When you go to your mailbox and find pieces of junk mail mixed in with important correspondence, you throw it out. It is a mild nuisance and you probably don’t even give it a second thought. Unfortunately, most people do
same when spam arrives in their inbox. They just delete it.While that does get rid of an individual email, more needs to be done to control what can become an overwhelming problem. Liken spam to cockroaches; see one in your cabinet and you know that you likely have an infestation that needs to be dealt with swiftly.
To begin with, do not respond to spam – ever. There are usually two ways that spam recipients make this mistake. First is opt-out clause that appears at bottom of email. It appears to be a legal statement giving you right to remove yourself from this mailing list. Unless you legitimately authorized company to send you mail, in which case this is not spam, do not follow this link. Most often this link is simply a way for spammers to identify your email address as valid. Now they can sell your address to other spammers and thank you for making their work easier by continuing to send you spam you didn’t want in first place.
The second manner in which this error occurs is when, out of total frustration, you reply to sender with a firm statement of your disgust. This usually happens when spam is pornographic material and despite your best efforts, keeps appearing in your inbox. Sometimes reply will not work because sender’s email address is a fake one and it will just bounce back to you as undeliverable. Count yourself lucky because alternative means that they now have a confirmation of your address.
Next, read email header. The header contains full path of computers through which email passed to get to you. Most pieces of email pass through at least four computers – spammer’s, their ISP, your ISP, and finally yours. Since stated from address is usually a fake one, this is most reliable way to track down spammer’s ISP, at very least.
