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1. |
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How do I keep my e-mail address away
from spammers? |
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The best way to reduce your chance of being spammed is to
keep your e-mail address private. If you trust this address only to
close friends and family, you're less likely to be added to
spammer's lists. Don't put your e-mail address in "Address Areas" of
Internet programs, online submission forms, or anywhere in a public
forum such as newsgroups. Even disguised or "munged" addresses (for
example billy@nospam_nwnetwork.net) that appear to be immune from
automated address collecting software are added to lists manually by
spammers.
Web e-mail directories are convenient, but also
scanned by spammers
for the lists they create. You can, however, write these directories
and ask that they remove your name, e-mail address, and other
information from their databases. Each of these sites has an e-mail
address where you can request removal of your personal information.
Directories to check include: Yahoo's People Search, WhoWhere, Bigfoot, and Switchboard.
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| 2. |
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Why am I getting e-mail that wasn't
addressed to me? |
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Spammers use lists of e-mail address. The specialized
programs that are used to send spam will take such a list and use
the BCC: (Blind Carbon Copy) features to send to all the
addresses on the list, without any of the recipients seeing the
addresses, including their own. It's important to remember that the
To:, From:, and other fields of the e-mail that are
usually visible when you read a message DO NOT contain the
addressing information that is used to deliver e-mail to your
mailbox. The address information is contained in the Envelope of the
e-mail that is discarded when it arrives at the mail server which
then places the message in your mailbox. If it was in your mailbox,
it was addressed to you. Northwest Web Services does not place unsolicited e-mail in
any mailbox for any reason, nor do we condone the abuse of our
customers in any way relating to spam.
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| 3. |
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Where did the spammer get my e-mail
address? |
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Spammers harvest e-mail addresses in a number of ways:
- They run programs that collect e-mail addresses out of Usenet
posting headers.
- They cull them from subscriber lists (such as AOL's Member
Profile list).
- They use web-crawling programs that look for e-mail addresses
on Web pages.
- They take them out of online directories.
- They buy databases of addresses.
- They take them from you without your knowledge when you visit
a Web site.
- They collect member names from online "chat" rooms.
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| 4. |
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What should I do if I need to give an
e-mail address, but want to keep my e-mail address
private? |
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Setting up a public address from one of the free e-mail
services such as, Hotmail is a
popular option. You can also have us setup an email alias
which forwards to your regular mail account. In this way you can post an e-mail address
when you need to do so without revealing your personal e-mail address.
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| 5. |
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Does Northwest Web Services sell my e-mail
address? |
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In order to ensure your privacy, Northwest Web Services 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 just our
own internal policy, but is a requirement of federal law, as well.
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| 6. |
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Why am I getting spam even though I
don't advertise my e-mail address? |
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There is a variety of software that allows a bulk e-mailer
to send messages to a large number of recipients at a particular
Internet service provider (such as AOL.com) whether or not they know
their specific addresses. This software attempts to send a message
to every address at that domain (often using common usernames), not
caring about the number of undeliverable (or bounced) messages that
will be generated from incorrect addresses. Northwest Web Services
limits
the amount of contiguous messages from one source to 50
messages. This is a safeguard which prevents bulk spammers
from broadcasting to our entire customer base.
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| 7. |
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Is there a security problem with your
mail server? |
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No. 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
their network. This opens up the possibility for abuse by spammers
running software that attempts to send e-mail to as many different
addresses as possible.
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| 8. |
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Is there a security problem with my Web
browser? |
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There have been some security issues identified in the two
most popular Web browsers, Netscape and Internet Explorer. For
instance, a problem with Javascript was identified as potentially
allowing Web sites to capture a visitor's e-mail address without
their knowledge. Visit links below for more security information
about:
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| 9. |
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Do cookies have something to do with
this? |
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Cookies are short pieces of text, stored on your computer,
which are placed there by Web sites that you have visited so that
those Web sites can remember who you are (or preferences you may
have selected) the next time you visit. Although this is convenient
if you make frequent trips to the same site, there are also
well-known concerns regarding their use.
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| 10. |
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Why can't you filter this
stuff? |
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We can! Our new Email
Assistant Filtering
service will give you the controls you need to eliminate
nearly all of the spam that is sent to your email account.
Just click on the Sign Up button above to get started.
