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It is a
Violation of PowerNet Global's Terms
of Service to send Spam.
If the spammer is a customer of PowerNet Global, we will
take action.
| Here
are the facts: |
- According
to some estimates, there are 50 million
Americans with Internet accounts.
- Nearly all
accounts have e-mail service.
- It costs
virtually nothing to send an e-mail.
- There is
no meaningful regulation of e-mail.
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This is a
recipe for exploitation, and you are the target. All
an advertiser has to do is obtain your e-mail address
– after that, he can spam you again and again.
Definition
of Spam
A "spam" e-mail is generally defined as an
unsolicited mailing or posting (News Groups), usually
to many people. A message written for, and mailed to,
one individual that is known to the sender is not
spam, and a reply to an e-mail is not spam, unless the
"reply" repeats endlessly.
Spam
e-mailers have become a separate part of the Internet,
with their own host computers, methods, and politics.
Many Internet sites have begun to forbid spamming, for
several reasons – one is a sense that it is
unethical, another is that, over time, other Internet
sites will stop all e-mail from that site and thus
prevent legitimate e-mail from getting through. As a
result, spammers have begun to set up their own
Internet sites -- sites that cater to, or encourage,
spamming.
Rules
of the Spam game
Your goal
as an Internet user is to figure out a way to separate
legitimate e-mail from spam. There are several ways to
do this. One way, is to set up your mail service so
that known spammers are not allowed to deposit mail in
your account. This method relies on knowing (1) the
return e-mail address of the spammer, or (2) the name
of the spammer's host computer.
The
spammer's goal is to get around your filtering
methods. He can do this by (1) using a different
e-mail address for each mailing, or (2) he can forward
his e-mail by way of an intermediary, to conceal the
actual origin. The second of these methods is often
used without the knowledge or permission of the
intermediary, and it usually results from an error in
configuration
Because it
is very easy to simply create a new return address for
each of millions of e-mails, filtering by way of
return address is only effective when dealing with
small-scale, amateur spammers. As a result, many sites
simply block all e-mail from a particular
spammer-friendly site. What this means is, if you have
an account with a site that also welcomes spammers,
your e-mail will sometimes not get through. This is
why Internet sites are gradually splitting into two
classes -- those that welcome spammers and have no
normal users, and those that aggressively stop
spamming from their sites to protect their legitimate
users.
Spam
Do's and Dont's
Never respond to a spam e-mail. For a spammer, one
"hit" among thousands of mailings is enough
to justify the practice. Instead, if you want a
product that is advertised in a spam e-mail, go to a
Web site that also carries the product, inquire there,
and tell them you do not approve of spam methods and
will not patronize a company that uses spammers.
Never
respond to the spam e-mail's instructions to reply
with the word "remove." This is just a trick
to get you to react to the e-mail -- it alerts the
sender that a human is at your address, which greatly
increases its value. If you reply, your address is
placed on more lists and you receive more spam.
Never sign
up with sites that promise to remove your name from
spam lists. These sites are of two kinds: (1) sincere,
and (2) spam address collectors. The first kind of
site is ignored (or exploited) by the spammers, the
second is owned by them -- in both cases your address
is recorded and valued more highly because you have
just identified it as read by a human.
Never
mail-bomb spam sites or engage in hacking to stop
spammers. This only increases the amount of wasted
Internet traffic, creates sympathy for spammers, and
makes the Internet even less reliable than it already
is.
How
to alert a site that they are hosting a spammer
If you are
writing to a legitimate site, they will usually have a
special address (abuse@sitename.com)
set up to deal with the problem. They may thank you
for writing and ask for more information (such as the
e-mail header, which shows the actual path the e-mail
took through the Internet). If you are writing to a
spam-friendly site, chances are they will not write
back, or they will reply with a justification of their
practices, or (in some cases) they will simply place
your address in their master list of victims (this
happened to me).
Be aware
that, if the spammer is using forwarding, you may end
up writing a complaint to an innocent Internet site
that was exploited by the spammer. If this happens,
you may want to alert that site that their e-mail
server is configured incorrectly and should be
reconfigured.
How
to identify a Spammer
There are
many different ways to find the spammer's actual
identity. Simply look at the e-mail header, find the
source
host name (this may take practice because spammers try
to hide the actual host name) or address and type it
into a "Whois"
utility or the Whois
webpage. Or, if you are comfortable using a
UNIX shell and have this kind of access, you can issue
the Whois command from there.
Do not
rely on the e-mail's return address. This is much too
easy to fake. The other information in the e-mail
header is more useful and more likely to lead to the
actual sender.
If you
are reporting a violation of a non- PowerNet Global
user, please send the report to the internet service
provider that provides service to the user. Only
the perpetrator's Internet Service Provider can take
action against the sender.
It
is a Violation of PowerNet Global's Usage
Agreement to send Spam.
If the spammer is a customer of PowerNet Global, we will
take action.
For
corrections and updates email
support@pngusa.net
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