This Spam Guide will introduce you to spam, enabling you to identify spam, determine
the appropriate course of actions, and effectively handle spam complaints.
Spam is flooding the Internet with many copies of the same message, in an attempt
to force the message on people who would not otherwise choose to receive it.
Most spam is commercial advertising, often for dubious products, get-rich-quick
schemes, or quasi-legal services. Spam costs the sender very little to send—most
of the costs are paid for by the recipient or the carriers rather than by the
sender.
There are two main types of spam, and they have different effects on Internet
users. Cancelable Usenet spam is a single message sent to 20 or more Usenet newsgroups.
(Through long experience, Usenet users have found that any message posted to
so many newsgroups is often not relevant to most or all of them.) Usenet spam
is aimed at "lurkers," people who read newsgroups but rarely or never
post and give their address away. Usenet spam robs users of the utility of the
newsgroups by overwhelming them with a barrage of advertising or other irrelevant
posts. Furthermore, Usenet spam subverts the ability of system administrators
and owners to manage the topics they accept on their systems.
Email spam targets individual users with direct mail messages. Email spam lists
are often created by scanning Usenet postings, stealing Internet mailing lists,
or searching the Web for addresses. Email spams typically cost users money out-of-pocket
to receive. Many people—those with measured phone service—read or
receive their mail while the meter is running, so to speak. Spam costs them additional
money. On top of that, it costs money for ISPs and online services to transmit
spam, and these costs are transmitted directly to subscribers.
In essence, spam is the transmission of unsolicited bulk email (UBE), unsolicited
commercial email (CUE), or commercial postings to inappropriate newsgroups.
Sometimes, site partners and end-users contact us asking why they received emails
from RealMega.com - RealMegaMail.com and/or
its affiliates. They may not be aware that they have opted-in for the mailings
when signing up for our services.
If you receive a RealMega.com Email Notification,
please send us a full copy of the message, including ALL headers, and specify
if you have signed up for the email address we service.
If you are a RealMega.com - RealMegaMail.com end-user
and receive our newsletters/special promotions or your site's newsletters/special
promotions, please verify your account. You may have opted-in when you signed
up for the service. You can unsubscribe by following the 'Unsubscribe' instructions
found in the email or simply update your email account. To do this, log in to
the email account, click 'Options,' click 'Personal Info,' scroll down to 'Preferences,'
and select 'No' under Contact me occasionally about my service and special offers.
If you are an RealMega.com - RealMegaMail.com site
partner and if you receive emails from us, you can unsubscribe in the Control
Center. Once logged in to your Control Center account, click 'Edit My Profile,'
click 'Update Profile,' scroll down to 'Everyone.Benefits!', then select 'Please
do not contact me.'
A. Why do spammers send spam and why is spam bad?
Spammers send spam as a form of free advertising, which is illegal in most cases.
It is similar to a telemarketer calling you collect. No other kind of advertising
costs the advertiser so little and the recipient so much. It can cost the recipient
additional time and money spent on the Internet to view and/or delete spam. The
recipients are not the only victims—ISPs are also taken advantage of. Many
ISPs promote their free trial offers to the public, which prompts spammers to
'sign-up' and give the free service a try. The spammer then uses this opportunity
to send spam to numerous email addresses, both valid and invalid ones. Then they
abandon the trial account, forcing the provider to rectify spam complaints and
monitor spam/abuse issues. RealMega's web hosting provider (Mega
Hosters Inc.) has a 0 tollerance for spam, if we at RealMega.com were
to spam you we would risk our very existance on the web and we are not willing
to take that risk.
B. How did you get on their email list?
If you do any of the following, there is a good chance you can end up on a spammer's
email list:
Post on an online bulletin board
Post in a Usenet newsgroup
Participate in chat rooms
Including your email address in an online service's member directory
Large email providers such as Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail hold user accounts that
have common usernames, such as 'Smith,' 'Dave,' 'webmaster,' 'info,' etc.
If you can identify the source of the spam, contact the spammer's ISP or email
service provider.
Send us a copy of the full email and include all headers (see item #7 for an
examples). Please send one email only to spamabuse@realmega.com
Use a service to automatically report spammers such as SpamCop.net.
B. What not to do:
Do not respond to removal instructions. Responding to any REMOVAL
instructions pose more problems than resolutions.
Threaten the spammer with violence or vandalism.
