Unsolicited and unwelcome e-mail account for as much as 80% of the world' e-mail traffic. Why? It's all economics. Spammers can make money from your e-mail address without your knowledge or consent. Simply previewing a message can confirm your e-mail address and earn a commission for the spammer.

How do spammers get your e-mail address?

  • Plenty of e-mail addresses are posted in plain view on the Internet in newsgroups and on web sites where they can be "harvested" and sold.
  • E-mail addresses are often listed on business cards.
  • Spammers may be successful at attempts to guess valid e-mail addresses, like joe@mountprospect.org, jennyd@aol.com or jenny28@hotmail.com.
  • Internet users may enter their e-mail address on web sites to "opt in" for newsletters, special promotions, or to send electronic greeting cards.
  • A PC virus or worm could collect e-mail addresses from the address book on a PC and e-mail them out for spammers to add to their databases.

What can you do to limit the spam in your Village mailbox?

  • Block read receipts. Read receipts tell the sender that the intended recipient has opened the message, validating that the e-mail address is good.
  • Use junk mail filtering in Outlook on your PC.
  • Delete obvious spam first, so you don't accidentally open something you don't want to open.
  • Don't unsubscribe from mailings you didn't subscribe to. The information may be used to validate your e-mail address.
  • Don't be fooled by tricksters.
    • You did not win the lottery and you do not have a secret admirer.
      Banks do not send out e-mails with links for you to fill out information forms and a form embedded in an e-mail is not submitted over a secure connection.
    • You cannot opt out of all spam by registering online.
    • The free gift you can receive by registering your information online is worth less than the validation of your information to a spammer.
    • The e-card you received may be a link to download spyware or a virus.
    • Valid licenses of software from Microsoft or Adobe cost much more than $30 and a $75 Rolex watch is not really a Rolex.
    • Be aware the "From:" addresses are often forged. You may receive a non-delivery report from an e-mail you didn't send because your address was forged on the "From:" line. Do not take it personally; just delete it.

What is Information Technology at the Village doing about the problem?

  • Incoming e-mail is scanned using Mimecast, an outside service, before it gets to the Village network.
  • Mimecast scans the email messages is a variety of different ways.  Messages are scanned for viruses, zero day attacks, dangerous attachments or links and impersonation detection.
  • Since there is no foolproof method to detect spam, some spam e-mails may bypass Mimecast.
  • If a user suspects that legitimate e-mail is being blocked, the user should contact the IT division  (support@mountprospect.org or x5440). Give a time window of an hour or so when the e-mail should have arrived, it can be traced to see if it came through the filter and if it was blocked as either spam or a virus. If appropriate the sender's address can be added to the whitelist so future e-mail will not be blocked.

To Hide the Preview Pane in Outlook

  • From the inbox folder, select Reading Pane from the View pull-down menu to toggle the preview pane on or off.

To Disable Images in Outlook

  •  Select Options from the Tools pull-down menu, select Trust Center.  In the left pane check the "Don't download pictures automatically in HTML email messages or RSS items. Click OK.  

To Block Read Receipts in Outlook

  •  Select Options from the Tools pull-down menu.  On the Preferences tab, in the E-mail section, select the E-mail Options button.  From the Message handling page, select the Tracking Options button.  Toward the bottom of the Tracking Options page, select "Never send a response".

To Filter Junk Mail in Outlook

  •  Select Options from the Tools pull-down menu, and then click on the Junk E-mail button on the Preferences tab. The default filtering level is set to Low to keep only the most obvious spam out. Any filtered messages are forwarded to the Junk E-mail folder unless the delete junk e-mail option is set. Users can add names to Safe Lists and Block Lists as needed.