Reporting Spam
The Problem With Spam
Spam is a major problem for individual users and for businesses alike. Hosting companies and email providers also suffer as a result of unsolicited bulk email. For the average user it may seem like little more than an irritant but a large amount of spam email can almost single handedly bring down a company's IT infrastructure, an entire web server, or an email client. At the very least it can make a single email account inoperable because it becomes over bearing and over cumbersome. Unless we all take action against spam email and the people that send them it will continue to increase as one of the biggest online threats there is.
Anti Spam Software And Services
Anti spam software and anti spam services can help to prevent the individual effect of spam on you and your computer. However, reporting spam is the only real way that any action can be taken to prevent spam as a problem. Some anti spam software and companies will report known instances of spam and will even report these to the relevant sites and authorities but it is also possible to report these emails yourself while online. There are a number of ways to do this.
The first place to start is with your anti spam software provider. Check your software to see if there is a “report spam” link or a button that you can press. This can not only help to stop further emails from the same sender finding their way into your Inbox but they are usually registered with the software provider and can help to prevent these emails from being distributed to any other user of the software.
Internet Service And Email Providers
Internet Service Providers and email providers typically take spam very seriously. As such, their website will usually contain a link to report any of their users that have sent spam emails. Look at the top level domain of the sender and then navigate to the relevant site and look for a “report spam” link. Fill in the details of the email you received and the person responsible for sending it.
Affiliate Companies
Companies that are linked to from within the spam email will also be interested to learn of the underhand techniques that people are using to attempt to sell their products. Look at (but do not click) the links that are being promoted and personally navigate to the website concerned. Look for a “report spam” link or use the contact us page and forward a copy of the email.
Reporting Search Engine Spam To Search Engines
If you use a search engine and click a link to a site that has clearly used search engine spamming techniques (a large number of keywords and nonsensical or irrelevant text) then you can also report these sites to the search engines you use. Google, Yahoo, and MSN, in particular are interested in learning of these websites so report them too.
Stamp Out Spam
Spam is a serious issue and left unchecked it can prevent the proper use of your email client or it can even bring down an entire company's IT infrastructure or a web server. You are the most potent tool that you have against spam as a major problem so you should take action wherever you can in order to prevent spam from continuing in the way it currently is. Report all instances and all emails that you receive.