Spam

The term spam, or junk mail, refers to e-mail communication that is unwanted, is not directed to a specific recipient and is sent in large quantities. Spam jams e-mail systems and blocks inboxes. Tools for sending spam include e-mail worms and bots.

A few tips on getting rid of spam:

• Never open suspicious messages, but delete them straight away from the inbox list of messages.
• Never reply to a junk mail message.
• Use the spam filter that is possibly included in your e-mail program or security software or is provided by your operator.
• Consider carefully when to give your e-mail address on discussion forums and to e.g. polls and competitions on websites.
• Do not forward circular and chain letters.

Publishing e-mail addresses

Publishing e-mail addresses on the Internet is necessary for many organisations for people to the able to contact them. However, contact information is also collected from websites for finding potential targets for spam and other types of malware. The information collected is a valuable commodity for which there is also a market.

E-mail addresses should be published on websites in a form that automated programs meant for collecting addresses do not recognise as an e-mail address. There are several ways of doing that, for instance, the three described below:

• Add the e-mail address to the web page as an image file. This way, the e-mail address will not be an active link but the person sending a message will have to type in the address.
• Include the names of the contact people of your organisation on the web page separately from their e-mail addresses and then write their e-mail addresses in the general form firstname.lastname@organisation.org.
• Write the entire e-mail address and included punctuation as text, for example in the form firstname dot lastname (at) organisation dot org.