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Division of IT: E-Mail
Junk E-Mail, Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail or Spam
Junk e-mail, also known as spam or unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE), frustrates and annoys most e-mail users. The junk e-mail process starts when a commercial entity (or several) learns of your University e-mail account. The mass mailers then sell your e-mail account to other commercial entities and before long, dozens of mass mailers are sending you spam. It becomes a daily chore to separate the good e-mail from the bad, but there are steps you can take and steps the University is taking to make it easier.
- University e-mail servers are configured to block junk e-mail from the worst known sources. This method catches only the most flagrant mass mailers. It prevents close to half of the junk e-mail sent to the University from ever reaching your mailbox. However, the University continues to receive more junk e-mail than what the e-mail servers can safely block without the risk that some valid e-mails will be blocked too.
- Don't give out your University e-mail address to non-trusted sources (i.e.: free promotions, Web site registrations, sales people, contests, etc.). If you must provide an e-mail address on a Web form, establish a separate e-mail account (e.g., Yahoo Mail, GMail, Hotmail, etc.) or read the provision of the Web site's privacy policy about distributing e-mail addresses. Generally speaking, reputable companies do not sell or distribute e-mail addresses.
- Think twice about using the "opt-out" option that many junk e-mails offer in their messages. Clicking the "opt-out" button tells a mass mailer that the e-mail address is valid and that someone is reading it. This encourages them to continue sending mail to that address and to sell the address to other mass mailers. An "opt-out" option is generally only affective when the message comes from a reputable company.
- Use junk e-mail filtering. Junk e-mail filtering is now available to all University e-mail users on an "opt-in" basis. Junk e-mail filtering does not block junk e-mail, but delivers it to a special folder in your mailbox. This allows you to periodically check the junk e-mail folder for messages that may be spam. The IT Knowledge Base article How to: Enable University Junk E-Mail Filtering describes the steps needed to enable this feature.
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