First: Get yourself a free throw-away email address, such as Hotmail. I recommend using some mix of characters and numbers to prevent this email address from being dictionary attacked, like gj85tm659@example.com. This address will be used for one thing, and one thing only . . . to sign up for a free spam reporting account at SpamCop. Never use it for anything else, ever. SpamCop protects your email address when sending reports. Report recipients will be able to reply to your reports, but they will do so through SpamCop. They will never know your email address unless/until you reveal it. Such replies from recipients of your reports will be delivered to the email address you provide. The advantage of using a free throw-away email address to report spam is pretty obvious . . . the recipient of the report does not know your real email address unless you reveal it.
Second: Signup for a SpamCop free spam reporting account at »spamcop.net/anonsignup.shtml . Use the throw-away email address you just created. All replies from the spam you report will arrive at this email address.
Third: Start reporting spam. It's very important to provide both HEADERS and the BODY of the email when reporting. The headers will reveal WHERE the email actually came from and the BODY of the email (often in html) will reveal where any web sites are located, which get a spam report also. It's very important to SHUT DOWN the spammers method of making money. With no web site, there's no reason to spam.
So, there's two more things you need to learn:
1) How to get your email client to reveal the email headers, and . . .
2) How to get your email client to reveal the HTML source code.
SpamCop comes in handy again . . . there's a page that tells you how to get your email client to reveal the email headers, »spamcop.net/fom-serve/cache/19.html .
As far as getting the HTML source, you'll need to consult the HELP file or documentation or web site of your email client.
Now . . . you get a spam you want to report.
I find it easier to open Notepad to paste the various pieces together.
1) Open Notepad.
2) Copy the email headers from your email client and paste into Notepad beginning on the first line.
3) After you paste the headers, skip one line.
4) Copy and paste the HTML source code of the spam into Notepad, if it's just plain text . . . copy and paste that.
5) Now copy EVERYTHING from Notepad.
6) Log onto your SpamCop account and paste EVERYTHING into the small window, hit the Process Spam button and SpamCop takes over, revealing who is responsible for EVERY aspect of the spam you received and offering to send a complaint to responsible parties.
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by newview  edited by Sarah
last modified: 2003-02-15 23:57:35 |
