How does AT&T Worldnet Service fight spam?
AT&T Worldnet Service fights spam with a powerful filter that's
automatically enabled on AT&T Worldnet e-mail accounts. All your
e-mail messages remain private. No one reads them. We use a software
program to evaluate the headers (routing information) and body (contents)
of e-mail to determine whether or not it is spam.
Serve and Protect:
- On average, we filter and "sideline"
more than 70 percent of the junk e-mail messages hitting the
AT&T Worldnet network.
- We follow some of the most innovative practices
for identifying suspicious "junk mail" e-mail accounts.
- We identify and clean or delete tens of thousands
of viruses each week before they hit AT&T Worldnet members'
online mailboxes.
How do spammers get my e-mail address?
Spammers harvest e-mail addresses in various ways including scanning
chat rooms, searching the Web, and buying online mailing lists (often
from other spammers).
Protect Yourself:
Be cautious when giving out your e-mail ID. Read the privacy policies
of Websites where you list your e-mail ID to understand each site's
policy for distributing or selling e-mail IDs.
(AT&T
Worldnet Service NEVER SELLS or gives away AT&T
Worldnet members' e-mail addresses to anyone. To see how AT&T
Worldnet Service protects your personal information, please read
the AT&T Online Privacy
Policy).
Why do I keep getting messages promoting the same products over
and over again? Can't Spam Blocker filter these messages out?
Spammers constantly change their apparent addresses (the ones you
can see in the "From:" field) and their actual addresses
(the numerical addresses that identify their mail systems). If you
get a junk e-mail and then get the same one again, chances are the
spammer is launching several attacks under different addresses.
Note
that Spam Blocker works reactively. That is, once a spammer has launched
an attack, Spam Blocker identifies it and blocks further messages
in that attack from hitting e-mail inboxes. Not only is this a highly
effective strategy (it allows AT&T Worldnet to sideline over 70%
of our incoming mail as spam), it also reduces the chance we'll block
important messages you want to receive.
While
it may seem effective to block certain words occurring in spam messages,
Spam Blocker does not do that because it would amount to censoring
the mail system. Also, spammers think of ways to alter spellings that,
while still readable by humans, could never be foreseen and coded
into filters.
Finally,
though it may not provide much consolation, it's important to note
that the mail experience among AT&T Worldnet members varies widely,
with many people seeing very little spam in their inboxes. If you
are seeing large volumes of spam in your inbox, see our tips on protecting
your address, below.
What can I do to protect my e-mail address?
- Create several addresses that you can use for different purposes.
For example, you might use one address to give out when registering
for services on the Net or for commercial Web sites and newsletters
(i.e., sites that are likely to be farmed by spammers for e-mail
addresses), and another to give out to friends for personal messages.
Provide extra protection to the former address with AT&T Worldnet
Parental Controls or E-mail Safe List tools. Go to our Features
page to learn more about these tools.
- Create a separate e-mail address if you participate in any
message boards or USENET newsgroups. Automated programs that collect
addresses scan these forums constantly. If you post to boards
and newsgroups, you are almost certain to get spam. Protect that
address with the tools mentioned above in #1.
- Avoid putting your address on any Web page, especially in a
"mailto:" link. Again, spammers search out these addresses
and add them to their mailing lists. To see if your address appears
anywhere on the Internet, go to our Search
page and enter your e-mail address. If any results are shown,
contact the page owner and ask for it to be removed from the page.
If
you want your address to be available on a Web page, consider
altering it so that it can be interpreted by people but not by
machines, a process called "munging." Here are some
easy ways to munge your address:
- username@NOSPAMatt.net
- usernameATattDOTnet
- username@att.REMOVETHIS.net
- Avoid opening messages that look spammy. Often, a spam message
will contain a bit of code that allows a spammer to know if it
has been opened by the recipient. Opening a message like this
will simply confirm to the spammer that your address is valid,
ensuring that it will stay on his list and will likely be distributed
to other spam lists.
How do I set up additional AT&T Worldnet e-mail addresses?
On the
Member Services
page, select a link marked "Settings for Your Other E-mail IDs."
The Member Login page appears. Enter the requested information and
choose the Login button.
On
the Member Administration page, click on "Create a new associate
member" in the available column(s).
Why was a legitimate e-mail from my friend blocked?
AT&T Worldnet Service will occasionally detect that a certain
mailing system is sending our members a high volume of spam. Responding
to AT&T Worldnet members' concern about the amount and type of
unsolicited mail they receive, our response is to filter out further
e-mail messages from that source. Unfortunately, legitimate e-mail
can be filtered out in the process.
We only restrict mail from systems involved in extensive spamming
or spam-related activities. We do not use any publicly-available
block lists.
Spam-related activities include such practices as:
- probing our mail system to obtain e-mail addresses.
- repeatedly falsifying information in e-mail headers
(routing information) to try to get past our spam filter.
- sending high volumes of unrequested e-mail to
our customers.
What can be done?
- We attempt to contact other system administrators
whenever we start to block incoming e-mail from their mail systems.
Responsible administrators will know how to respond in order to
correct the situation.
- The sender whose e-mail was returned also can
contact his or her own administrator to report the problem and
find out if the spamming is being eliminated so further messages
can get through. Administrators can usually be contacted at a
postmaster address where the name of the Internet Service Provider
is inserted -- postmaster@[insert_name_of_ISP].com
- Problems can not always be resolved right away.
Depending on the circumstances that are involved, the sender may
need to use a different mail system to contact you until the problem
is fixed.
