Spam is an unfortunate problem on the Internet. Spam, the sending of mass quantities of unsolicited Email, is illegal in some states, and is a problem for Internet Service Providers and their clients everywhere. Spam is more than annoying, it clogs mail servers and at times can flood them and deter their performance or even crash them.

Spam is not the same as "junk mail" that goes through the United States Postal Service. At least USPS junk mail is paid for and the revenues received help keep our costs of postage down. Spammers use multiple mail servers to send their trash, and they forge headers, return addresses, and other routing information, rendering it virtually impossible to catch them. Some of them switch servers with each new message to avoid getting caught.

How do spammers get your address? If you or anyone else ever gives your Email address on a website, then your Email address is out there for the world to use because the companies often sell your address. This is particularly true of websites providing "free" service. For instance - If you go to a website and send a funny cartoon, or an electronic greeting card to a friend, you have given out their Email address and the rest is history. Nothing is free, and these websites make their money by selling advertising and selling your Email address. There are even companies that specialize in providing Email lists to spammers. If your address is posted on a public forum or visible on a website, spammers will find it and start to bombard you.

Although illegal in some states, anti-spam laws are nearly impossible to enforce at this point in time.  To catch a skillful spammer, numerous companies must commit many hours of time working together to track them down and most just don't have the resources for this.  Once caught, an illegal spammer will be fined, but the fine is less than the profits they derived so it is better for them to pay the fine.  Many spammers operate from servers overseas where there are no anti-spam laws.

There is no perfect answer to eliminating spam. At Access Kentucky, we NEVER reveal your Email address and we have active spam filters in place.  We block a higher percentage of spam than most.  However, it is impossible to block all the spammers. Additionally, if you click "remove me from this list" link, you probably won't be removed.  Spammers aren't honest people to begin with.

There are three things you can do to deal with this problem:

1. Get a new Email address (we give you 7 addresses on the premium plan). Use it ONLY for friends and family and never reveal it on a website or public forum. Make sure your friends do not give it out or include it in a group mailing.  Then use a "junk" address when you must order online or input your Email address on a website.  Check your "junk" address only occasionally and use web mail to do that.  Use your Outlook Express only for your legitimate Email address.
2. Add senders to your "blocked senders list" in your Email software.
3.  Delete the files without reading them. If you will take advantage of our free web mail program, you can view a list of Email message titles without downloading these messages to your computer. You can select and delete unwanted mail through that interface.