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Spam

We're susceptible

College IT departments are reporting an increase in the number of Spam complaints. In fact, computing officials believe that colleges have a bigger Spam problem than corporations (Chronicle, 9/27). The very purpose of colleges and universities, to share information, is the same reason college campuses are so susceptible to Spam.

"Some college officials say that concerns about violating the principles of academic freedom, privacy and the First Amendment make them reluctant to block incoming e-mail suspected of being Spam." (Chronicle, 9/27)

Even if colleges do institute blocking technologies, Spammers use a variety of techniques to elude these blocks.

Although Spam is nearly impossible to eliminate, there are some things you can do to reduce the amount you are receiving.

• Use a bogus e-mail address - if asked for one, when signing up for online newsletters or downloading items from a website (username@domain.com).
• Do not respond to Spam by asking to be taken off the list. This confirms that your e-mail address is valid and often leads to an increase in Spam. Just delete the Spam e-mail.
• Subscribe only to essential discussion lists, and ensure they are moderated.
• Think carefully before you post to a Usenet group.
• Create rules and filters on e-mail programs to cut down on the amount of Spam.
• Write out your e-mail address in code when posting it on a website. For example: smith at NKU dot edu (instead of smith@nku.edu)
• Use your NKU e-mail account for NKU business only. Send Facebook, MySpace, credit card, bank accounts and other membership alert e-mails to a personal account off campus. 
• Do not sign up your @nku.edu e-mail account for contests and drawings.
  

Junk Filter Rules in Microsoft Outlook

1. Highlight the e-mail you would like to have filtered.
2. Select Actions > Junk Mail > Add to Junk Senders list, or Add to Adult Content Senders list.
3. Another way to filter messages is to choose Tools > Organize, while in your inbox. This will open the Ways to Organize Inbox which offers more options to filter messages. You may also create filtering rules using the Rules Wizard.

Please Note: Outlook can only allow a limited number of senders to be added to your local blocked sender list. Spammers rarely use the same sending address twice. Try not to waste your limited resources on obvious one-time use addresses.