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How To Combat That Spam
Email Arriving In Your Inbox
SPAM email messages, those
unwanted commercial messages that slow your email program to a crawl and
stuff your inbox full, are
a fact of life. Fighting back is almost impossible. Until now.
Fight
Back!
The are
just a couple of steps, that will take no longer than 30 minutes, to
combat spam and possibly even get the offending domain removed from the
Internet. That's right, you can get the website taken off the Internet
and the domain name registrar that allowed the domain creation put on
notice by the Internet
Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN.org) that their
business practices of registering SPAM domains are now being watched and
documented.
Behind every SPAM email there is a company that will take your money for
buying something. And the spammers are likely being paid a commission or
selling for themselves. But you didn't ask to get the email and you get 3,
6 or more of these offensive, bothersome and annoying emails every day.
Take the time to follow these steps and you can effectively fight SPAM.
Most SPAMMERS use false information in the registration of their domain
name and it is this false information that we will use against them.
Step
One
In this step we will verify that the "From:" email address is false
or fraudulent in the SPAM you received.
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Don't
delete that email. You'll need it, so save it. And you'll need the 'email
headers' that provide the information on how, when and by what path
you received the SPAM email. If your email service/program doesn't
show the header information by default, please check the help
section of the service/program to find out how to show the email
header. Reply to the email and simply say "Stop sending me SPAM!" If
the email bounces and you get a delivery notification error message
(email could not be delivered, this user doesn't exist, etc.) you
can move on to step two.
Step
Two
In this step we will verify that the domain in the email can be
identified and the owner's information used in the registration of the
domain is either valid or fraudulent. We will identify the domain that
the email SPAM is directing us to and attempt to verify the domain
owner's information.
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Check
the domain registry information of the offending domain that sent
you the SPAM. If the SPAM
email doesn't show a website name (www.website.com) then it will
show a link to click on. Follow that link and copy the domain name.
You need to be sure you are sure of the domain name spelling and
destination of the link that sent you there. Some spammers are quite
crafty in hiding their real domain name, so it's important that you
check before continuing with your complaint. I have found that SPAM
domains are usually registered using false information and that is
the tool we will use against these spammers. They may feel they are
hiding themselves, but there is an information trail left behind.
Initial payment for the domain registration made to the domain
registrar is just one piece of information that is left behind. So,
the domain registration company could ultimately go after these
spamming domain owners but experience has shown me that it's best to
go through the official ICANN channels to get the domain removed
from the Internet.
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Go to
an official
WHOSIS
lookup and check the domain owners registry information. Follow the
directions to submit the domain name of the domain that spammed
you and you will get the information concerning the owner of the
domain. Many domains that send SPAM use fake information in their
ownership details and this is exactly what we are looking for. With
false information being used in the domain registration you can
effectively complain to
ICANN and have the domain disabled
and/or removed completely from the Internet. The
domain's numeric address will possibly be removed and that will effectively
stop the domain from being visited by anyone as well as sending any
more emails as they will lose control of any email servers
registered to that domain.
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Fake
information in the domain registration details includes false owner
email addresses, easily checked by sending an email to the contact email
address provided in the registration. If the email bounces back to you with a delivery error,
you can get the domain closed down! Other fake information includes
fake owner names, fake business or personal addresses, false phone
numbers, etc., which can easily be checked with other online
resources (see Step 3b).
Step
Three (a)
In this step we have verified that the domain registration
information is false or fraudulent and we will report the domain to
ICANN who will then report the complaint to the original domain
registrar.
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Report the
false information used to register the domain directly to ICANN.
You need to provide your own real email address and name, but you're safe
giving this to ICANN. Once you've submitted the basic information
you'll be taken to a second page that will allow you to include
additional information. This is very important and should not be
skipped if you want the spamming domain to be dealt with.
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You
will need a copy of the email complete with the 'email headers' to
paste into the 'additional details' section. Email headers are the
email postal information that allowed the email to find your inbox.
If your email service/program doesn't show the header information by
default, please check the help section of the service/program to
find out how to show the email header. Include as much information
as possible including how much you are annooed at having to deal
with SPAM.
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You will receive an email from ICANN to confirm the information you
provided, so be sure to confirm your submission by clicking on (or
copy and pasting into your browser address bar) the provided
confirmation address for your submission.
Step
Three (b)
In this step we have not completely verified that the domain registration
information is false or fraudulent so additional investigative work is
needed to verify that false ownership information has been used to
register the domain and then we will report the domain to ICANN who will then report the complaint
of false/incomplete information to the original domain
registrar.
Keep in
mind that if the email address used as the contact email address in the
owner's domain registration information is unanswered, bounces or
otherwise unresponsive to any emails sent to it we can assume that it is
not monitored, thus used as a domain registration 'drop'. That usually
means any other information in the domain registration is also
incomplete or false.
So: copy
the name and address information and check it against the databases
available online. Once you have verified that any of the information is
incomplete or false you can report the domain to ICANN.
Step
Four
Congratulate yourself! The SPAM domain will soon be taken offline!
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Receiving a response from ICANN or the domain name registrar
responsible for the spamming domain name registration usually takes
48 hours but can take up to 4 weeks. Save all correspondence you
receive concerning your SPAM domain complaint.
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Celebrate when you receive this email from ICANN or the domain
registry involved:
Thank you for your letter to
ICANN regarding the false whois registration information at
SPAMMINGDOMAIN.com.
We have disabled the domain name because it is in violation with the
ICANN policy.
Regards,
Links
in this article:
JOIN US
Tell your
friends about this information at aLoveLinksPlus so our combined
fighting force can grow and
become an effective force against email SPAM and the domains involved.
This article originally published at:
http://www.alovelinksplus.com
© 2006 Cheerful Attitude Web Design Ltd.
Webmasters: You are free to republish this article, in it's entirety, as
long as this notice is included.
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The US GAO (United States
Government Accountability Office) has issued a document concerning the
prevalence of false contact and registration information for registered
domain names, Nov 2005.
Download
the PDF here.
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