Tip #4362 - Let's Clear This Up!
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Let's
Clear This Up!
If
you recall, in last Monday's newsletter, I wrote a tip on how you can
report all of the spam e-mails you get to the Federal Trade Commission
(FTC). (Note: You can refer back to the November 12,
2007 issue to read that full tip). In that article, I gave you an e-mail
address you can use to forward spam e-mails to the FTC. Throughout this
whole week, I have been getting e-mails left and right from all of you,
telling me that when you tried to use that address, it came back to
you as invalid. Needless to say, that really stumped me, because I knew
it was correct. I remember checking it multiple times before the newsletter
was even sent out. So, what was the problem?!
Well,
I started brainstorming and I think I have finally figured it out. When
I typed out the address in the tip, I put a period (.) behind it to
end the sentence I had started. I think a lot of you mistook that period
as part of the e-mail address and that's why it didn't work for you.
The address you need to use is spam@uce.gov
There is no period behind it, so make sure you're typing it in correctly.
Or, if you're copying and pasting it, make sure you just get the actual
e-mail address and nothing behind it. If you do that, you should be
able to forward your spam e-mails to the FTC with no trouble whatsoever.
I hope that's all cleared up for you now!
It
was also brought to my attention by a couple of readers that when you're
forwarding a spam e-mail to the FTC, it's helpful if you include the
e-mail header as well. Now, you may not be very familiar with those,
because you probably have your e-mail set to hide it, but all in all,
an e-mail header contains all the information about the sender, receiver,
etc. You can read more about them here.
All e-mail programs are different, but look for something that says
"Show Details" and that will bring the header
up for you. There may even be a choice for it under the Options
menu. Either way, when you find it, just copy and paste the header into
the top of the e-mail you're forwarding. That way, the FTC will be able
to see all the details for that e-mail and get more information about
the spammer who sent it. It's just a more efficient way to do your part
and help out!
~ Erin
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