- You can post your feedback about mail that has
been affected by our spam-prevention measures, such as those described
here, on the worldnet.suggestions newsgroup. Other newsgroups
where you can post e-mail issues include:
- worldnet.help.service-issues.mail-server
- worldnet.help.email-software
What is an e-mail virus?
An e-mail virus is a small program usually sent as an attachment to
an e-mail message. It is created specifically to invade computers
and wreak havoc on them. If activated, the virus will carry out an
unwanted procedure on your computer.
One
common e-mail virus is a self-propagating "worm" that, when
you open the e-mail attachment, automatically sends itself to random
addresses in an e-mail address book. Some worms are harmless. Some
can destroy files on the computer's hard drive.
What is AT&T Worldnet Service doing to fight e-mail viruses?
We are always trying to make your e-mail safe. Now we have automatically
enabled free anti-virus technology on your AT&T Worldnet Service
e-mail account to protect it.
How it works:
- E-mail Virus Filtering detects suspected viruses
and cleans them before delivering them to your AT&T Worldnet
Service mailbox.
- If the suspected virus cannot be cleaned, the
e-mail containing it is deleted.
- You are notified by e-mail if a virus has been
detected and cleaned from an incoming e-mail.
- You are also notified if an incoming e-mail
attachment is deleted because the detected virus could not be
cleaned.
Because
you can get viruses in ways other than opening infected e-mail attachments,
it's a good idea to maintain any existing virus protection program
on your computer and use it daily. That will help protect your computer
from viruses that may be present in files you download from the Internet
or on disks you share with friends.
Visit
our
E-mail Virus Filtering
Web page to learn more about this feature.
I've heard about a scam called "phishing." What is it?
It's a kind of identity theft whereby spammers "fish" for
consumers they can trick into giving them personal information. They
accomplish this by sending you what looks like a legitimate e-mail
message from a reputable company. The e-mail may ask you to update
your credit card information, billing information or social security
number. If you respond to this type of e-mail, spammers can get your
personal information and then use it for their own purposes and without
your permission.
View
a tutorial on how phishing scams work, and how to avoid them.
Be suspicious!
- AT&T, and most legitimate companies, will
never ask customers to provide credit card information or a social
security number in e-mail.
- If the e-mail links you to a website that appears
to be a company website and asks for personal informationlike
a password or credit-card or Social Security number, look for
the "lock" icon on the browser's status bar or an "s"
after the http in the address. Both indicate that your information
will be secure during transmission. (For an exception, see below.)
If these symbols aren't present, DO NOT enter your personal information!
- Recently, some phishing scammers have been able
to create the image of a "lock" icon on their fake websites.
If you receive an e-mail requesting confidential information that
links you to a website and you see the padlock in the browser’s
status bar, you should still be suspicious. Take the safe approach
and call the company to give the information over the phone.
- No phone number listed on the site? Still not sure
the request is legitimate? Close the e-mail or its website and
locate the business's website using a search engine. Contact the
company based on the information you get from the search to confirm
the request is legitimate.
What is spoofing?
Spammers use e-mail spoofing to trick you into believing the e-mail
you’re receiving from them came from someone else, usually a
trusted source. For example, it could appear to be from the system
administrator of your Internet Service Provider or a local authority.
The e-mail requests that you provide personal, private or financial
information.
Remember the rule!
- Never send personal, private or financial information in e-mail.
Pick up the phone and call whoever is asking for it. Or find the
company's secure website where you can look for the "lock"
icon on the browser's status bar or an "s" after the
http in the address. Both indicate that your information will
be secure during transmission.
Why do I receive spam that is not addressed to me?
There are a few reasons that you may receive e-mail that is not directly
addressed to you in the To: field. First, your e-mail address may
actually be listed in the BCC: field (Blind Carbon Copy). A second
possibility is that the address listed in the To: field is actually
the name of a list that includes your e-mail address. There are many
scripts out on the Internet that build lists of e-mail addresses.
There are several ways in which your e-mail address can become part
of a list:
- If you have ever asked to be unsubscribed from a particular
e-mail group, you have unknowingly sent your e-mail address to
the list creator.
- When you are viewing a web site, the creator of this site may
have a script asking you to accept a "cookie.". By accepting
this cookie, the author of the web site is given certain information
about you. This information includes your e-mail address, signature,
browser and IP address. It is best to direct your browser to warn
you before accepting cookies.
- It is also possible that you have joined an e-mail list by:
- Software Registration
- Filling out an on-line form
- Responding to a survey
Why am I receiving bounce back messages for spam that I did not
send? What can be done to prevent this?
Junk mailers often will randomly select an e-mail address from their
list and insert it as a forgery into the 'From' or ‘Reply To’
line in an effort to avoid detection. In some cases, hundreds of bounce
back messages and removal requests then go to the unfortunate owner
of the forged e-mail address.
The
majority of mail clients have filtering features that will enable
you to filter out and auto delete any unwanted bounce back messages
and/or removal requests. The WURD (WorldNet Users Reference Desk)
has instructions for each mail program. The WURD is located at the
following URL(
http://www.wurd.com/).
If you click on the "search" feature and enter the word
"filter," a page with various ways to filter out junk mail
for the different programs will display. Choose the one that applies
to you and follow the instructions.
Unfortunately,
nothing can prevent a spammer from forging your address if they already
have it. Please see the FAQ on protecting your e-mail address for
recommendations on safeguarding your address from spammers.
