Greg's "Spam" Page

This is my page covering "Spam" and other forms of net abuse. My main contribution to the net abuse effort is the maintenance of Help! I've been Spammed! What do I do?, a "beginner's guide" to dealing with "Spam", either Excessively CrossPosted (ECP) or Excessively MultiPosted (EMP) Usenet spam, or email "spam": Unsolicited Bulk/Broadcast Email (UBE) and/or Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE).

Also available via a quick "click" is Why junk email is bad, originally posted to news.admin.net-abuse.email by Frederi108 from AOL in response to an attempted defense of junk email.

But this is more or less just a page of (slightly annotated) web links, some of which are duplicated in the FAQ.





Links on this page

  1. Net-Abuse FAQs
  2. General Info. on Net-Abuse
  3. DIY - Sources for help on tracking spam and suggestions on how to deal with it.
  4. Filtering your Email
  5. News about Spam, Spammers, and Spamkillers
  6. Junk Faxes, Junk Email, and the Law
  7. The law on Chain Letters
  8. Usenet groups dealing with spam and net-abuse.

Related links of possible interest



  1. Net-Abuse FAQs

    2. "Help! I've been Spammed! What do I do?" FAQ
    A beginner's guide to dealing with "spam": junk email and excessively posted usenet articles. [Ok, so it may not be the most imporant FAQ; it's mine so I get to put it at the top of my list...]
    The news.admin.net-abuse.* Homepage
    A good jumping-off point for net abuse and info on the various parts of the news.admin.net-abuse.* hierarchy of Usenet.
    The Net Abuse FAQ
    Current Spam Thresholds and Definitions
    An explanation of the consensus opinions on Usenet spamming, including how much is "too much" and how the despammers decide when to cancel spam.
    The Alt.spam FAQ
    ...or: Figuring out fake emails and posts. A guide to figuring out where messages really came from.
    The Bincancel FAQ (plaintext)
    Answers to questions about binaries being cancelled out of non-binary Usenet newsgroups.
    Advertising on Usenet: How To Do It, How Not To Do It
    This is the basic FAQ on advertising on Usenet, that covers the few ways of doing so that are acceptable, and also gives some info on other ways of advertising on the Internet. Remember: the Internet and Usenet are not the same thing.


    Timo Salmi maintains an ftp-able archive of various FAQs and other useful information at uwasa.fi, including the following. Note: these are zipped, files on an ftp server, not ordinary web pages.

    Questions from Usenet and Timo's Answers
    The Bincancel FAQ by Shaun Davis-Gluyas
    Usenet Netiquette
    Usenet Netiquette, creating new newsgroups, and other advice.



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  2. General Info.

    3. The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email.
    Perhaps the best starting point, CAUCE is a clearinghouse for information on Junk Email and a lobbying organization working toward legal solutions to the problem of junk email, focusing especially on the Smith bill, HR 1748, introduced by Representative Chris Smith, which would ament the "Junk Fax" law to outlaw Unsolicited Commercial Email.
    The abuse.net pages, the Network Abuse Clearinghouse and Fight Spam on the Internet.
    The the Network Abuse Clearinghouse is the home of a great deal of good general information on dealing with spam, and the Fight Spam on the Internet pages also provide a way to send UCE complaints more or less automatically: if you register with them, you can send them copies of junk email you receive, and they will sort out the headers and send complaints to the proper administrators. Quite useful if you don't have the time to trace junk email on your own.
    The Internet Spam Boycott
    A good source of info on spam and what you can do about it. Lots of suggestions for blocking spam.
    The Anti-Spam Campaign
    A whole mess o' useful information from one of the denizens of the net abuse newsgroups.
    The Email Abuse Resource List
    A bunch of useful info from the maintainer of the Email Abuse FAQ.
    Spambusters!
    A collection of useful stuff from a long-time spamfighter.
    Email Spam
    Both an informational site, and a how-to site providing hints on how to deal with spam.
    The Spam Page
    The Bravers work to keep Usenet clear of spam, and provide other info here.
    Stop Junk Email
    A well-put-together site with lots of good info, including useful information for those interested in figuring out how to trace spam.
    The Stop Spam FAQ
    A bunch of useful info, including help on figuring out where spam comes from and what you can do about it.
    Junk e-mail Call to Action
    Information on various aspects of junk email.
    Fighting Spam On the 'Net
    MCI's info page about spam.
    Death to Spam
    This page is sometimes a bit slow to load for me, but has a fair amount of info, most of it useful. A few of the suggestions are probably best not followed; which ones they are should be fairly obvious to anyone with more than a couple of functioning brain cells.
    I HATE Spam
    Another (smaller) collection of mostly useful info. I don't agree with all of the advice, but didn't notice anything terribly off the mark.
    Net.Abuse Links
    A small collection of links from Don Doumakes, who works on NoCeM-E (a version of NoCeM) for email.
    CancelMoose[tm]
    The CancelMoose[tm] home page. Lots of info on NoCeM.
    news.admin.net-abuse.* Homepage
    A source for FAQs and other info on the net abuse newsgroups, and other general info, as well.
    Internet Mail Consortium
    Provides a lot of info on email in general, and discussions of Unsolicited Bulk Email: Definitions and Problems, and Unsolicited Bulk Email: Mechanisms for Control.



