🚀 go-pugleaf

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

The following is a summary of advice we have available on our web
site for customers having trouble with unsolicited email.
   
The full text can be found at:
   
   http://www.demon.net/helpdesk/spam
   
What is UCE / spam ?
   
   Unsolicited Commercial Email is advertising material sent and
   received by email without the recipient either requesting such
   information or otherwise explicitly expressing an interest in the
   material advertised.

   Just like receiving junk mail through your letterbox, UCE / spam
   consists of junk mail that arrives on your computer. But unlike
   postal mail, the recipient has to bear most of the costs of spam,
   whether or not it's automatically deleted without being seen.
   Unsolicited Commercial Email and Unsolicited Bulk Email (UCE/UBE),
   usually in the form of marketing campaigns, get rich schemes and
   pornography, are popularly referred to as 'spam'.

Where does UCE come from?

   Some 'spam' is sent by companies that are new to the Internet
   and do not understand how unwelcome this material is. However
   recent reports suggest that 90% of all the material currently
   being sent originates from as few as 180 individuals or 'spam
   gangs'. These groups make a business out of promoting unsavoury
   (and sometimes illegal) material. They hide the true origin of
   the material by relaying their email via insecure mail systems
   and machines. Although in the past they have targeted incorrectly
   configured machines at ISPs and large companies, they now
   regularly exploit end-user ('customer') machines. 

   Demon is committed to ensuring that our customer's machines cannot
   be exploited in this manner. Further information can be found at:

      http://www.demon.net/helpdesk/aup/relaytests.shtml
   
How did 'spammers' get my email address?

   Email addresses are often harvested from newsgroups, chat
   rooms, mailing lists and other sources where your email address is
   made public. Making your address visible on a web page, either in
   the text or through a mail to: link is considered the most likely
   way for 'spammers' to obtain your email address.

   This 'harvesting' is often done via an automatic computer program
   or script. Once on a 'spammer's' list, your email address is often
   sold to other 'spammers'. We recommend that customers should never
   respond to, or view, websites advertised in UCE.

   Some 'spammers' take a 'scattergun' approach - sending mail in
   bulk to a large number of variant email addresses, making a note
   of the addresses that yield a response.

   Legitimate senders of email (where you have asked to be sent
   information in the past) will offer you the option of
   discontinuing the correspondence. However, unscrupulous senders of
   unsolicited email will use your 'unsubscribe' request as evidence
   that your email address is 'live' and that you read the messages
   that arrive. They will then send more material or sell on your
   address to other 'spammers', so that the net effect is an increase
   in junk.

How can I report offensive messages?

   The Demon 'Abuse Team' deal with any unsolicited bulk email
   that is being sent by (or relayed by) Demon customers. However,
   they are unable to do anything about 'spam' sent from other ISPs.
   The first step is to work out where the UCE has originated from
   and then send a copy to the originating ISP. You will need to send
   a copy of ALL of the headers because they will need this
   information to track down the exact customer who is responsible.

   Various means are used to disguise its true origins, such as
   sending it through Open Mail Relays and Open Proxy Servers. The
   UCE almost certainly has not come from the address listed in the
   From header of your mail client. In order to work out the
   originating ISP you will need to review the headers of the email.
   We have provided some links to tutorials on this topic below.

Why doesn't Demon filter my email messages for UCE ?

   Filtering email, to discard the unwanted junk, often sounds
   like an attractive option and indeed some people find that systems
   installed on their own machines and tweaked for their own
   situation can work very well. However, there are very significant
   challenges in setting up a centralised system for a customer base
   as diverse as Demon's and providing assurances that no-one's
   legitimate email will be discarded by mistake.
   
   We are also mindful that filtering is essentially a stop-gap
   solution and that the 'spammers' are already modifying their
   material to make it harder and harder to distinguish from
   legitimate email. To fight back, filters become more and more
   'fuzzy' and this increases the risk of blocking the email that our
   customers want to receive. 
   
   Demon has investigated email blocking solutions and at present we
   do not believe that we could offer a general system that would be
   suitable for customers. However, this is not a final judgement,
   and we will continue to monitor what is available as systems are
   improved and updated.

What can I do to avoid UCE ?

   You can reduce the UCE/UBE sent to your 'real' address by being
   careful who you reveal it to. In particular you should avoid
   putting it onto your own website in 'machine-readable' form. 
   
   You should think carefully before making your email address public
   in any forum and especially when providing it to websites you
   visit unless they are operated by reputable companies, where there
   will usually be tick boxes where you can express your preferences
   about the future receipt of marketing material from them.

How can I deal with UCE that I am already receiving?

   Most email clients can be configured only to accept email to
   specified addresses, thereby rejecting (and causing to be removed
   from the server) addresses to which you do not wish to receive
   email. This will cause email sent to unwanted addresses to be
   deleted before downloading. Please note that some clients will
   need to download the email envelope and / or headers to filter
   mails. Details of how to do this are available in the full
   article on our website for Outlook Express and Turnpike.
   
   Care should however be taken to ensure that email to misspelled
   addresses is not lost (eg john@ spelled as jon@ or allison@
   spelled as alison@). 
   
   When it comes to email that is correctly addressed then you may
   wish to consider one of the email filtering programs that are
   available. Links to further information are available in the
   full article on our web site.

Other useful information.
   
   For further information on this topic, you may wish to refer to
   some of the websites listed in the full article on our web site:

      http://www.demon.net/helpdesk/spam   
   
Malcolm Muir
Demon Internet

- -- 
Malcolm S. Muir                                   Demon Internet Ltd.
Sunderland                                        322 Regents Park Road
England                                           London N3 2QQ


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGPsdk version 1.7.1

iQCVAwUBPtcnXMUeMni8Zor9AQG9eAQAjrq3+9SbvjCscrn3MGoamBRFnNGjZxxF
OTx4/kvPdYoxcpqlRgY60q/cjI0WyQ2dBaJW88V3fLX9LTFUUJxiD4w0I2sbzhNl
4PTRShM/6Zb+tlQwy6UeRxWPtxyftJORnbDBoMHRnB5Sq+HjHocCGxWeLcGSaTq5
EpxeWjE/7f0=
=lSjL
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----