Dear List, The other night, Cathy D and I were talking abt Spam Mail. She mentioned that she had received some particularly offensive Spam Mail and didn't know what to do abt it. Actually, there is something you can do abt it and it works. I felt that this was something worth sharing with all of you. Some of you probably already know abt this. I received a Spam Mail tonight and immediately forwarded as an attachment to the server, who happened to be HotMail. You can do this with any server and you don't have to open the Spam Mail. Right mouse click on the Spam which will bring up a window with the option of forwarding as an attachment. Click on that. The address for the Spam attachment is abuse@_______ So my attachment tonight went back to HotMail as abuse@hotmail.com I have also done this with abuse@yahoo.com It should work with any server. Because I live in a state where Spam Mail without a legitimate "opt-out" is illegal, I had some extra leverage. However, reputable servers have a "TOS" or Terms of Service. According to the reply I received from MSN HotMail Customer Support, "It is a strict violation of the TOS for our members to send objectionable material of any kind or nature using our service." The message I received was not even particularly offensive; just irritating. It's very important that you forward the message as an attachment. Each message you receive has properties which will allow a server to trace it back to the original sender. That's how they eventually catch these people. If you just forward the Spam message, the receiving server will not have the information to trace the sender. The person who sent me the message tonight has had his HotMail account terminated. Mariana ============================================================ Researching: Gates/Goetz, Harman, Bauder, Gutmann, Zuelsdorf, Robey, Wheelright; Wade; Custer/Kuster, Umbach, Hornbrook, Davis, Dent, Griffin, Allen, Bradstreet, Dudley, Loofbourrow/Loofborough, Harbert, Lockwood, Steenrod; Ogden