Spam FAQ's
What is "spam"?
SPAM®, as you are probably aware, is a canned meat product manufactured by Hormel. On the Internet, however, the word spam has acquired a very different meaning, referring to
either Unsolicited Commercial Email ("UCE") or inappropriately off-topic UseNet newsgroup postings. This has become one of the more annoying aspects of the modern Internet,
nearly as common as the more familiar junk postal mailing and telemarketing phone call.
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How do I avoid or stop receiving spam?
Unfortunately, once your email address appears on the spammers' mailing lists in the first place, it's almost impossible to remove yourself completely; your address is already
"out there" and circulating, being bought, sold, traded, shared and stolen on the spammers' market. However, you can avoid winding up on even more lists than you already are.
For just this reason, many people set up an alternate email address with a "freemail" website such as Yahoo, Mail.com, or Hotmail, so that when they post messages to a public
forum or provide a website with a contact email address, they can provide this alternate address as a "disposable spam catcher" instead of running the risk of drawing spam to
their primary address. As long as you only use your primary email address you have from Nationwide Internet, in direct email correspondence with actual individuals, you run
little risk of winding up on any spammers' mailing lists.
You can also change your username with us, which will change your email address, so that any new email (including spam) sent to your original address will be undeliverable. You
would then need to notify your friends, family, and associates about your change of address, and you should also then take precautions, as described above, to keep your new
address off of spammers' mailing lists in the future. Our Tech Support team can perform this change for customers using any of our standard email services. Contact us at
1.888.628.4669.
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Why do I get spam that isn't even addressed to me?
Spammers frequently use a variety of methods, for a variety of reasons, to conceal, forge, or alter their actual recipients' email addresses. Spammers usually conceal their
actual recipients' addresses to prevent those recipients from discovering who else received such messages and then joining forces against the spammer. Hiding recipients'
addresses also prevents their competitors from stealing the addresses on their junk mailing lists, and it helps their messages avoid automated detection and filtering schemes
based on unusually long recipient lists on any one message. Furthermore, this practice lends a more deceptively "personal" appearance to their junk messages, concealing the fact
that dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of people are recipients of that very same message, while also making it appear that the message may have been "misrouted" to you.
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Can I filter spam out of my own email?
Yes! You can establish an email "Filter" or "Message Rule" in your own email program (in Outlook Express for Windows, look under the "Tools" menu). Using such a filter or rule,
any email from a particularly pesky spammer (e.g., multiple spam messages from the same source, with a consistently recognizable word, phrase, or name in the "Subject:" or
"From:" line) could be automatically deleted or moved to a separate mail folder for your later examination. E.g., if you add a message to the "Blocked Senders" roster, then all
future messages coming from that exact email address will be blocked (but not, obviously, if they change the email address they're using); likewise, if you add a Rule to delete
all messages which contain the words lose weight or XXX in the subject line, then those will be instantly deleted as soon as they are received.
Many people have also reported their satisfaction with commercial spam-filtering software such as SpamKiller, which works similarly to anti-virus software that scans your
incoming email and filters out undesirable messages before they reach your Inbox. Although we do not distribute such software ourselves and thus cannot provide any technical
support or assistance if you wish to use it, most people find it fairly straightforward to setup and use.
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Why is junk email called spam?
Many theories abound on the origin of the term spam in reference to junk email:
- The Acronym Theory - Self-Propelled Advertising Material
- The Food Theory - few people ever want, ask for, or appreciate spam
- The Monty Python Spam Skit theory - the most popular theory (read or see the skit; you'll laugh and see what we mean)
The term spam was originally applied to UseNet newsgroup articles which had been "crossposted" to a large number of inappropriate discussion forums, regardless of whether it was
an advertisement or an actual individual's personal but off-topic message. The UseNet news community first applied the word spam as a verb, with the connotation of "splattering"
or "smearing" off-topic articles across multiple inappropriate forums on UseNet; e.g., "He spammed our hobby newsgroup and several others with his off-topic political rants."
Later on, the Internet community began to apply the term spam as a noun, in reference to the inappropriate UseNet articles themselves, and also by extension to similar email
advertisements which were becoming increasingly annoying and disruptive.
Regardless of why it is called spam, unsolicited bulk email is a major waste of network resources. What if telemarketers could call you "collect", without giving you any option
to decline the charges? Imagine if the Postal Service started allowing companies to send you junk mail for free, or worse yet, with "postage due", instead of charging the senders
for postage. Who eventually pays for all that garbage to be transported all that way by all that expensive equipment, just to end up in your trashcan? You do. This is one of the
primary reasons we do not allow our users to send spam. The other reason is that the Internet community looks down on "spam haven" ISPs and eventually ignores all email from
them, even email from legitimate users.
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How do spammers get my email address?
