You've just paid your internet service provider (ISP) for the privilege of receiving megabytes of worthless and sometimes offensive junk email, and you've had enough. You want to register a complaint but how and with whom?
First you must try to figure out who is responsible for sending you the junk email. This involves deciphering the header of the message and these tutorials can help you with that task:
Other useful tools for tracking down the person(s) or organisation(s) responsible for sending or relaying junk email include
This Unix command reveals who is responsible for a particular domain as well as other useful information. These web-based resources can be used by anyone, regardless of operating system:
This Unix command can tell you which domain owns a given IP address. If you are not running a Unix machine, then try these web-based resources:
You can also try these online services:
This Unix command shows the route a message takes when it travels from one computer to another. Non-Unix machines can use these:
After you have tracked down the guilty parties, forward the entire junk email, including the full header, as an inline message (and not as an attachment) to the appropriate addresses. Besides the tools listed above, SpamCop can help you track down host names and the Network Abuse Clearinghouse can help you find the appropriate complaint addresses. Many ISPs recognise the growing problem of spam and have set up special email addresses to handle complaints, but don't expect a personal reply.
We report all incidents where a complaint to the abuse desk or postmaster of the relevant domain bounces to http://www.rfc-ignorant.org/.
Warning: It is almost never a good idea to respond to a junk email invitation to "unsubscribe" from their mailing list. Legitimate businesses will honour your request but unscrupulous spammers often use this method to confirm that your address is live so that they can use it again or sell it to others.
For more information about unsolicited bulk commercial email, visit these web sites:
Copyright © 1998-2007 by David Harper and L.M. Stockman