Everyone is getting more and more junk email, WHY? Electronic SPAM, or unsolicited email is a low cost way for some to make money. Others even less scrupulous use email to spread viruses and launch Phishing attacks. Any response, via clicking an unsubscribe (or other) link, reply, opening an attachment, or even the action of loading the email can confirm your email address with the spammer, leading to more emails. Even without responding, some SPAM and phishing emails are quite persistent and repetitive. You should never respond, open attachments, or click on links from unexpected email, even if it "looks legit".

NMMI has a SPAM blocking tool that blocks over 95% of the incoming emails to the campus. That means that if you get 50 email in a day, including 10 SPAM, you actually were protected from about 950 junk emails. But why can't it block them all? By the nature of SPAM, some is easier to detect than others. The spammers often change the From address, subject and text several times a day to elude SPAM prevention tools. Although the blocking sensitivity can be adjusted, turning this up increases chances for false positive blocking, which is even more frustrating.

More information about SPAM and Phishing is available via the links below, or use your favorite search engine to learn more.

• Spam: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_(electronic)
• Phishing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing