam directed at our entire user installation.
• Periodically scans the network for machines accepting mail and performs third party (open) relay checks.
• Uses spam filtering software.

What happens when a campus level event occurs?

• OIT contacts postmaster/abuse@ domain to ask for assistance in stopping the spam. If the site does not respond within a given time period, OIT will add the site to the "block" list.
• A site can respond after this period and be removed from the list by contacting postmaster@ncsu.edu or abuse@ncsu.edu.

What does NC State not do to stop spam?

• OIT won't block a domain for an individual user but will block one that is targeting our campus population.

How can I filter spam out of my email?

• NC State offers PureMessage, a mail filtering agent that attempts to identify spam using text analysis and Internet-based blacklists.
• To learn more about PureMessage and how to construct your own email filters, see:
  http://www.ncsu.edu/it/essentials/email_messaging/pure_message/index.html.

If I filter out spam, does it still take up part of my email storage space (quota)?

Yes, it occupies your email storage space and counts against your quota until you permanently delete it from the system.

What else can I do to avoid spam?

• You probably won't be able to avoid spam completely, but you can do a lot to minimize it.

Additional Resources:

• Coalition against unsolicited commercial email (http://www.cauce.org)
• Network abuse clearinghouse (http://www.abuse.net/)
• SpamCop (http://www.spamcop.net)
• Mailwasher (http://www.mailwasher.net)
• MailShell (http://www.mailshell.com)
• NC Spam Laws (http://www.spamlaws.com/state/nc.html)

Last modified September 9, 2008 by cawalker