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DEALING WITH SPAM ISSUES

Bryant University is working to eliminate unsolicited commercial e-mail or SPAM e-mail.

If you feel you have received a message that could be considered unsolicited commercial e-mail or SPAM, please read and follow the instructions for reporting.

The following Q&A should address your concerns about SPAM. It is intended to offer you information to help you resolve the problem.

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Q: Why would someone at Bryant University send me this SPAM ?

A: Most likely the message did not come from a Bryant University account, although the message has been made to appear that way.

Q: Why does it LOOK like the SPAM e-mail came from bryant.edu?

A: The SPAM sender has either inserted a fake "From:" address in their e-mail so that it looks like the message came from bryant.edu. OR the message has a fake "unsubscribe" link, such as: "please send a request to 'her4@bryant.edu' with the word 'remove' in the subject line."

Q: Why does the "remove" address contain bryant.edu?

A: The person that sent the SPAM used a real or phony @bryant.edu address in the text of the SPAM document as the “remove” address. There is nothing to prevent a spammer from making up a return address, and there is no intention of removing your name even if you could make contact.

Q: OK... how can I check that the e-mail was not sent from bryant.edu? I want to verify it myself.

A: You need to look at the "full header" information of the e-mail. If you don't know how to see the "full header," you'll need to check the help file that comes with your e-mail software for more instructions. When you find the full header and examine it closely, you'll see the real origin of the e-mail, which is unlikely to be Bryant University!

Example:
Find the line in the header that looks similar to the following text, which might be received by a student at MIT:
“Received: from bryant.edu ([211.114.50.65]) by alum.mit.edu (8.9.3/8.9.3)
You will notice the IP address in ([ ]) after “bryant.edu”.
The IP address should not be ([192.124.153.9])
which is the real mail server at Bryant University

Please see sample header below. This was taken from a real SPAM attack.

Q: What should I do once I find the "real" sender's address?

 A: Go to http://www.samspade.org, and look under the "Quick Tools" heading for a field that is followed by a button labeled “Do Stuff.” Enter the real sender’s IP address that you found next to Received: from Bryant.edu ([xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx])  and click on the “Do Stuff” button. Scroll down through the results until you find inetnum:. This is where you will find the range of addresses containing the IP address you seek, and the ownership information is listed in the subsequent fields . (In the example below, 211.114.50.65 falls into a range of IP address numbers owned by the Inchon Guwol Elementary School in Korea. This is the owner of the mail server that sent this particular SPAM.) Please contact the mail server owner and lodge your complaint that they are supporting SPAM by maintaining an open relay mail server.