What Mason is doing about SPAM - George Mason University

Fight Back!

Don't click the "unsubscribe" link. Unfortunately, spammers have co-opted the system and use the unsubscribe link to confirm you have an active e-mail account.

Exercise your rights. If you don't need to provide your email address when filling out online forms, don't! Opt-out look for the little checkbox

Disguise email addresses posted in public electronic places. Spell out the address to confuse harvesting agents, i.e., example name at domain dot com.

Limit how often your email address appears on web pages. Note this may be difficult for some individuals due to business requirements.

Avoid Chat Rooms and Web-based discussion groups. Spammers frequent these environments to "harvest" email addresses, using "spiders" or "agents".

Use a free Email address. Set up a second (or third...) address to use in situations where your address might be public.

Avoid online contests and surveys. Another popular enviroment to grab email addresses.

Contact your legislators. Ask for "Opt-in" policy to be considered. Currently most companies in the United States default process is to offer consumers an "Opt-out" option, often in small print. This requires consumers to make the effort to stop the spam madness. Opt-in allows freedom of choice.

Report Spam to the Federal Trade Commission uce@ftc.gov. The FTC uses the unsolicited emails stored in their database to pursue law enforcement actions against people who send deceptive spam email.

What can you do to minimize Spam?

More about spam


IronPort Anti-Spam Solution After an extensive evaluation, the Mason ITU selected a new Anti-Spam solution by IronPort, an industry leader in providing Email solutions. The new system , IronPort Anti-Spam, utilizes ‘best-of-breed’ conventional Spam-fighting techniques and new innovations to protect Mason Email better than ever. To filter out as much Spam as possible, IronPort employs an exclusive Context Adaptive Scanning Engine™ (CASE) to examine the complete context of an email message including: Content of the message Construction of the message Reputation of the message sender Reputation of the site from which a message is sent More information about IronPort Anti-spam, visit the following link, http://www.ironport.com/technology/ironport_antispam.html For the http://security.gmu.edu/spam page After an extensive evaluation, the Mason ITU selected a new Anti-Spam solution by IronPort, an industry leader in providing Email solutions. For more information, visit the following link, www.gmu.edu/email/spam/ How do spammer's get your address? "Agents" or "spiders" to look through html code on websites for "mailto" then harvest the addresses. Agents look for the "@" sign in newsgroup postings From online purchases (read organization's privacy policy). If your email isn't required don't supply it! Some web browsers will provide your email address to web sites that you visit. You can check to see if your web browser gives out your email address by visiting http://www.junkbusters.com/cgi-bin/privacy What can you do to minimize Spam? Create filters using email applications Communicator v4.5 (Messenger) Netscape v7.x (Mail&Newsgroups) The more adventurous can attempt to fight back with."anti-crawler" code. Report Spam. Note: reporting Spam will not necessarily prevent it from happening again. Generated from outside of GMU. The senders address will not be @gmu.edu. Generated from a @gmu.edu address (include full headers). Threatening email? Contact abuse@gmu.edu or campus police directly. More about spam March 10, 2008 Mason Fights Spam with New Filter Spam Paper by Tracy Holt, TSD, Manager Email Systems & Accounts Mason Gazette Article on Spam Wikipedia.org Spam				Fight Back! Don't click the "unsubscribe" link. Unfortunately, spammers have co-opted the system and use the unsubscribe link to confirm you have an active e-mail account. Exercise your rights. If you don't need to provide your email address when filling out online forms, don't! Opt-out look for the little checkbox Disguise email addresses posted in public electronic places. Spell out the address to confuse harvesting agents, i.e., example name at domain dot com. Limit how often your email address appears on web pages. Note this may be difficult for some individuals due to business requirements. Avoid Chat Rooms and Web-based discussion groups. Spammers frequent these environments to "harvest" email addresses, using "spiders" or "agents". Use a free Email address. Set up a second (or third...) address to use in situations where your address might be public. Avoid online contests and surveys. Another popular enviroment to grab email addresses. Contact your legislators. Ask for "Opt-in" policy to be considered. Currently most companies in the United States default process is to offer consumers an "Opt-out" option, often in small print. This requires consumers to make the effort to stop the spam madness. Opt-in allows freedom of choice. Report Spam to the Federal Trade Commission uce@ftc.gov. The FTC uses the unsolicited emails stored in their database to pursue law enforcement actions against people who send deceptive spam email.



Contact: Bob Nakles, Director IT Security \| Updated September 11, 2006