EdZone: Mid Michigan's Internet Provider

What to do about Spam

Many of our users often ask us how they can block or stop unsolicated email (or spam). The truth is, there is very little that EdZone, or any Internet Provider, can do to assure that only the email you actually want to receive can get through to you. Spam is a sad part of Internet life. There is too often very little you can do either. Most Internet providers, like EdZone, prohibit unsolicited email, and reporting spam to the proper authorities will many times get the offenders account shut down.

EdZone Office Hours:
Monday-Friday
(7:30 AM - 4:30 PM)

Toll Free Telephone:
(877) 923-9638

Follow these not-so-simple rules to help stop spammers.

The first rule in stopping spammers is DO NOT reply to the spam. By replying, you are confirming that your e-mail account is being read, which allows the spammer to sell your address to other spammers for more money.

View the Headers, or Page Source of the message and record the IP address. Look for lines that start "Received:" Reading up, find the first "Received:" line and record the IP address.

Return-Path:	<upetv@slo.net>
Received:	from 3dns.sanritu.co.jp(really [210.160.126.130]) by remcen.ehhs.cmich.edu via sendmail with smtp id <m13UL8R-000OLNC@remcen.ehhs.cmich.edu> for <mmcmahon@remcen.ehhs.cmich.edu>; Wed, 30 Aug 2000 23:35:27 -0400 (EDT)
	(Smail-3.2.0.93 1997-Apr-12 #1 built 2000-Jan-30)
Received:	*from alpha.futurenet.co.za ([207.193.0.59]) by 3dns.sanritu.co.jp* (post.office MTA v1.9.3 ID# 0100110-37258) with SMTP id AAA194; Thu, 31 Aug 2000 12:38:45 +0900
Message-ID:	<00003a653ae1$00003ca9$00007874@alpha.futurenet.co.za>
To:	<joe454@hongkong.com>
From:	upetv@slo.net
Subject:	Re: The money tree 30836
Date:	Wed, 30 Aug 2000 22:38:07 -0500

The challenge now is to find out which network administrates this IP. You'll need to use the "Whois" tool, like the one at Sam Spade Tools. After searching with the WHOIS tool, you'll need to review the results and look for the "Domain Name" that the IP belongs to. In the example below, it is "EXAMPLE.COM" If the Sam Spade Whois tool is not available, or the results don't give you the information you need, you can try other web-based WHOIS tools or download WHOIS clients for your computer.

Whois for ppp-207-193-0-59.kscymo.example.com

Registrant:
Example Internet Services, Inc. (EXAMPLE-DOM)
22 Twain Richardson, TX 75080

Domain Name: EXAMPLE.COM

You now need to send an Abuse Report to the domain. Open a new message and address it to abuse@example.com, (where example.com is replaced with what you found in step 3). In the body of the message, you will need to paste in the full message. Do not forward the original message or reply to it. Create a new message. and then follow these steps if you have Netscape:

	While viewing the spam message, choose "View Source" from the "View" menu.
	While viewing the gory details of the message, press "control-a" to select the entire contents of the window and then "control-c" to copy the contents to the clipboard.
	Close this window and return to your message.
	In the body of your email to abuse@example.com, type "control-v" to paste the entire spam message into the email.
	Send the message and you're done.

Common Spammer tricks and tips to avoid them

Spam FAQ

EdZone is a service of MMNet - Mid Michigan's Network