How to deal with spam, harassment
— -- You know what it's like to feel harassed. There's someone who just won't leave you alone. It seems like they're always there with a snide comment or mean statement.
It can happen online too, through e-mail or social networks. You receive irritating messages repeatedly. When you send a reply asking the sender to stop, you begin to receive more e-mail.
Harassment is illegal, and there are steps you can take to make it stop. But how can you know if the behavior that is irritating you is technically harassment?
When it comes to electronic messages, the first question is to determine the origination of the e-mail. If it is harassment, there's a person at the other end who engages in bullying and possibly threatening behavior.
In many cases, what you're really dealing with is automated spam. Spam e-mails are most likely coming from one or more infected robot computers around the world. To make matters worse, when you respond to spam e-mail, you verify to the spam-bot that your e-mail account is active. That's why you start receiving even more spam. Frustrating, isn't it?
Spam e-mail has been a problem since the dawn of the Internet, and it only seems to get worse. Some security experts estimate that as much as 90 percent of the world's e-mail is spam.
First, report your problem to the abuse desk at your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Forward copies of the spam with the full e-mail headers. The header will provide the information they need to determine exactly where the spam is originating.
Make it clear in the subject line that you're complaining about spam. This puts the ISP's spam-control experts in gear, and they start tweaking the service's anti-spam filters. That helps everyone.
Some of the offending e-mail may be coming from addresses of friends and family. This happens when a virus takes over their e-mail account. Contact them via another method (phone, another e-mail account, in person) and tell them which account is affected. Instruct them to change their e-mail password and run a virus scan.
The Federal Trade Commission maintains a database of deceptive and junk e-mail. It does use the database to pursue law enforcement actions against the biggest spammers.
Send copies of the spam e-mail you've received to spam@uce.gov. Visit http://www.ftc.gov and fill out the online complaint form. This informs the FTC that the spammer hasn't honored your "remove me" requests.
To block unwanted junk e-mail, turn on your e-mail service's spam filter. Most services have decent spam filters these days. You may also choose to install a third-party Bayesian-style filter. These are filters that you "train" by teaching them what is good and what is bad. Bayesian filters are usually more effective than rules-based filters, which have a tendency to also block legitimate e-mail.
If you try all this and still can't block the spam, the only effective solution is to close the e-mail account and start over. Once you do successfully block a spammer or start over, be sure to take steps to protect your e-mail account so it won't happen again. Be careful about giving out your e-mail on websites. Spammers harvest public information to acquire many of their addresses.
Popular Reads
ABC News Live