I really, really didn’t want to put this in the Pit, so please don’t flame about your spam. I need thoughtful answers here, people!
Is anyone else familiar with the OPM network, that sends out maybe 5-6 emails a day about some company’s products? I am. All too well. Somehow, my school email account got in their system. I have a spam account, but now it seems futile, seeing as how the account I actually use has been infected with spam. And of course, they have an opt-out page…that does nothing.
And so…First of all, I understand that you can file complaints with the Federal Trade Commission about unsolicited email advertisements. Has anyone had any luck with that?
Secondly, is it true that it is illegal to spam .edu addresses? I’ve always heard that but never found legitimate proof. Ahh, wouldn’t that be nice?
Finally, is there anyone out there who has successfully gotten their email address off of a spam mailing list? I’m going to be at this school for two more years, and this school account is the only account profs use to contact their students…
If you’re at UTK (not knowing where in Tennessee you are), their webmail accounts now have the option of setting up spam filters - I haven’t done mine yet, not getting spam to that account (I use it nowhere but for school stuff), but I know there’s info on the main http://webmail.utk.edu page.
Beyond that, check to see if your school has any options for blocking mail sent to your account - it may or may not.
I’ve never once heard that it’s illegal to spam .edu addresses. I’m almost 100% certain that’s not true. I’ve read an awful lot of anti-spam information from sites like junkbusters.com and I’ve never seen a single mention of that. So I’m guessing it’s just a rumor.
Many .edu sites use UNIX mail servers and often give students, faculty and staff accounts on their UNIX systems. If this is the case you might want to look into installing SpamAssassin on your account. If you’re not a UNIX/Perl guru you’ll have to track down someone who can help you, but trust me, it’s worth it. I installed it recently after getting more and more annoyed at the increasing amount of spam my account was receiving and it’s cut the level of spam to nearly zero. Actually, the way I have it configured, it sticks messages that look like spam into a separate folder so I can double-check them to make sure they weren’t a false positive before I delete them, but I’ve only had one false positive ever, I think.
The conclusion I’ve come to is that spam is not going to go away on its own, nor are laws going to be enacted outlawing it entirely (and it wouldn’t matter much if it did). So the only viable option is technical countermeasures, some of which are getting very good. SpamAssassin is only one of a fairly large number of tools available, some of which are bound to be easier to set up and maintain than SpamAssassin is. Look around and see what’s out there - it’ll probably be worth your while.
