How to Report Fraud, Junk, and Spam Emails
How to Report Fraud Junk and Spam Emails
- Why Should I Report Suspicious Email?
- What is spam?
- What is Email Fraud or Phishing?
- Reporting Spam & Email Fraud - Phishing
- What should I do if I feel like my account has been compromised by a third party?
- Compromised Accounts
Why Should I Report Suspicious Email?
EarthLink's Fraud and Abuse Department investigates reports of
fraud, junk email, and spam email. We take appropriate action to block access
to fraudulent Web sites, stop Internet spammers, and help our customers avoid
Internet scams so they can have an enjoyable, hassle-free Internet experience.
What is spam?
Spam is most often considered to be electronic junk mail. Some
people define spam even more generally as any unsolicited email. However, if a
long-lost brother finds your email address and sends you a message, this could
hardly be called spam, even though it is unsolicited. Real spam is generally
email advertising for some product sent to a mailing list.
In addition to wasting people's time with unwanted e-mail, spam also eats up a lot of network bandwidth. Consequently, there are many organizations, as well as individuals, who have taken it upon themselves to fight spam with a variety of techniques. But because the Internet is public, there is little that can be done to prevent spam, just as it is impossible to prevent junk mail. However, EarthLink has instituted policies to prevent spammers from spamming our subscribers.
What is Email Fraud or Phishing?
The act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an
established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the
user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity
theft. The e-mail may direct the user to visit a Web site where they are asked
to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social
security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already
has. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user's
information.
Reporting Spam & Email Fraud/Phishing
If you receive Spam or a fraudulent email - Phisher, please
submit the email using EarthLink Web Mail's "Spam" button. Simply select the
message by checking the box next to it or by opening the message in Web Mail
and then click the "Spam" button at the top of the window. This is the fastest and
easiest way to submit a fraudulent or spam email.
While the Spam button is the best way to report spam, you can manually submit a
copy of the original spam for review as well.
This process requires you to send a copy of the complete original email
file (called a .eml file) when making your manual submission. This can be done from EarthLink Web Mail by
using the Forward as Attachment option which includes the original spam email
as an attachment rather than just an inline copy of the text. With the email open, click on the Forward
dropdown box and select the “attachment” option and then send the email to thisisspam@earthlink.net or another address if
directed to do so by an EarthLink Support representative.
Reporting Spam from an Email Client
If you have already downloaded the message to a local email client, you can still report spam manually if needed. The process still requires that you send over a full copy (.eml) of the original email. Simply forwarding the email will not include enough information to properly investigate the source of the spam. You will need to create a new email and either copy and paste the original email or drag the spam email into the new email to create an attachment. This process works for most client email programs like Outlook or Thunderbird.
To Copy and Paste, you will need to go to your Inbox, right
click on the suspected spam email and select the Copy option. Then open a new email, click in the body of
the message, Right click and select Paste.
This will insert the original email as an attachment. Please note, do not just copy all the text
from the spam and paste it into the email as this will not be sufficient to
investigate the spam message. The
original full email (.eml file) needs to be included as an attachment. Then send it to thisisspam@earthlink.net with “Spam Example” or
something similar in the subject line.
If your email client does not allow you to Copy and Paste the
original spam into an email as an attachment, you can open a new message in a
separate window and drag a copy of the spam into the new message. This will create an attachment of the
original email.
Due to the volume of submissions, you will not receive a
response to manual spam submissions. However, your submission
will be reviewed and used to update our anti-spam solutions.
What should I do if I feel like my account has been compromised by a third party?
if you have been told by EarthLink Support that your account has
been compromised and used to send out spam or you suspect a third party has
gained access to your email account, you should follow the process outlined in
the article below on dealing with Compromised Account issues.
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