OIT Home Technology ResourcesSpamWhat you can do to Minimize Spam
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What you can do to Minimize Spam

There are numerous ways an e-mail address can be added to lists used by bulk mailers. Knowledge of best practices can reduce the chance of your e-mail being a targeted for spam.

Generally, the less you distribute your e-mail address, the better. Obviously to be able to communicate with others sharing your e-mail address is necessary, but being careful with what companies you may give it to, or what is posted to web sites is a good idea. Spammers thrive on adding as many e-mail addresses as possible to lists. When they post addresses to web pages, they may exist to be found for a very long time. Some areas to use caution with divulging your e-mail address are:

When creating online accounts or subscribing to services

  • Be careful when signing up for services that will use your e-mail address to communicate with you.
  • Carefully read the language used to describe whether you should check or uncheck a box to receive mail messages from the company and whether they may share it with others.
  • Make sure that you read their privacy statements regarding sharing addresses.
  • Enact the privacy option on credit cards. Many credit card companies sell their mailing lists. Contact the company and tell them not to include your name in any list that they distribute.

When putting content on web sites

  • Where possible, avoid posting your WVU e-mail address on web sites.
  • Online forums and message boards are common prey for spammers to acquire e-mail addresses.
  • Spammers use tools to crawl through online public sites to parse e-mail addresses to add to their lists. If you want people to be able to communicate with you, consider modifying the address you post in so that would likely require human interaction to make the address legitimate:
  • Example: jane.doe@mail.wvu.edu would become jane.doe(AT)mail.wvu.edu

Working with E-mail accounts and messages

  • Consider creating a secondary email account that you only use for personal communications, such as ordering products online, subscribing to online newsletters, etc. Keeping personal mail separate can help your University account traffic remain as clean as possible for its intended purpose.
  • Never respond to spam messages. Delete them.
  • Do not send replies to unwanted messages even if it is encouraging you to "unsubscribe" (unless it is a legitimate email newsletter that you know you have registered for). Doing this confirms your email address and can lead to additional unwanted messages!
  • Do not register your address with online directory look-up services

If you have old e-mail accounts forwarding to your main WVU account, consider removing the forwarding. For individuals who have older account that end in @wvu.edu, please contact the OIT help desk at for assistance with this: oithelp@mail.wvu.edu or 304-293-4444.

Protecting your computer from sending spam

Spammers often seek to lure users into unknowingly opening up their computers to attack or outside use. Therefore, it is important to take adequate precautions and use good judgement while online. 

If not protected, personal computers can be hijacked by spammers and used as mail servers to send out bulk email. This activity generally takes place without your knowledge. Once compromised, your system may run more slowly, consume large amounts of bandwidth and can result in suspension from the network until the problem is corrected.

To reduce the chances of your system falling victim to this type of attack:

  • Install a recommended anti-virus program and keep the virus definition library up-to-date.
    • WVU provides licensed copies of Symantec AntiVirus to current students free of charge. Students can easily download a licensed copy of Symantec AntiVirus software from the OIT Technology Support Center's website.
  • Avoid downloading and installing free software
    • Free programs may contain Trojan Horse and/or Spyware which can compromise your computer and lead to malicious activities running in the background without your knowledge.
  • Consider installing a recommended program for detection and removal of Spyware/Adware

For more information on spam:

 

Updated April 10, 2008