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  3. DIY - Sources for help on tracking spam and suggestions on how to deal with it.

    4. Dealing With Junk Email
    An excellent source of information for the neophyte, including pointers on how to read news and mail headers. Part of the "Stop Junk Email" site.
    I-way: Beating the Spammers
    A bunch of useful info on dealing with spammers, from I-way.
    Welcome To The Junk Mail Help Desk
    A lot of links to sources of info on dealing with junk email.
    Fight Junk Email
    Home of a script you can use to filter mail -- if you are on a unix machine -- and links to other ways/sites for dealing with junk email.
    Internet Tools Gateway
    This is a web gateway to various tools (finger, nslookup, whois, and traceroute) useful for tracking spam.
    Get that spammer!
    Another (bigger) collection of tools, and a bunch of info, as well.
    How to Get Rid of Junk Mail, Spam, and Telemarketers
    A bunch of info on dealing with obnoxious marketeers, including some on junk email.
    Complain to Whom?
    A source of info on the proper people to complain to about spam from different sources and sites. Note: there is quite a bit of info here, but the connection is a bit slow from the US.
    CNET features: How to Stop Spam
    A how-to guide on dealing with spam from the folks at C|Net.
    The Alt.spam FAQ
    ...or: Figuring out fake emails and posts. A guide to figuring out where messages really came from.
    ACME Address Digger
    Sam Spade, Spam Hunter provides a web-based source for a whole bunch of useful tools for tracking down the source of spam. Also available is Sam Spade personal edition, for Windows 95/NT.
    War on Spam!
    A collection of tools and resources from Wayne Aiken.
    Nail 'em!
    Feed it a message, and it will automagically generate spam complaints. No guarantees as to how well it works.
    Self-protection on the Net
    A bunch of suggestions for defense against various unpleasant things on the net.
    ftp to MacTCP Watcher
    MacTCP Watcher includes various useful net tools, like DNS lookup. Yes, it is a Macintosh program.
    NetScanTools
    "NetScanTools is a shareware application that brings many classic UNIX network client utilities into an easy-to-use Windows® environment: Name Server Lookup (NSLOOKUP), Ping, Traceroute, Finger, Whois," etc. I've no personal experience with it.
    Unsolicited Email Resource Center
    From Seattle Lab.

    Hints on reading headers:

    IP network numbers
    Provides a description of the IP network numbering system and an index of what numbers belong to whom.
    Internet Mail Consortium
    Provides a great deal of info on internet mail in general.



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  4. Filtering your Email

    5. Filtering your email will probably take at least a bit of effort, but the results can be quite impressive: some people report that over 90% of the junk email they recieve gets discarded before they even have to look at it, and without anything very complicated in terms of filters.

    The best place to start is probably the Filtering Mail FAQ, available through the Infinite Ink FAQ Launcher, at either jazzie.com or best.com. It provides a wealth of information on various filtering tools and methods.

    Other sources of filtering tools and info are:

    Email addressing FAQ
    A guide to using the "name+" method of email addressing, useful for filtering mail.
    The NAGS Spam Filter.
    A bit of UNIX software from Netizens Against Gratuitous Spamming, that is designed to do some filtering automatically.
    Spam Hater
    This is a program for PCs from Net Services that also automates filtering.
    The Spam Bouncer
    Catherine Hampton's set of Procmail recipes for filtering mail.
    the Procmail Filters Kit
    Another set of Procmail filters from John D. Hardin
    Spammer Slammer
    A Windows 95/NT mail filtering tool. Freeware from Now Internet Tools.
    Roadblock, for Windows 95.
    The mapSoN Utility
    According to the creator, mapSoN provides some advanced filtering capabilities with keyword-based "whitelisting". It needs to be installed on your ISP's equipment, so you may need their ok.
    NS-Route
    This is a product from Voidstar Systems that would appear to allow at least some minimal filtering for those who use Netscape.
    Adcomplain
    While not strictly a means of filtering email, Adcomplain, by William McFadden, is a bit of software for UNIX, that automatically composes and mails complaints about various types of spam.
    Deadbolt
    This is a new bit of filtering software from Ron Guilmette and E-Scrub Technologies, Inc. that is intended to provide user-controlled server-side filtering of email. It has a web interface to control the filtering, but must be installed by your ISP on its equipment in order for users to use it. So if you think it looks good, you'll have to talk to your ISP about installing it.
    Fight Junk Mail!
    "This page provides a link to an experimental use perl script that makes a sophisticated filter, minimizing the junk mail you receive." I haven't used it, so I can't comment on how well it works.
    POP3 ScanMail
    A Windows program from Kempston Software that does a number of things, including allowing you to delete certain (ie: junk) mail without downloading it.
    Address Munging FAQ: Spam-Blocking Your Email Address
    Not truly filtering, munging your address can prevent email from getting to your mailbox. I don't think it's a good idea, but the FAQ provides info on how to do it with the least damage.


