Spam

What is spam?

Each day, close to a half million email messages arrive on the KU Lawrence campus. Many of these are unwanted messages generically referred to as SPAM. SPAM is not only annoying, but also a drain on our time and our campus technology resources. Worse, some unwanted messages are dangerous because they contain viruses or attempt to coax private or financial information from the recipient. If you want to read more about the problems caused by spam go to the CAUCE (Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email) Web site.

What is KU doing to manage spam?

The Provost's office has funded a new campus service to protect our KU email services. On September 19, 2006, central campus email systems will begin using this new service. This will replace the spam scoring and filtering systems previously used with Exchange. See the KU Spam Tagging page for further information about how the new system will affect email users at KU.

Can I just use the “remove me from your list” option in the message to stop the spam messages?

Replying back to a spammer's "remove me from your list" address is not a good idea. Reply only to messages from companies or organizations that you recognize. A reputable company may inadvertently send you unwanted email, but they will honor your request to be removed from their mailing list. Replying to a true spammer only validates your address. Once they know that your address is valid the amount of email they send to you will probably increase.

Is there anything else I can do about spam?

Yes, in general, do not register your KU email address at Web sites unless you absolutely must. Some people also set up what are known as "shadow accounts". These are free email accounts (Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.) that you can use when you need to register an email address on a Web site, diverting spam that might be generated by such activity away from your primary email account. Use the second address when you sign up for a chance to win that free vacation online.

How to Report Spam - "Forward as Attachment"


Outlook 2003 and 2007 for Windows and Entourage 2004 and 2008 for Macintosh:

There are two methods that can be used to report spam from Outlook 2003 and 2007 and Entourage 2004 and 2008. One allows you to select multiple messages from the Inbox and forward them to abuse@ku.edu. The other method uses the Insert feature to attach a single spam message into a message that is sent to abuse@ku.edu. Both are described below:

Note: Do not report junk messages that have [SPAMTAG in the subject line; the spam gateway has already identified those as possible spam.

Method 1: Reporting more than one junk message:

  1. Select the messages that you want to report by holding down the CTRL button and clicking with the mouse (Windows) or by holding down the Command button and clicking with the mouse (Macintosh).
  2. Once all of the messages have been selected, right-click on the message and choose Forward from the resulting menu.
  3. Address the resulting message to abuse@ku.edu.
  4. Type “Spam report” as the subject of the message, then Send the message.

Method 2: Reporting only one junk message:

  1. In Outlook and Entourage, open a new message and address it to abuse@ku.edu.
  2. Type “Spam report” as the subject of the message.
  3. Click in the body of the message and do one of the following:
    1. Outlook 2003 and Entourage 2004: Go to the Insert pull-down menu and choose Item.
    2. Outlook 2007 and Entourage 2008: Go to the Insert ribbon and choose Attach Item.
  4. On the resulting screen, go to the Insert As field and click Attachment, then locate the junk message from the Items list. Once you've selected the item that is to be forwarded, click OK.
  5. Confirm that the junk message is attached to the outgoing message, then Send.

Outlook Web Access

Unfortunately, spam cannot be reported to abuse@ku.edu from Outlook Web Access because it lacks the ability to forward messages in the correct format.

IMAP/POP Software: Thunderbird, Outlook Express

Most email programs have the ability to forward email messages as attachments. Here are instructions for some of the most common IMAP/POP software packages: If the email software you use isn't listed below, check your program's Help screens to see if it has a Forward As Attachment feature.

Thunderbird:

  1. Select the messages that you want to report. (CTRL-click to select more than one.)
  2. Go to the Message pull-down menu at the top of the window and select Forward As, then Attachment.
  3. Address the resulting message to abuse@ku.edu and send the message.

Outlook Express:

  1. In the list of messages, select the messages that you want to report. (CTRL-click to select more than one.)
  2. Right-click on one of the selected messages and choose Forward As Attachments from the resulting menu.
  3. Address the message to abuse@ku.edu and send the message.