Spam - what is it and what can I do?

Spam is unsolicited email, usually employing sneaky tactics to get through filters designed to catch it. Sending spam is illegal. It's the internet's equivalent of junk mail. The ones you see most often in your inbox are probably for watches and medication. Sometimes span can have viruses attached, so it's important that you don't open an email attachment unless you know the sender. You can read more about it on the FTC website.

Spam is an unfortunate part of having an email account. We update and train our spam filters daily to ensure up-to-date protection, but some still slips through. We can't make it disappear, but we can give you a few tips for seeing less of it in your inbox:

• Avoid displaying your email address in plain text on the internet. This allows your email address to be picked up by spambots, who will send you spam.
• We have a spam filter on our server, which eliminates a lot of spam on its way to your inbox. But we suggest using an email client with a secondary spam filter, such as Microsoft Outlook (NOT Outlook Express, which has no filter) or Mozilla Thunderbird.
• If you have one of the above programs, be sure to turn on your Junk folder. If the option exists, tell it to trust SpamAssassin headers.
• Mark spam as junk or spam using your email client, which will help improve secondary spam filters for people world-wide.

Not so fast - not all unwanted email is spam!

If you have subscribed to a mailing list and no longer want to receive emails from that company, marking those emails as spam is NOT the correct way to unsubscribe. Make sure you use the provided Unsubscribe button.