Spam Fighting Resources

We have collected a list of links to sites devoted to spam-fighting and related activities here. This is where to start if you're not sure what all this stuff means!

Please note that all of these sites are on other systems and VirtuServ  has no control over them. We don't claim any responsibility for what is on these sites.

If you see a site that's not listed on here that you feel should be listed, please drop our webmaster a line, and we'll see about adding them in!

Choose a category:

Websites:

 

Spam Cop
A tool that allows you to paste in spams that you receive, and then traces the source of spams and assists you in complaining to the spammers' ISPs.
How to Track Spammers and Complain to Their ISP
Also known as the SPAM-L FAQ, this document goes into detail how to track the source of spams and file complaints with ISPs.
Spamex
SpamEx provides anonymous e-mail addresses to its users, and the ability to create new ones on an as-needed basis, so that different addresses can be given out to different companies and people.
The SpamCon Foundation Law Center
Contains information on exiting spam related laws, and how to sue spammers under them. Part of The SpamCon Foundation
Background on the TCPA
Boycott Internet Spam
The definitive site, with lots of great info and links.
ISP Acceptable Use Policies
Sample Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs) for ISP's to use.
CIAC Bulletin: I-005c: E-Mail Spamming countermeasures
The US government office that alerts the world to virus threats gets serious about Spam.
"How to steer clear of Spammers radar"
Article in USA Today
Stop Spam FAQ
Abused by e-mail advertising? Here are legitimate and legal ways of doing something about it!
Filter Spam Out!
A practical guide to procmail for filtering spams.
Spamlaws.com
A collection of Federal and State statutes that pertain to UCE. (Formerly on jmls.edu)
Unsolicited E-mail - Cases
Court Cases about Junk Email
The Email Abuse FAQ
The Campaign to Stop Junk Email
The Netizen's Guide to Spam, Abuse, and Internet
Netizens Against Gratuitous Spamming
Stop Unsolicited Mass E-Mail Advertisements!
Another primer for what spamming is, why it is bad, and how to deal with it.
emailabuse.org
A site dedicated to stopping all forms of abusive practices via e-mail, including harassment, Denial of Service attacks and, you guessed it, spamming.
The Forum for Responsible and Ethical E-mail
Mail Essentials
Provides and anti-spam add-on for Exchange Server, Lotus Notes, and other mailservers.
GazNET Anti-Spam
A list of over 1,000 spammers that can be used as a blocking list in Microsoft Outlook.
Sneakemail
A free e-mail service that allows you to generate many different addresses for using when contacting companies and the like online. If you use a different address for each contact, you can determine if a particular company starts sending you spam.
Spam Motel
Another free e-mail service that allows you to generate multiple addresses and give a seperate address to each person you contact to see who sells it.
Spam Combat
Features web-based versions of tools which can be used to perform name lookups, traceroutes, etc.
The Spamhaus Project
Keeps track of sites which promote spam and their ISPs. It's apparently making some progress, judging by the legal threats they have been getting from spammers. :-)
Hormel and Spam
Hormel's official position on the use of the word "Spam" to describe UCE. The word is trademarked by them, and we appreciate them being cool about usage of the word.
Junkbusters
A site which fights junk, both paper and electronic.
Filter-Me
A forwarding service which allows users to set their own filters for e-mail, so each user can create multiple addresses and have different filtering rules for each one.

Surveys:

A collection of surveys that relate to the spam problem, to show what public opinion on it is.

The Junk Email Survey
A survey conducted by survey.com in 1997.
Esearch.com's Survey
The results of a survey conducted by Esearch.com in October, 1997.
VTW Spam Survey
The results of a Survey that was taken in April, 1997, for a report that was later made to the Federal Trade Commission.
Should ISPs be stopping spammers?
The results of a Gartner Group survey on who should be held accountable for stopping spam.
Netcreations Sponsors Internet Marketing Surveys
A press release from Netcreations about the results of two surveys which they conducted.

Opt-In E-mail Companies:

These are companies which send commercial e-mail the responsible way, by sending it to a ready and willing audience, who has asked to receive that sort of e-mail.

 

BaitHook.com
An opt-in e-mail list service with over 250,000 subscribers.
Choose Your Mail
Also home to the Spam Recycling Center!
Infobeat
Another large opt-in mailing company, they have in excess of 3 million subscribers to their newsletters.
MyPoints
You get "points" for reading their e-mails, and can redeem your points to buy all sorts of cool stuff!
Postmasterdirect
A service of Netcreations, this is one of the older opt-in e-mail companies. (NOT to be confused with "Postmasternetworks", spammers who are currently RBLed :-)

Newsgroups:

Newsgroups on Usenet that exist for discussing spam. Your mileage may vary when using these.

 

news.admin.net-abuse.policy
Discussion of how to combat Spam
news.admin.net-abuse.sightings
Post spams here.
news.admin.net-abuse.usenet
Discussion of Usenet spams.
news.admin.net-abuse.email
Discussion of E-mail Spams.
news.admin.net-abuse.bulletins
Announcements of Spams cancelled and Spammers bounced
news.admin.net-abuse.misc
Anything else about Spam