Network Abuse and Security
For more detailed information about Email and Newsgroup related Abuse, Click here to go to our Spam Abuse Page
RuralFree Network Abuse and Security FAQ
Last Updated: 25 October 2002
What are RuralFree's Spam/Abuse policies?
How do I submit an abuse report to RuralFree's abuse reporting system?
Is there a recommended format for submitting email and news abuse reports to RuralFree?
Will I be notified when my abuse report is actually processed?
What kind of things should I send to the abuse contact?
What kind of things should I NOT send to the abuse contact?
What should I do if I receive abusive or threatening email messages?
What can I do about computer viruses?
It seems like nothing happens after I submit some reports to the abuse contact? What is happening?
Please read the General Terms of Service and the DSL Terms of Service for detailed information about RuralFree's Spam, Abuse, and Acceptable Use policies.
RuralFree strives to keep all of our users personal information private and confidential. We never give out or sell personal information (including names, email addresses and phone numbers) to any third party companies or individuals.
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For email spam, forward the spam message to spam@RuralFree.net, with all of the relevant information you can provide. Spam complaints must include the full message headers in order for our Security department to process your complaint. Click here for more detailed information about Spam. For all other security issues, send an email to security@RuralFree.net, Include all relevant information including full messages headers (if applicable), log information (if available), and dates and times of the occurrences. Be sure to also include the time zone that your log files are recorded in (not all programs record in your own local time zone). You should then receive an automated response to your report giving you some general information about network abuse.
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Yes, absolutely! Sending abuse reports in plain text is strongly recommended. Sending reports as attached documents, HTML, or some other format is not recommended. If you report cannot be decoded, it may be rejected. Also, with the threat of email viruses, our Security department may delete any messages with attachments without even opening them first.
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Depending on the volume of complaints received, you may not always get a follow-up response from a human being. Our abuse contacts do try to respond to requests, but it is not always possible. However, all reports that are read by human beings are acted upon as needed.
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You should only send reports about email and usenet spam abuse to spam@RuralFree.net. Reports of hacking attempts, denial of service attacks, electronic harassment or threats, illegal material, and similar abuse, should be sent to security@RuralFree.net.
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Anything not listed in the question above! Spam@RuralFree.net and security@RuralFree.net are for reporting abuse issues only. All other questions or concerns should be directed to the appropriate departments by contacting us here.
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Threatening or harassing email can be a major concern, and here at RuralFree, we strive to make your Internet experience as safe and as comfortable as we can. If you receive a harassing or threatening email, please submit a security report to security@RuralFree.net.
When submitting a security report please include the following information:
- A copy of each message including the full headers of each. Click here for more information about collecting the full email or newsgroup headers.
- Chronology of the abuse: When did it start, how often was it happening, etc.
If you feel that these threats can move to a credible hostile physical threat, please notify your local law enforcement agency immediately, and open a police report.
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Viruses are an unfortunate fact of life on the Internet, however, there are some very simple ways to protect yourself. It is imperative to have an anti-virus program installed on your computer. These programs are available to help you detect many viruses, and clean up any damage they may have caused. Almost as important as having the anti-virus program itself, is keeping it up to date. Your anti-virus program can only keep you protected against the viruses that it knows. Since new viruses are being discovered all the time, your program will need to be updated regularly! We suggest updating your program at least once every two weeks. Most anti-virus companies will have and "Auto-update" feature that allows the program to do most of the work. Otherwise, you can usually find updates that you can download from the anti-virus software's web page. Check the Help files or manufacturers web page for more information about updating your software.
Some common Anti-Virus programs:
Keep informed and try to use some common sense: Most email viruses usually come in the form of an attachment to an email. If the attachments ends with .exe, .vbs, .scr, .pif, or any other extension that you don't recognize, you'll want to scan it with your anti-virus program before you open it. (Your anti-virus program help files will help you with that). General rule of thumb: don't ever open anything if you don't know who the sender is. However, since many viruses can now disguise the message as someone you might know, always remember to scan all attachments before you open them.
Viruses can also be spread through chat programs like ICQ, AOL Instant Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger. Be sure to scan any files you receive from other users with your anti-virus program before opening them.
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There are a number of things that can slow down or even prevent our Abuse Department from resolving some abuse issues. Sometimes current contact information cannot be found for a site the abuse originated from or passed through to reach you. Sometimes these sites are in non-English speaking countries or sites with very poor connectivity. Sending an abuse notification in English to non-English speaking sites is often as useful as someone sending us a report in a foreign language, particularly those that do not use a character set based on the Roman alphabet. Additionally, many foreign countries do not have well-defined central registries or repositories as the InterNIC, ARIN, RIPE, APNIC and the rest, or IP address registration polices are not as strictly enforced. This all makes it much more difficult for us to figure out who to contact in some instances.
A current trend used by spammers is to get a "throw-away" dialup account with an ISP, then relay their spam off of a machine overseas, particularly one running an older mail system that does not log connections.
Other times the administrators of these sites are contacted and they choose to take no action or they do not understand the situation despite our best efforts to educate them. Short of cutting them off from us or black holing their routes, there is not much we can do normally to prod a complacent or clueless admin into doing something. As high-tech as the world is today the language barrier and other barriers still exist.
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