What is spam and what should I do if I receive spam?
What is "spam"?Emails that are usually sent to a large number of email users that have not requested to be contacted by the sender is knows as ‘spam’. The nature of spam is usually commercial, and often contains sale promotions, ‘get rich quick’ schemes and illegal product information. Spam can also refer to any message that a user receives from a sender whom they have no relationship with.
Why am I receiving spam?
Your email address may have been sourced in a number of ways, many of which are beyond your control, if you are receiving spam email.
Email mailing lists are often created by spammers by simply buying or stealing existing lists, scanning newsgroup postings or searching for addresses on the Web.
Spammers also tend to create lists by simply trying every combination of letters and numbers possible in the chance of hitting on some "live" email addresses.
What should I do if I receive spam?
Contact your ISP to report the abuse of your email service if you receive a ‘spam’ message.
Most ISPs will have a specific email address to which "abuses" (including spam mails) can be reported. If you don't know what this email address is, check the home page of your ISP for information, or try the following:
If your email address ends in @nameofyourISP.co.uk, email: abuse@nameofyourisp.co.uk
If your email address ends in @nameofyourISP.com, email: abuse@nameofyourisp.com
If your email address ends in @nameofyourISP.net, email: abuse@nameofyourisp.net
If your email is not delivered and/or is returned to you, double check your ISP's home page for information, or contact your ISP to ask for the correct address to report email abuse. Your ISP will be able to help you try to ensure that emails from that sender do not reach your inbox in future.
How can I get less spam in my inbox?
1. Unless you either know the sender or have confidence in the source, do not respond to spam messages.
Businesses are required by UK and European Law to provide an opt-out facility in those cases where they are allowed to send unsolicited commercial email.
If the sender is a legitimate business operating in the EU and you are certain of this, and that you provided your address to them as part of a previous transaction, the best way to get yourself removed from the list may be by replying.
However, when you respond to spam you should be warned that even if the sender promises to take your name off the list, you have confirmed that your email address is ‘live’, which means that there is a possibility you could receive more spam as your email address may be sold to other spammers.
2. Keep your private details private!
Unless you are completely sure that you can trust the recipient to keep your details private, do not give out your email address. You should really treat your email address as you would treat your telephone number. Be careful about where you post your email address or personal details on the Internet. Before giving out your address, read the terms of use and privacy statements of any site.
3. Use more than one email address
It might be a good idea to use a different email address than your main personal address if you use newsgroups. This could help limit the availability of your personal private email address.
4. Consider using spam filtering products
To help reduce the amount of spam that reaches your inbox, spam filtering products can do this. It is best to ask tour ISP for more information on what they have to offer. Be sure to remember that if you use a filter then you run the risk of filtering out acceptable messages by mistake.
5. "Opt-out"!
Always look for and complete any "data protection opt-out" boxes when filling in on-line forms if you do not wish to be contacted regarding advertisements and promotions of any products and services.
Other organisations may be provided with the information you have given out, or used for marketing or other purposes which you may not wish to receive.
Is "spam" legal?
The UK Data Protection Act of 1998 (which came into force on 1 March 2000) makes clear that personal data (such as an email address) should be processed "fairly and lawfully" and the consent of the 'data subject' (the individual Internet user in this case) is required.
Data cannot be processed except for the purposes originally stated by the person or organisation to which the 'data subject' gives their details and their consent.
Therefore, it is legal to send unsolicited commercial emails to addresses which have been legally acquired and for which the sender has permission to email specific information.
For example you might have joined a mailing list, or given permission for your details to be shared with other companies when booking theatre tickets, for example.
However it is illegal to process personal contact details without the permission of the individual. Therefore spam messages sent to people who have not given consent for their email address to be used for that purpose ARE illegal.
If you would like more information or have any concerns about your personal details contact the Office of the Information Commissioner.
Why do people send spam?
It is extremely cheap and relatively easy to send bulk email, but it can be expensive and very time consuming for recipients to download, as well as blocking up bandwidth and costing ISPs both time and money.
Is sending spam a good idea?
Email is a very useful marketing tool if utilised correctly. Research from DoubleClick shows how successful permission based email marketing is.
Permission based email marketing is very different to spam.
Spam messages sent to people who have not given consent for their email address to be used for that purpose are illegal and can irritate, harm or be offensive to your market.
In addition, most ISPs require their users to sign up to an "acceptable use policy", which includes agreeing to not use the ISPs email service to send spam. Indeed you may find yourself cut off from Internet access if you send bulk email. Contact your own ISP for more details on their policy.