We have also configured our mail servers to automatically
eliminate
certain email messages based up on keywords and sender's
addresses -- these are flagged as potential spam and are
rejected based on their content.
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| 11. |
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Are there ways that I can filter this
stuff from my mailbox myself? |
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Yes!
Sign up for our Email Assistant Filtering service and you can
personally control the types and tolerance levels of spam to
filter. Also,
depending on the e-mail program you're using, you
should 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, although Netscape 3.0 and
earlier versions do not, so if you use this program for your e-mail
you'll need to upgrade to take advantage of this feature. Other
e-mail programs that offer filtering include Eudora and Microsoft
Outlook. For specifics about filtering in the e-mail program you're
using, check the program's help documentation.
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| 12. |
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Can you block all e-mail messages not
addressed to me? |
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Northwest Web Services could prevent any e-mail without a legitimate
To: header from reaching our customers at all. However, the
downside of this plan is the potential for much legitimate e-mail to
be lost (for instance, mailing list messages addressed to "mailing
list recipients" rather than a specific Northwest Web Services address).
Furthermore, programming our mail servers to scan through every
incoming e-mail message and verify that its "To" header matches that
of its intended recipient would significantly degrade the overall
performance of those servers
and slow down your email delivery. Our top priority is that none of our
customers' lose legitimate e-mail simply because an automated
process considered it to be spam. Unfortunately, this also means
that illegitimate e-mail may
ocassionally reach our customers.
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| 13. |
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I
got spam that says it "complies with
federal requirements." Is spamming illegal? |
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At this time there is no federal legislation either
supporting or prohibiting the sending of unsolicited e-mail
messages. However, you may have noticed that some spam includes the
following language (or something similar):
This message complies with the proposed United States Federal
requirements for commercial e-mail. For additional information see:
<http://www.senate.gov/~murkowski/commercialemail/EMailAmendText.html>.
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.
Although this all sounds rather intimidating, it is also
misleading since it implies that the spammer has acted within
federal law in sending you their message. The bill to which these
spammers refer 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.
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| 14. |
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Isn't it illegal to send spam to
Washington State residents? |
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Washington State does have an anti-spam law. While it does
not flatly prohibit the sending of spam, it does make it illegal in
Washington to send spam using false headers, false subject lines, or
a third party's e-mail address without their permission. The
Washington State law has been broken when spam is sent with a false
header or a misleading subject line or a third party's address
issued without permission AND the e-mail is sent to a Washington
e-mail address or from a computer located in Washington. The law
only applies when a sender knows or has reason to know the e-mail is
being sent to Washington.
In order to take advantage of the law, you must register your
e-mail address as a Washington State address at the WAISP Registry Page. The
Attorney General of Washington has a Web site devoted to Junk E-mail
which discusses this law. You can follow the news of this case at Spam News of
Washington State.
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| 15. |
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I've been spammed, now what? |
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You have a few different options:
- Some prefer to just delete spam and not give any more thought
to it.
- Some prefer to use
our Email Assistant Filtering service which provides them personal
control over spam filtering.
- Some prefer to find the originating network themselves and
send their own complaint to the administrators of that network. If
you choose to do this, be sure that the complaint is sent to the
proper address.
One thing you should never do is respond to spam, either by
replying to the e-mail, sending e-mail to the "Remove" e-mail
address since doing so verifies to spammers that your e-mail address
is a valid one. You should also refrain from retaliating against
such e-mail by flaming, mail-bombing, or using other equally abusive
tactics to get back at the spammer. Not only will you leave yourself
open for retribution from the spammer (in some cases this means
legal action), but you will also be in violation of Northwest Web Services's
Acceptable Use Policy which could result in your account being
disabled or terminated.
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| 16. |
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I've followed all of your suggestions,
but I keep getting spam every day. What can you do to
help? |
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If nothing seems to help, Northwest Web Services can change your username.
This will change your e-mail address and Web site address (if you
have one). This is a last resort since it means changing settings on
your computer and informing everyone who e-mails you of the change
in your address and, unfortunately, is no guarantee that you'll
never receive spam again. For more information on changing your
username, contact Northwest Web Services' Customer Support
Team at support@nwwebsites.com.
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| 17. |
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Where can I find out more information
about spam? |
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The following is a list of anti-spam resources we recommend:
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Email
Assistant
