How to Report Spam

Guide Note: If you want to do something about the flood of Spam emails you receive each day, use this page to learn How to Report Spam to the proper authorities.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

Creative Commons photo by D'Arcy Norman
Creative Commons photo by D'Arcy Norman
  • If you have an email account, chances are that at some point you've come across those bothersome unsolicited messages known as Spam. Whether it's an add imploring you to buy the latest "Hot" stock, purchase a years supply of sexual enhancement products, or buy prescription drugs without a prescription, spam is one of the seedier by-products of the Internet age. And while it may be easiest to simply delete those messages and move on to the important ones, the fact is that they will keep coming and keep wasting your time and energy. One of the many things that you can do to help reduce spam is to report spam activity to organizations that have the ability to do something about it. Here are some tips and tricks for how to do just that.

Why Report Spam

  • While you shouldn't make it your life's work to track down and expose spammers (there are just too many!), reporting spam can have an effect. Here are a few reason why you should report spam:
    1. Reporting spam can help cut down on the amount of spam you receive.
    2. Reporting spam can help authorities find and prosecute illegal spammers.
    3. Reporting spam can help your Internet Service Provider identify where spam is coming from.

Warning: Never respond to the spam message directly. Don't reply to the email, don't click on any of the links, and don't click on links that say "Unsubscribe" or "Click here to stop receiving emails". This will result in more spam, not less.

Report Spam to the Federal Trade Commission

  • One of the easiest ways to report spam is to forward the unsolicited email to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is a government agency that helps promote consumer protection and regulates businesses. By reporting spam to the FTC, you are helping to compile a database that can then be used by the authorities to find and prosecute spammers. Here's how:
  1. Forward the offending email to spam@uce.gov.
  2. Make sure that you include the Full Header of the email in your response. This will include information that can help the FTC determine where the spam came from and how it found its way into your inbox.
    • The full header is not usually visible at first glance.
    • Find your service provider from this list and follow the directions for how to find the full header.
  3. If you wish to submit a complaint about a specific company and their practices (or have been the victim of a spam related scam), file a formal complaint with the FTC by filling out this form.

Report Spam to the ISP

  • Another way to help combat spam is to report it to the Internet Service Provider (ISP) whose mail servers were used to send the message. Since spam is a violation of most ISP's user agreements, they will usually want to know when nefarious spammers are using their facilities to send spam. By altering the ISP to the spammers actions, they can then track them down and stop them. While this method is a bit more complicated (and technical) then the others, it can still be a useful tool in helping to stop spam.
  • The first thing that you will need to do is to identify the IP address of the ISP that was used to send the spam.
  1. Find the Full Header of the spam email you want to report (see above for instructions on how to find the header).
  2. Look through the header and identify the IP address. You can usually find this in the Received: section or in various other places throughout the header (see below). The IP address will usually be represented by 4 numbers separated by dots.
    • Find the IP address of Internet Service Provider in the full email heading
      Find the IP address of Internet Service Provider in the full email heading
  3. Next, find out what ISP that address is linked to by going to SamSpade.org and pasting the IP address that you copied from the header into the "Whois" box.
    Screenshot from SamSpade.org
    Screenshot from SamSpade.org
  4. If the IP address is valid, you will be provided with a results screen that contains detailed information on the ISP that is currently using that address (including their name, location, address and phone number).
  5. Find the email address of the ISP (usually something like abuse@ISPname.com or .net).
  6. Forward the offending email to that address, including the Full Header and a description of the message.
  7. While they will usually follow up on these reports of spam abuse, most ISPs will not reply to your email unless you specifically request them to do so (and even then sometimes not).

Use Spam Reporting Services

  • If you don't have the time, energy, or technical savvy to manually report spammers to the proper organizations yourself, you can take advantage of some of the independent spam reporting services that have popped up in the past few years. By signing up for an account with these services, users can quickly and easily forward spam messages to them. Those messages are then analyzed by the services and the proper actions are taken to stop the spammers. Here are a couple of the most popular spam reporting services:
    1. SpamCop: Probably the most used spam reporting service, SpamCop is a great resource for people who want to help fight spam. While signing up for a basic account and reporting spam is free, SpamCop also offers premium email accounts that make use of their extensive databases to provide users with spam-free email.
    2. Spamhaus: Spamhaus is an International non-profit organization that works to battle spam around the globe by compiling lists of known spammers and their IP addresses. They also provide anti-spam services for large organizations and businesses.

Do Not Spam List: Fact or Fiction?

  • While you may have heard rumors of a National "Do Not Email Registry" (similar to the Do Not Call Registry), the truth is that such a list does not exist. In fact, in a report to congress, the Federal Trade Commission actually decided that such a list would not work in combating spam and might actually contribute to the proliferation of spam.[1] Their reasoning was that any list that is a compilation of email addresses and accounts can be accessed by spammers and used as a "Do-Call List". Sorry.

Resources

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Spam | How to Stop Spam Email | How to Protect Your Computer from Malware | How to Recover from Identity Theft | How to Get on the Do Not Call List | Phishing



Have any great tips on How to Report Spam? Post your thoughts to the discussion board or email them to Andy: andy at mahalo dot com.