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Frequently Asked Questions:
What is it and what do I do about it?
Unsolicited e-mail, or "spam", has become
increasingly rampant on the Internet, and almost all Internet users have
reported an increasing amount of spam in their mailboxes. From
"Get Rich Quick" schemes to "How to Look Younger", it
seems like everyone and anyone is trying to grab your attention. If
you are fed up with receiving these messages, the following information
will help you understand why this is happening and what you and BCI can do
to help stop it.
How did these people get my e-mail address?
E-mail addresses are gathered from many sources, including
personal home pages, newsgroups, mailing lists and chat rooms. There
are also computer programs that randomly generate e-mail addresses.
Unless you are sure of the source of an e-mail, it is recommended you do
not reply to the sender to remove your address from their list. All
that does is validate your address and make it get added to the next list
to be sold.
Does BCI provide my e-mail address to outside parties?
No. BCI does value the privacy of your e-mail address and
does not sell or make available to any third party information about it
customers, except in cases where required by law.
What is BCI doing to stop unsolicited e-mail or spam?
BCI is actively addressing this growing problem and has 2 Servers
setup to
filter Mail for SPAM. Filtered Mail ends up in a sub- mailbox called
XSPAM. You can view this e-mail box by accessing your mail via http://Webmail.bci.net The
"from" address in the message includes @bci.net. Why
can't you stop it?
While BCI continues to take steps to ensure our customers are not the
originators of unsolicited e-mails, the "from" address can be
misleading. Many people who send unsolicited e-mails forge their
"from" address, making the message appear to have come from a
BCI address when it actually came from another ISP. The only way to
accurately identify the origin of the message is from its
"header" information. How do I view the header
information of a message?
To view the message header, select the option in your e-mail
program that allows you to view full headers: Outlook
Express Highlight the message
From the File menu, select Properties, then Details.
Right Click in Detail Area...Choose Select All
with Left
Mouse Button. Right Click
again...Select Copy
with Left Mouse Button.
Right Click in Message Area on The Form ...Select Paste
with Left
Mouse Button.
Or you can Forward as an Attachment once you have
been contacted by a BCI Staff Member. Highlight the
Message then Click Message-Forward as Attachment from Tool
Bar.
Netscape Communicator
Open the message
From the View menu, select Headers, then All.
Now when viewing the e-mail Full Headers are displayed. You can copy
and paste the message or forward it.
What Are FULL Headers?
The "full header" will contain lines beginning
with "Received". These are "postmarks" marking
the servers through which the message has traveled. Note the
"host names" in the "Received" lines. "Host
names" are the parts to the right of the "@" sign in the
e-mail addresses, names typically ending with ".com" or
".net". In most cases, the one in the last
"Received" line (the line closest to the message body) is the
originating ISP of the sender. What if the message
header does not have a "host name"?
If there is not a "host name" in the last
"Received" line (the line closest to the message body), you will
see a numeric address in parenthesis, such as, (208-254-171-15). To
find the ISP that this numeric address belongs to, just copy the address
into the space provided at the following web site: http://www.arin.net/whois/. How
can I effectively complain about unsolicited e-mail?
If you choose to complain about an unsolicited e-mail, the
complaint must be sent to the originating ISP in order for any action to
be taken against the sender of the message. Sending a complaint to
BCI about spam from another ISP will delay any action, as BCI cannot take
action against another ISP's customer. When sending your
complaint, it is very important that the original message be sent as an
attachment to your complaint. Doing so preserves the header
information, which is vital to the investigation. Please do not
"cut and paste" the offending message into the complaint
message. If you are using Outlook Express or Netscape Messenger, you
can forward a message as an attachment by right-clicking on the message
and selecting "forward as attachment" from the menu. Please
address your complaint to "abuse@", followed by "Host
name" of the ISP. If you encounter a problem utilizing the "abuse@" format, try
"host@" or "postmaster@" followed by the "host
name" of the ISP. Or try going to the website for information. Join
CAUSE: Coalition Against Unsolicited
E-mail What can I do to block or filter
unsolicited e-mail?
An effective way to block unsolicited e-mail is to "set a
rule" in your e-mail program to automatically delete e-mail hat meets
your criteria for spam. Check the "help" area of your
e-mail program for instructions on setting mail filters. There are
also several e-mail filtering software programs on the market that will
perform this task automatically. Here is a link to
setup filters with: BCI Web
Mail. Here is a Link with information on Tracing Spam
and E-mail Filters: http://spam.abuse.net/userhelp/ Sites
with additional Links & Info. on SPAM:
http://www.cauce.org
This site is designed to provide information about the problems of
junk email, some proposed solutions, and to provide resources for the
Net Community to make informed choices about the issues surrounding
junk e-mail.
http://spam.abuse.net
http://spamcop.net
http://www.spamabuse.org
http://www.spamcon.org/index.shtml
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