Mailbomb the site where the spammer is from.
Mailbomb the alleged spammer, who may be an innocent third party.
Ping-storm or SYN-flood the site.
Hack into their site. Do not use spam to fight spam!
C. How to minimize spam:
Upgrade your service to a package that include our SpamShield Pro or Total Protection.
Filter out unwanted emails (see items #4, 5, and 6).
Simply delete unwanted emails.
Use one email account for personal use and another one for commercial use.
Our Personal and Business Mail accounts come with our SpamShield Pro
solution to help you control spam.
Use our SpamShield Pro feature to direct mail that is spam to your Trash or Spam
folders. You must first log in to your RealMegaMail.com email
account.
Click Options on the main navigation bar.
Click the SpamShield Pro link.
Turn SpamShield Pro On.
Select any other appropriate option then Click Save.
Users of SpamShield Lite may want to add additional rules:
Again, you must first log in to your account before proceeding.
Click Options on the main navigation bar.
Click the Email Rules link; your current list of filters will appear.
Click Add Filter.
Set the conditions for the filter by completing the If-Then statement.
(Optional) Click Match Case to enforce case sensitivity; if the box
is unchecked, the filter will match the phrase regardless of what case the text
is.
Click Add Filter when you are finished; your new filter will appear in the Filter
Description list.
Please consult your email service provider for assistance in setting
up the email filters for your non RealMega.com - RealMegaMail.com account.
7. An example of full email header information:
Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 21:04:51 -0800
From: "John Doe"
To: "JDoe (E-mail)" , "Bapssa (E-mail)"
Subject: Email header info
Received: from mail.realmegamail.com (mail [208.184.100.4]) by imta05.mta.realmegamail.com
(Postfix) with ESMTP id E865C4AC0E for ; Wed, 14 Mar
2001 20:42:33 -0800 (PST)
Received: from support3 (support3.internal [192.168.131.226]) by realmegamail.com
(Postfix) with SMTP id AE7D837BED; Mon, 10 Mar 2003 20:42:33 -0800 (PST)
Message-Id: <000901c0ad0d$789bf240$e283a8c0@internal>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Mime-Version: 1.0
Importance: Normal
X-Msmail-Priority: Normal
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
X-Mimeole: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4522.1200
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook CWS, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2911.0)
Most mail readers do not show the full header because it contains information
that is for computer-to-computer routing. The information you usually see in
the header is the subject, date, and "From" or "Return" address.
The only thing in an email header that can't be faked is the "Received" portion
referencing your computer (last received).
You will need to look at the headers on the message as follows:
Claris E-Mailer-Under 'Mail,' select 'Show Long Headers'.
Eudora (3.x, 4.x IBM, or Macintosh)-Press the 'BLAH' button on the incoming mail
message.
Hotmail-Click 'Options' on the Hotmail Navigation Bar on the left side of the
page, on the Options page, click 'Preferences,' scroll down to 'Message Headers'
and select 'Full'.
Lotus Notes 4.6.x-From the menu bar, select 'Actions,' then 'Delivery Information';
copy the information from the bottom box into your email report at the top of
the spam.
Lotus Notes R5-From the menu bar, select 'Actions,' Tools,' then 'Delivery Information';
copy the information from the bottom box into your email report at the top of
the spam.
MS Outlook-Double click on the email in your inbox to bring the message into
a window; click 'View,' then 'Options.' You can also open the message then choose
'File,' 'Properties,' 'Details.'.
MS Outlook Express-Press 'Alt-Enter' or 'Alt-F,' then 'R'
A more detailed guide to copy and paste headers in Outlook Express:
1 - Press 'CTRL-F3'
2 - Press 'CTRL-A'
3 - Press 'CTRL-C'
4 - Press 'Alt-F4' (At this point, the message has already been copied)
5 - Open a new message, right click and 'Paste' or select 'Edit' and 'Paste'
Netscape 3-In the Netscape Mail window, click 'View/Document Source'.
Netscape 4.xx - Double click on the email in your inbox. Click on View - Headers
- All.
Yahoo-Select 'Options,' 'Mail Preferences,' then 'Message Headers' (all) PINE-Turn
on the 'Header' option in set up, then hit 'H'.
Programs that do not comply with any Internet standards (like cc-Mail, Beyond
Mail, VAX VMS) throw away the headers. You will not be able to get headers from
these email messages.
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