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Junk E-mail or "SPAM"
Why am I getting e-mail not addressed to me? It is an unfortunate circumstance that the "From" header of an e-mail message is so easily faked that it is usually not reliable in tracing its true source. (See below for more information about this.) However, spammers often forge the "To" header of an e-mail message, which is an attempt to confuse the true recipient of the message. One of the problems with the way e-mail works is the "To" header on messages (the line that normally contains your e-mail address, assuming it's a legitimate message) does not really determine where the message gets delivered. What does determine the recipient of the message is a command (or commands, if there are multiple recipients) sent to the mail server telling it where to send the mail. Unfortunately, these commands are ultimately hidden from the recipient's view, and do not show up anywhere in the mail headers once the message is finally delivered. (A sender can make use of this feature with a "Bcc", or "Blind Carbon Copy," to his or her recipients.) Blind carbon copying can be useful if you are creating a mailing list, and you wish to ensure that the address of each of your recipients is kept private from the others. (These days, it is an unfortunate circumstance that the publication of your e-mail address will almost inevitably mean you become the target of unsolicited junk mailers, see below for more information.) So a mailer can set the "To" header to be anything he or she wishes; for example, "To: Mailing List Recipients." He or she can then silently tell the mail server, by using the "Bcc," who the actual recipients are. Unfortunately, this feature can also be used for illegitimate purposes —for example, in cases of spammers using bogus "To" and "From" headers to disguise their identities. This enables them to send out spam to numerous recipients and protect their anonymity. In cases like these, only a thorough examination of the message's full headers will reveal the source of the message . . . and even then, this will only reveal the source network or Internet provider. It will not reveal the specific identity of the spammer.
Where did the spammer get my email address? Does SBCIS Services sell my e-mail address?
In the interest of ensuring your privacy, SBCIS does not, in
any way, publicize your e-mail address or any other subscriber
information -- all such data is kept strictly confidential. This is not
only our own internal policy, but a requirement of federal law as well.
I got spam that's targeting an alphabetical list of pacbell.net customers. If I don't publicize
my pacbell.net address, why do I still get spam?
There is a variety of software that permits a bulk mailer to send messages
to a large number of recipients on a particular Internet provider (such as
SBCIS), even if they do not know their specific addresses. The software attempts
to send a message to every address on that domain (starting with aaa, aab,
aac, etc.), not caring about the number of "undeliverable" messages that will
be generated from all the incorrect guesses. We believe some spammers may
then track which addresses came back as undeliverable, and remove those addresses
from their lists. These mailing lists are then sold to other spammers.
This may explain why sometimes you see spam which appears to be
targeted at an alphabetical list of customers, or why you receive
spam at an address which you may not have publicized.
We do have systems in place which catch a great deal of these
attempts as they arrive, before the messages reach any valid
addresses; however, no system such as this is 100% effective, and
we are constantly working on improving the "intelligence" of our spam
prevention methods.
Is there a security problem with your mail server?
The security problem extends, unfortunately, to the e-mail protocol
itself. Mail administrators are required to return, as undeliverable, any
messages addressed to an invalid address on a particular network
(such as SBCIS). This opens up the possibility for abuse by
spammers running software that attempts to send messages to as
many different addresses as possible. (See above.)
Is there a security problem with my web browser?
There have been some security issues identified in the two most
popular web browsers, Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer. In
one case, a problem with Javascript was identified as potentially
allowing websites to capture a visitor's e-mail address without their
knowledge. Click here
for more information.
You may also want to visit these links for more security information about:
Do cookies have something to do with this?
Cookies are short pieces of text, stored on your computer, which are
placed there by websites you may have visited, so that those
websites can remember who you are (or preferences you may have
selected) the next time you visit. Although this can be convenient
when making frequent trips to the same site, there are also
well-known concerns regarding their use.
Click here
for more information about cookies.
What is SBCIS doing to stop this? Can't you filter this stuff?
Some service providers have attempted to address the spam problem
by blocking mail from other providers who are known to distribute
spam. Although this method is somewhat effective, it eliminates only
a fraction of spam. For example, many network abusers will set up an
account with a reputable provider such as America Online or AT&T.
No one blocks these providers because there is a great deal of
legitimate mail coming from those systems.
However, as part of SBCIS' commitment to providing first-class service to its customers,
we continue to filter incoming mail from domains known to harbor spammers.
Copies of complaints sent to abuse@pacbell.net
will be taken into consideration as we update our antispam filters. This will
give both SBCIS and our customers greater control over the mail entering our
system and our customers' mailboxes.
