In response to the growing threat from spam, new legislation was enacted in 2003. it was called: Controlling the Assault of Non Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM act). This act created some requirements for all companies who are sending bulk commercial email, as well as those companies whose products are offered for sale in the spam emails. It also instituted penalties for violators, as well as giving the client or consumer the right and the means to request that the mailers cease the spam efforts.

The legislation (CAN-SPAM) covers "transactional or relationship messages," meaning those emails which help a web site to deal with any transaction, even those which are agreed on, or make updates to any customer whether new or exisiting. None of these may contain false or spoofed routing information.

One major provision of the law - The recipient must be fore-warned of any sexually explicit information the email may contain. This warning must be displayed in the email's subject line.

Protect yourself from the spam in your inbox

Read your Email in Plain Text. Spammers often use Javascript to embed malicious code in their spam. It may, for example, be designed to infect your system with a virus that can install itself in your computer, and give a hacker or other scammer access to your private and financial information - without your ever knowing it. You can protect yourself against this by changing the settings to display the email messages in plain text. This effectively disables many harmful scripting features

Above all else, common sense is the most important form of spam protection you can have. Be vigilant when you check your mail - even the most advanced anti-spam filter available today cannot keep 100% of all spam out of you inbox.

To Report Spam Abuse

Spam is as prolific as the leaves on the trees and because there are so many kinds of it, it is a challenge to find the right site or organization to report spam to.

A common spam scam you may come across is called a "419 Scam", or the Nigerian Advance Fee Fraud. These spam emails generally relates a tale of woe - a death in the family and a huge inheritance that the sender needs your (financial) help to claim. As improbable as it sounds, many people have fallen for this scam and millions of dollars have been defrauded from them. Fax a copy of this spam along with the header information to the United States Secret Service.

You can report to www.spamabuse.org. This is a third party reporting agency.

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