Received: from mtapop3.gte.net (mtapop3.gte.net [207.115.153.36]) by nemisys.nwinternet.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id MAA27818 for ; Tue, 9 Nov 1999 12:40:01 -0800 (PST) Subject: Re: FW: Fulfill your Potential ---------------- Begin Forwarded Message --------------- To: pchelp@nwi.net From: "Auto-reply from abuse@gte.net" In-Reply-To: <3.0.3.32.19991109123716.0096bba0@nwinternet.com> Precedence: bulk Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1999 14:37:46 -0600 Message-ID: <19991109203746.AAF643228.mtapop3@mtapop3.gte.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. We are sorry for any inconvenience it has caused you. Because we receive a large number of complaints each day at Abuse@gte.net, regretfully, a personalized response to each message is not possible. Please be assured GTE investigates each reported occurrence of unsolicited e-mail or spamming. We maintain a zero-tolerance policy in regard to spamming and will take appropriate action as permitted in the GTE Acceptable Use Policy. To view this policy, please refer to: http://www.gte.net/hotlinks/policies/acceptable.html. To better understand the problems with unsolicited e-mail, we have provided answers to several frequently asked question and URLs to some useful online information about spam at the bottom of this message. Regards, Abuse Services Team GTE Internetworking Frequently Asked Questions How did these people get my e-mail address? E-mail addresses are gathered from many sources, including personal home pages, newsgroups, mailing lists, and chat rooms. There are also computer programs that randomly generate e-mail addresses. Unless you are sure of the source of an e-mail, it is recommended you do not reply to the sender to remove your address from their list, as that action simply validates your address and ensures it gets added to the next list. Does GTE provide my e-mail address to outside parties? No. GTE values the privacy of your e-mail address and does not sell or make available to any third party information about its customers, except in cases where required to by law as defined in our Internet Access Agreement at http://www.gte.net/hotlinks/policies/agreement.html. What is GTE doing to stop unsolicited e-mail or spam? GTE is actively addressing this growing problem and expects to have a solution in place for our customers in the very near future. The "from" address in the message includes @gte.net. Why can't you stop it? While GTE has taken steps to ensure our customers are not the originators of unsolicited e-mails, the "from" address can be misleading. Many people who send unsolicited e-mails often edit their "from" address to mask their true identity, making the message appear to have come from a GTE address when it actually came from another ISP. By viewing the message "header", you can determine its true origin. To view the full header of an e-mail message, select the option in your e-mail program that makes all headers visible. When you reveal the "full header", it will contain lines beginning with "Received". Note the "host names" mentioned in these "Received" lines. "Host names" are the parts to the right of the "@" sign in e-mail addresses, names typically ending with ".com" or ".net", such as hotmail.com, gte.net or aol.com. In most cases, the one in the last "Received" line is the originating ISP of the sender. How can I effectively complain about unsolicited e-mail? If you choose to complain about an unsolicited e-mail, sending the complaint to the message's originating ISP is recommended. Examine the message header to determine its origination, then forward the e-mail as an attachment to "abuse@", followed by the "Host name" of the ISP; e.g., "abuse@gte.net". This will allow the ISP to take action against the originator of the message. If you are using Outlook Express or Netscape Messenger, you can forward a message as an attachment by right-clicking on the message and selecting "forward as attachment" from the menu. What can I do to block or filter on unsolicited e-mail? An effective way to block unsolicited e-mail is to "set a rule" in your e-mail program to automatically delete e-mail that meets your criteria for spam. Check the "help" area of your e-mail program for instructions on setting mail filters. There are also several e-mail filtering software programs on the market that will perform this task automaticaly. See our links below for more information. Where can I find out more about the problem of unsolicited e-mail? Check the information presented on the Internet at: * Fight Spam on the Internet! - http://spam.abuse.net/spam * Stop Junk Email - http://www.mcs.com/~jcr/junkemail.html * CNET Features - How To Stop Spam - http://www.cnet.com/Content/Features/Howto/Stop/?tag=st.cn.sr1.ssr.cn_spam * Filtering E-mail with Anti-Spam Software - http://www.zdnet.com/swlib/hotfiles/spam1198.html * Figuring out Fake E-Mail & Posts - http://digital.net/~gandalf/spamfaq.html * The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail - http://www.cauce.org/ * Reading E-mail Headers - http://www.stopspam.org/email/headers/headers.html