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  5. News about Spam, Spammers, and Spamkillers

    6. Some of the links above, such as CAUCE, provide news and information. Some other sources are

    ISP/C Policy Statement: Spam
    This is a policy statement from The Internet Service Providers' Consortium, a (newish) trade group for ISPs.
    Garbage In: Emerging Media and Regulation of Unsolicited Commercial Solicitations
    This article, by Michael W. Carroll, from the Berkeley Technology Law Journal, is an excellent (although becoming a bit dated) analysis of the legal issues involved in junk email.
    How IBM.NET Almost Died: The El Cheepo / Thinning Hair Spammer
    A story about how a revenge-spam took down a site: an object lesson on why mailbombing and other DOS attacks are a bad idea.
    Mark Welch also has a junk email page with other links and useful info.
    Interview With a Spammer
    Interview with Yuri Rutman, the holder of the account used in the "El Cheepo / Thinning Hair" spam; from Network World Fusion.
    You can't send mail there from here 12/16/96
    From @Computerworld. A story about the poor suckers blocked because they are at providers that harbor spammers. An illustration of why you should care that your provider isn't a good net neighbor.
    Junk E-Mail: Nuisance Or Opportunity? (12/23)
    A Cox News story about how junk email "will become an accepted part of the Internet." And if you believe that marketeer...
    Phreak Army FAQ

    You could also do some general web searches, as there are now lots of stories about spam floating around on the web.

    Or, for a look at some folks having some fun with spamfighting, take a look at

    S.P.U.T.U.(M.)
    The SubGenius Police, Usenet Tactical Unit (Mobile) is an organization dedicated to defeating spammers through the use of ridicule. It was created after a particularly stupid and obnoxious spammer attempted to bluff and bully his way into alt.slack and ran afoul of some of the readers.


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  6. Junk Faxes, Junk Email, and the Law

    7. Some people claim that junk email is against the law, specifically that the junk fax law applies to junk email, as well. So far, no court has ruled on the issue, so no one really knows. But if you wish, you can go look at the law itself, US Code, Title 47, Sec. 227, and come to your own conclusion. You could also read Just the Fax, Ma'am, a discussion of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, 47 U.S.C. § 227, as it applies to junk email.

    For more info on this issue, you can take a look at the Someone told me that sending junk email is illegal section of Help! I've been Spammed! What do I Do? FAQ.

    Or you can check out some other legal resources:

    "Garbage In: Emerging Media and Regulation of Unsolicited Commercial Solicitations"
    An excellent -- if just a bit dated -- review of some of the issues surrounding junk email, originally from the Berkeley Technology Law Journal.
    Existing and Emerging Anti-Spam Laws
    A compendium of information on various laws (actual and potential) on junk email.
    Cyberspace Law - Unsolicited E-mail
    A part of the Cyberspace Law Index, a collection of information dealing with cyberspace-related law, from The John Marshall Law School in Chicago.
    The E-LAW Locator
    A good collection of resources dealing with law and the net put together by David J. Loundy.
    Cyberspace Law Center
    A general resource for legal issues relating to the net.
    FindLaw: Internet Legal Resources
    An even more general resource, but there is lots of info here.
    VTW | Unsolicited Commercial Email
    The Voter's Telecommunications Watch maintains a page on UCE legal issues. Not all that useful, but it's something.
    INTERNET CONSUMER FRAUD INFORMATION SERVICE
    "The Internet Consumer Fraud Information Service provides you with realistic information pertaining to Internet Fraud, Privacy and Databases." If you get fraudulent junk email (which the vast majority of junk email is), then this might be a place to look for more info.
    Consumer.net's Junk Email Information Site
    Not strictly legal info, Consumer.net's site provides some useful info. [Note: if you are reading the URLs, don't worry: that's cyberpromo.org, not Sanford's old site.]
    Other AG Sites
    Pennsylvania Attorney General Mike Fisher's links to other Attorneys General on the net. (In case you want to call one of them in...)

  7. While we're on the subject of the Law...

    8. The United States Postal Service maintains a nice page that explains why you shouldn't post chainletters and MakeMoneyFast! schemes to the net.

  8. Usenet groups dealing with spam and net-abuse.

    9.




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Last updated: 15 February 1998