Spammers typically purchase a block of hundreds or thousands of email addresses which have been either "harvested" from various public sources (UseNet newsgroups,
message/bulletin boards, discussion forums, email links on webpages, etc.) or bought outright from, say, websites which prompt you to enter an email address. Furthermore, after a
spammer obtains your email address in the first place, they often buy, sell, trade, share and steal email addresses among each other. This is similar to marketing groups who buy
your name, address and phone number from the phone company, from state agencies, from catalog retailers, from other marketers, etc. and use that information to pester you with
junk postal mailings and telemarketing calls during dinnertime. Responsible websites which ask for your email address will also either state their privacy policy on sharing or
withholding any personal information you provide, and/or they will offer you the option to "opt in" or "opt out" of receiving any additional mailings (in which case, it's
usually safest to "Just say 'No'.").
Lately, many spammers have developed even craftier ways of composing their mailing lists, without having to obtain valid email addresses from their recipients, nor even from any
other parties at all. They have adopted the use of "war mailer" programs, which simply generate permutations of possible email addresses (e.g., aaa@nationwide.net, etc.); the
spammers then dispatch an email message to every single variation on their auto-generated list. Most modern Internet mailservers will instantly reject any attempt to send a
message to a non-existent recipient address, so the spammers use such rejection responses to cull their initial list down to a more manageable mailing list of probably-valid
email recipients. You might see this technique in action, if the spammers don't also conceal their recipients' addresses, when you receive a spam message addressed to yourself
and also to several other similar addresses.
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Should I reply to spam, to complain or ask to be removed from their mailing list?
Replying directly to any spam message is usually fruitless, and may often be treacherous. As noted above, the apparent "From:" and/or "Reply-To:" address is usually forged. Even
if they do provide a real email address, that email account has usually already been terminated due to spam complaints by the time you might try sending any reply to it. Even
worse, many spammers have a special computer program receiving email at their forged (but still valid and functional) "From:" or "Reply-To:" address. This program then simply
adds the complainers' addresses to even more spam lists; this is the main reason why recipients of spam should never reply directly to any spam, even in complaint. After all,
if you're sending them a complaint in reply to their first spam, that means your address is valid, and you received the first message; they have nothing to lose by sending you
even more, now that they know you actually exist.
Even if you are interested in an apparently legitimate offer which arrives unsolicited in your email, you might want to consider not responding. Every interested response to any
spam message counts as a "success" in the eyes of spammers and their advertising clients. For one thing, they will probably add your address to even more spamming lists; if you
responded to one, they have nothing to lose (and possibly another "success" to gain) by sending you even more spam, and they might even be able to sell your address at a premium,
as a proven responder to spam. Furthermore, the combined "success" of even a few interested responses only encourages the general practice of spamming even more, reinforcing and
rewarding the perception, in the eyes of spamming services and their advertising clients, that "spam works." Just think, if nobody ever replied to spam with any genuine interest
in doing business with the spam-borne advertiser, the for-hire spamming services would have only their say-so, and no real results, to convince people to use spam as an
"effective" advertising tactic.
"Remember, you only need to steal a penny from 4 million people in order to have enough to buy yourself a brand new Mercedes Benz." (- CAUCE)
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Why do I get spam from users "@theriver.com" if The River prohibits sending spam?
For a variety of reasons, spammers frequently use any of a variety of methods to conceal, forge, or alter the "From:" and/or "Reply-To:" email addresses in their messages.
Spammers usually try to conceal their messages' true point of origin to evade discovery of their actual identity and avoid responsibility for their actions. They also commonly
custom-tailor the forged "From:" address, so that it may appear to come from the same ISP or domain as their recipients (e.g., when they are sending a batch of spam to addresses
@nationwide.net, they fake the "From:" address as some fictitious person also @nationwide.net). By faking the "From:" address, they can avoid the "heat" of the hundreds or
thousands of complaints sent in reply to most spam messages, which typically flood back to the apparent (but again, usually faked) "From:" address. See next question and
answer (below) for more details.
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Does Nationwide allow its customers to send spam?
No, never. As a responsible member of the Internet community, Nationwide has always enforced a strict policy which prohibits our own users from sending spam.
If you receive any spam which appears to come from a user @nationwide.net or any other sub of nationwide, please forward that message with all Internet email headers intact to
abuse@nationwide.net(if you are using Outlook Express for Windows, right-click on the Subject line of the spam message and select "Forward As Attachment").
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How do I remove Sasser and Blaster worms?
The most helpful site for removing the MS Blaster Worm is available here from Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/incident/blast.mspx
The most helpful site for removing the Sasser Worm is available here from Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/incident/sasser.asp
There is also a new removal tool available from Microsoft for both of these viruses here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?
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Does Nationwide give any email addresses to spammers?
No, never. Please see Nationwide official Privacy Policy for complete and specific details.
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Where can I learn more about spam and what I can do about it?
If you would like to start taking more of a proactive role in curtailing spam, here's a few good places to start:
Anti-Spam Legislation Advocacy and Information:
CAUCE - Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email
Email Spam and Counter-Spam Tactics:
Spam Cop (beginners)
Abuse.net (intermediate)
UseNet Newsgroup Spam and Counter-Spam Tactics:
S.P.U.T.U.M.
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Can Nationwide block spam from arriving in my email?
Yes! please we do block spam as it hits our server, for better protection please check out our Nationwide Protection service and login to your own account to set your personal
settings.
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If you need more help with any of our products or services
please contact us at 1.888.Nationwide (628-4669)
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