The truth about SPAM and ISPs: SPAM or Unsolicited Bulk Email (UBE) is a bane to every ISP.  Legitimate ISPs work hard to prevent SPAM from being received by their customers as well as to prevent their customers from sending SPAM to others.  But Spammers, especially professional Spammers, are very good at finding ways around the filters and tools available to ISPs.  As fast as we deploy measures to combat SPAM, they create new methods for getting around them.  It is a constant battle, waged everyday by legitimate ISPs.  Federal and State regulations are sparse in the enforcement against Spammers and free speech reigns as their key defense.  

• Fin Communications/Purespeed Internet does not support SPAM.  
• We do not, nor will we ever, sell, give, lease or in any way allow access to our customer email list to third parties. 
• We spend significant time and money fighting SPAM.  For every email message received by our customers, we turn away fourteen.  What used to take one mail server to service 10,000 customers now takes three. 

Despite all of our efforts, we cannot completely protect our customers from receiving SPAM. Why?  Let me use an analogy.  SPAM is much like junk mail and we are the post office that is responsible for delivering your mail. While all of us would love to ask the post office to throw away any junk mail, the problem we have is the definition of "junk mail".  To some, a Sears catalogue is "junk mail", to others it's something they want to see.  We have no way of knowing if a particular message that is addressed to you is "junk" (i.e. SPAM) or if it something you requested to have sent.  Not a week goes by that we don't get a complaint from a customer who is upset that we are blocking mail that they want to see.  So while we can block some types of mailings (for example those sent with no return email address), we simply cannot guarantee that we only deliver to you email that you wish to see.

To read an article about SPAM, CLICK HERE, I think you will find this interesting.

Please feel free to contact us should you have any questions or issues concerning SPAM.  Complaints about SPAM should be emailed to abuse@purespeed.com.  Other organizations, such as the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (www.cauce.org), the Mail Abuse Prevention System (www.mail-abuse.org), the Federal Trade Commission (www.ftc.gov) and the Center for Democracy and Technology (www.cdt.org), are among the organizations at work to deal with SPAM.

Below is a list of Frequently Asked Questions about SPAM.  We hope you find this useful.  

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. What is SPAM?

2. How did Spammers get my e-mail address?

3. I've been spammed, what do I do now?

4. Is it hard to find the originating network or ISP that the SPAM is from in order to send SPAM complaints?

5. Where should I send SPAM complaints?

6. Do "Remove" requests work?

7. Does Purespeed deploy filters to prevent SPAM?

8. How can I keep the SPAM that does get through to a minimum?

9. Why do I often get SPAM that's not addressed to me?

10. What can I do to keep from getting added to mailing lists?

11. What should I do if I need to give an e-mail address but don't want to disclose my private e-mail address?

1. What is SPAM?  Top

The term "SPAM" is generally used to describe an unsolicited electronic message mailing (e-mail or email), usually to many people. A message written for, and mailed to, one individual that is known to the sender is not SPAM.  A reply to an e-mail that you received is not SPAM, unless the "reply" repeats endlessly.

SPAM mailers (Spammers) have proliferated on the Internet, using their own host computers, and methods for obtaining email addresses and sending large quantities of email.  Many are hired by companies to market their products to potential customers and see this as an inexpensive way to reach you the consumer. 

2. How did a Spammer get my e-mail address?  Top
E-mail addresses can be pulled from newsgroup posts, web pages, web browsers and from other Internet software. It's also possible that your address was added to a list from a form that you filled out someplace on the Internet.  Any time that you give out your email address online it is possible that it will be passed onto marketers.

• Some prefer to just delete it. When you aren't sure how to complain, or who to complain to this is the best way to handle it.

• You can forward your complaint to us or to any of the groups listed in the opening message from our CEO. This ensures that the complaint gets to the right network administrators for action against the account responsible. When forwarding mail in this manner, you must be able to open the full headers of the e-mail, then copy and paste the entire text into a new message addressed to Abuse@purespeed.com.

• Others prefer to find the originating network themselves from the full headers, then send the message to the administrators of that network. If you prefer to handle it in this manner make sure the complaint is sent to the proper address.

8. How can I keep the SPAM that does get through to a minimum?  Top
We recommend using an e-mail program that has filtering capability. Two of the most common are Pegasus and more recent versions of Eudora. There are many others that do the job, too. Go to any Web site that offers downloadable programs: shareware, freeware, or commercial ware. You can find the best one to suit your needs, at the price that is right for you. You can usually put in your own filtering criteria so that any mail you do not want will not get through.

9. Why do I often get SPAM that's not addressed to me?   Top
Spammers use lists of e-mail addresses. The programs used to send SPAM will take a list and use the BCC: (Blind Carbon Copy) features to send to all addresses on the list, without any of the recipients seeing the addresses, including their own. It's important to remember: the To:, From:, and other fields of the e-mail that are usually visible DO NOT contain the addressing information that is used to deliver e-mail to your mailbox. The address information is contained in the Envelope of the e-mail that is discarded when it arrives at the e-mail server. The e-mail server then places the message in your mailbox. If it was in your mailbox, it was addressed to you. 

10. What can I do to keep from getting added to mailing lists?   Top
The best way to prevent getting SPAM or getting added to mailing lists is to keep your e-mail address private. Trusting your e-mail address to close friends and family will usually not result in SPAM. Placing your e-mail address in "Address Areas" of Internet programs, online submission forms or anywhere in a public forum such as one or more newsgroups however, is practically a guarantee that your address will be placed on a list somewhere. 

11. What should I do if I need to give an e-mail address but don't want to disclose my private e-mail address?   Top
Setting up a public address from one of the free e-mail services on the Internet such as Hotmail or Yahoo (just to name a few) for public posts is often the best way to go.  In this way your Purespeed email account is only available to friends and family and your public email address will handle the SPAM that is sure to be sent your way.