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Reporting

Make sure that the message is spam

First, please make sure that it is indeed spam and that you didn't subscribe yourself to a list and ended up forgetting about it. This is more common than you might think -- ever fill out one of those web forms and forget to check whether the "Send me Info" box was checked or unchecked? It's usually set on by default.

Also make certain that it's not from someone you met or corresponded with briefly, and have since forgotten.

How to report the spam to the authorities.

At the current time, state and federal laws are not strict enough to make enforcement entirely effective. You should report spam that violates other types of laws. Reporting spam to authorities may not make a noticeable difference to you, but it will make it more difficult for the spammer to continue; it also puts pressure on law makers to take action.

There are a number of options for reporting the sender of the spam.

If you are using the WiscMail anti-spam service

Sometimes a spam message is missed by the scanners or a message is incorrectly labeled as spam. Since there is no practical way for a non-human scanner to instinctively know whether or not a message is spam for each individual for the entire university, there are bound to be mistakes.

If a spam message was labeled as non-spam

Some spammers are very smart at avoiding anti-spam services. There are three things that you should do to avoid getting similar spam messages in the future.

  • Adjust your threshold on the Junk Mail Filter. If the threshold is set too low, then more spam will pass through without being filtered. If you raise the threshold for your account, be aware that it will be more likely that some of your legitimate messages will be falsely labeled as spam.
  • Block List the sender. Sometimes a spammer is always sending messages that appear like legitimate messages. Adding the sender or sending domain to your personal block list will send every message from that sender or domain to your Junk Mail folder.
  • Submit the headers of the message to the spam administrators so that any necessary adjustments to the spam scanners can be made.
If a legitimate message was labeled as spam.

Sometimes a legitimate message looks like spam.

There are three things that you can do to prevent false positives.
  • Adjust your threshold on the Junk Mail Filter. If the threshold is set too high, then false positives are more likely to occur. If you lower the threshold for your account, be aware that it will be less likely to catch spam.
  • Accept list the sender. Sometimes a sender is always sending messages that appear like spam. Adding the sender to your personal accept list will prevent messages from this sender to be filtered into your Junk Mail folder.
  • Add the mailing list address to your mailing lists if the message was to one of your subscribed lists. Adding the mailing list address to your mailing lists will prevent messages to the list stay in your Inbox.
  • Submit the headers of the message to the spam administrators so that any necessary adjustments to the spam scanners can be made.
If a message was not rated at all.

The WiscMail service only scans messages that do not originate from other WiscMail users.

If you forward your departmental mail account to your wiscmail account, then your messages may not be rated because the message is coming from campus. The WiscMail administrators are taking steps to treat mail that comes from the the other mail services on campus as external mail. Please contact the help desk (264-4357, help@doit.wisc.edu) if messages forwarded to your WiscMail account are not being rated by the spam scanners.

How do I submit messages to the anti-spam administrators?

If you feel that a message was not labeled correctly by the anti-spam scanners, you may submit the message to the anti-spam administrators. The administrators can use the information in your message to identify problems with the scanners or tune it according to the spammers' latest tactics.

In order to submit messages to the WiscMail spam administrators, you will need to submit the source of the message. Read below to learn how to get the source of the message.

Forward the message as an attachment to is-spam@doit.wisc.edu or not-spam@doit.wisc.edu to submit it for review. It is important that you forward the message as an attachment because a normal forwarded message will not include the full source of the original message. If your email client does not have the ability to forward the message as an attachment, then you can paste the message source into the body of the message.

How do I get the source of an email message?

An e-mail message is divided into two parts, the headers and the body. The headers contain all the technical information, such as who the sender and recipient are, and what systems it has passed through. The body contains the actual message contents.

Here are some instructions for viewing the message source with some of the more popular mail clients:

  • WiscMail web client
    • Open the message.
    • Click the triangle that is to the right of the "From" address.
    • The headers will expand.
    • Select all of the headers [and body] of the message with your cursor.
    • Copy the selected headers (under the edit menu of your browser).
  • Eudora
    • Open the message (double click it, preview will not work).
    • Under the title bar are four options.
    • The second from the left is a box which says "Blah, Blah, Blah."
    • Click on that to display the full headers.
    • Select the headers [and body] of the message with your cursor.
    • Copy the selected headers (under the edit menu).
  • Netscape 4.x Mail
    • Choose "OPTIONS" from the options menu bar.
    • Listed as an option is "Show Headers".
    • Choose full headers.
    • Select the headers [and body] of the message with your cursor.
    • Copy the selected headers (under the edit menu).
  • Mozilla Mail and Netscape 7 Mail
    • Go to the "View" menu, go to "headers", select "all".
    • Select the headers [and body] of the message with your cursor.
    • Copy the selected headers (under the edit menu).
    • Reset the header view to "normal" after you have finished.
  • Outlook Express
    • Open the message.
    • Choose "File" from the options menu bar.
    • Listed as an option is "properties".
    • Another window will open, showing two tabs.
    • You want to choose the one titled "Details".
    • Select the headers [and body] of the message with your cursor.
    • Copy the selected headers (under the edit menu).
  • Outlook
    • Double click on the message to open it up,
    • click on "View --> Options",
    • and you will see the message headers in a box at the bottom of the window.
    • Select the headers [and body] of the message with your cursor.
    • Copy the selected headers (under the edit menu).