What is Spam?
We consider Spam (in the context of email) to refer to emails that are both unsolicited and bulk. This is a common industry definition, see Spamhaus.org SPAM Info for additional information. For convenience, a more technical definition from that page follows:
An electronic message is "spam" if (A) the recipient's personal identity and context are irrelevant because the message is equally applicable to many other potential recipients; AND (B) the recipient has not verifiably granted deliberate, explicit, and still-revocable permission for it to be sent.
Note: Email from legitimate email marketing providers is NOT Spam.
How to Report Spam
Always follow the directions at SPAM in Roundcube.
- To report a message that was Spam and was delivered to your Inbox, please mark it as "SPAM" or "JUNK" in your prefered email client
- To report a message that was NOT Spam and was marked as Spam, please select the "Not Junk" button in your prefered email client
Our new email system is able to read your JUNK folder and learn from you moving things to/from that folder.
Determining Legitimacy of an Email
As above, legitimate email marketing IS NOT Spam. Please use the following criteria, along with your best judgement, in determining if an email should be reported as spam or is a legitimate list you can unsubscribe from.
Spam
- Poor grammar
- Selling any pharmaceuticals
- Links in the email go to foreign domains such as .ru or .cn
- Links in the email go to domains with obviously fake, gibberish, or misspelled names
- Does not have any visible unsubscribing information
Not Spam (Ham)
- Selling general products such as electronics, real estate, etc.
- Links go to domains like .com, .net, and look like real domain names
- Has an unsubscribe link (look hard, it may be in a small font, usually near the bottom of a message)