We have also configured our mail servers to automatically notify our
mail administrators whenever certain "patterns" are recognized in any
large number of incoming mail messages. For example, a large number
of messages with substantially the same Subject header, or of the
same length, or numerous groups of messages all sent to the same
number of recipients... all are flagged as potentially "spam" and are
either accepted or rejected based on their content. By allowing the
server to watch for such patterns, we hope to be able to stop a
good deal of unwanted e-mail from reaching our customers.
Can you block all messages not addressed to me?
Conceivably, SBCIS could prevent any mail without a
legitimate "To" header from reaching our customers at all. We have
actually debated this idea seriously for quite some time. However, the
downside of this plan is that there is a potential for much legitimate
mail (i.e., mailing list messages addressed to "mailing list recipients"
rather than a specific swbell.net address) being blocked.
Furthermore, to program our mail servers to scan through every
incoming mail message and verify that its "To" header matches that
of its intended recipient would significantly degrade the overall
performance of those servers.
Therefore, while we have a mail software upgrade planned for the
near future, the unfortunate cost of having to wait is that much
illegitimate mail will reach our customers for the time being. Our top
priority, though, is that none of our customers legitimate mail be
bounced simply because some automated process we were running
mistook it for spam.
I want to stop this . . . Should I "reply to remove"? I've tried to reply
but the message is returned to me.
As you may have noticed with much of the spam messages you receive, the "From", "Reply-To",
and "To" headers point to addresses that are obviously fake. In many cases,
trying to respond to the address in the "From" header results in your message
being "bounced" back to you as undeliverable. In other cases,
you may discover that you are able to reply to an unwanted message. In fact,
the message may actually give you "removal instructions" or invite you to
"reply to be removed" from the spammers' mailing list. However, replying to
spam, or even following the sender's instructions for "removal," may actually
increase the amount of spam you get in the long run. By letting the
spammer know that you've received the message, even though you are expressing
disapproval at receiving it, you are confirming for them that your e-mail
address is valid and that you read messages sent to that address. Unfortunately,
many spammers do track which addresses write them back (regardless of the
content of the reply) and use this information to update their mailing lists.
Some even then turn around and sell these lists to other spammers.
In short, avoid attempting to reply to or contact the spammer by e-mail.
I want to report this to its origin.
SBCIS also recommends reporting the receipt of spam to the
Internet provider at which it originates. Your best bet in determining
the true source of an e-mail message is to look at its "Received"
headers (you may have to set your e-mail client to "Show all
headers" to be able to see them). As stated above, the spammer will
have often forged the "From" and "Reply-To" headers, making them
largely unreliable in determining the true source of the message.
Can I filter this stuff from my inbox?
Depending on your e-mail program, you should also be able to control
which messages are visible in your Inbox through the use of "filters."
The most recent version of Netscape Communicator offers filtering
capability, as do Eudora, Pegasus and Microsoft Outlook.
Unfortunately, Netscape Navigator 3.0 and earlier versions do not
have filtering features, so you must upgrade to Netscape
Communicator if you want to use Netscape Mail and take advantage
of filtering.
We recommend you create a filtering rule in your e-mail program
which deletes (or sends to the "Trash") any e-mail message not
specifically addressed to you in the "To" or "Cc" headers.
Unfortunately, SBCIS does not provide technical support for
setting up filters; however, there are many online resources available
to assist you.
I thought this was illegal, but I got spam that says it "complies with federal requirements."
What does this mean?
Currently there is no federal legislation either supporting or prohibiting the sending of unsolicited
e-mail messages. However, you may have noticed that some spam messages include
the following language (or something similar): This message
complies with the proposed United States Federal requirements for commercial
e-mail. For additional information see:
Current information on the status, text, and summary of Title 3 of S. 1618
and H.R. 3888, its companion bill, can be found by using Thomas, the legislative
information system run by the Library of Congress. Or: This message
complies with the proposed United States Federal requirements for commercial
e-mail bill, Section 301. Per Section 301, Paragraph (a)(2)(C) of S.1618,
further transmissions to you by the sender of this e-mail may be stopped
at no cost to you by sending a reply to this e-mail address with the word
"remove" in the subject line. For additional info, see:
Although this all sounds rather intimidating, it is also misleading in
that it strongly implies that the spammer has acted within federal law
in sending you their message. The bill to which these spammers refer
(commonly called the "Murkowski bill") would have legalized the
sending of unsolicited commercial e-mail provided certain
requirements were met. However, although this bill passed the
Senate, it died in conference committee and never passed the House.
Therefore, it never became law.
In Conclusion...
As you can see, there are no simple solutions to the problem of spam.
In any event, SBCIS hopes that some of the information and
resources contained in this page will help you reduce the number of
unwelcome messages in your inbox.
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