Reduce unwanted emails—managing spam

Spam is the Internet equivalent of junk mail in your letter box.

Spam emails are commercial electronic messages that have been sent to you without your consent. Senders often attempt to buy, sell or advertise goods, services, land, investment opportunities and so on through spam.

Spam not only fills your inbox with annoying, unwanted messages, but also costs you time deleting them. And if the spam problem is particularly bad, you may encounter increased costs because they may use your monthly download allowance.

Viruses and spyware are often sent as spam so it is important to have systems to deal with spam safely.

What you need to do…

How to reduce spam getting through to your email box

It is possible to take steps to reduce the amount of spam you receive. You can:

• Activate any spam filtering options that your Internet service provider (ISP) offers—check their website;
• Install a spam filter to stop spam emails getting to your inbox—you will find spam filters through your favourite search engine and your Internet service provider may list effective spam filters on its website; or
• Activate any spam filtering function provided by the email program you use.

How to deal with any spam that gets through to you

There are a number of steps you can take.

1. Add the spam address to 'junk senders'. Most email programs have the ability to add them to a 'junk senders' list which blocks them next time they try send email to you.
2. Do not respond to spam from unknown sources—do not use the 'remove' or 'unsubscribe' link or click on any button in the email such as Quit. These links can be used to confirm that an email account is active, and can lead to even more spam being sent.
3. If the source seems genuine, and the message appears to promote a legitimate Australian business, contact the business and ask them to take you off their mailing lists.
4. Do not open attachments in any messages if the source of the message is unknown or is suspicious.
5. Report spam to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) at www.acma.gov.au/spam or install the SpamMATTERS single click spam reporting tool available from the ACMA website.

Further information

ACMA

www.acma.gov.au/spam
The ACMA spam website offers a range of anti-spam resources for consumers, government and businesses. It also contains details on how to report spam and provides a free spam reporting tool that can be downloaded into an email program.

ACMA provides a reporting tool, known as SpamMATTERS, that takes the form of a button which can be installed in an email program and used to report spam direct to ACMA. Further advice on how to report spam is available from www.acma.gov.au/spam.

ACMA also provides information and downloadable guides on the things you can do to protect your email address from spam and reduce the amount of spam you receive, as well as advice on compliance with the Act: www.acma.gov.au/spam

Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy

The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has policy responsibility for spam. The Department's spam webpage contains further information on the Spam Act.

The Australian Government has implemented the Spam Act 2003 as one part of its approach to combating the widespread problem of spam. The Act is available at www.dbcde.gov.au/communications_and_technology/policy_and_legislation/spam

The Spam Act prohibits the sending of unsolicited commercial electronic messages. Complaints about spam can be made to the Australian Communications and Media Authority, which is the government agency responsible for enforcing the Spam Act.

Australian Securities & Investments Commission

ASIC acts against scams involving financial products and services. More information is available on their websitewww.fido.gov.au/scams.