Sympatico Member Services is aware that many members are receiving email spam. There are a variety of options that you can take to protect yourself against junk email.

• Do not reply to spam. This simply confirms to the spammer that your email address is a valid one.

• If you receive email spam, forward the message to the abuse address for your Sympatico service provider (below). If the spam advertiser is a Sympatico Member, the abuse department will investigate, and continued abuse will lead to the termination of the spammer's Sympatico membership.

  If the email spam originates from another Internet Service Provider (i.e. not the Sympatico service), you should make your complaint to the Internet Abuse department where the message originated from. You may also want to investigate email software with filtering capabilities that will allow you to separate unwanted junk mail from your legitimate correspondence.

  Addresses for the abuse departments of the Sympatico service providers are listed below.

  BC TEL: abuse@bc.sympatico.ca
  Alberta: abuse@sympatico.ca
  NorthwesTel: abuse@sympatico.ca
  SaskTel: complaint.abuse@sk.sympatico.ca
  MTS: abuse@mb.sympatico.ca
  Bell: Contact Sympatico Internet Security team
  Northern Telephone: comments@ntl.sympatico.ca
  Lino: abuse@sympatico.ca
  NBTel: abuse@nbnet.nb.ca
  IslandTel: abuse@pei.sympatico.ca
  MTT: abuse@ns.sympatico.ca
  Newcomm: abuse@sympatico.ca
  

  For more information on tracking spammers and protecting yourself from spam see the following Web sites:

  What does the Sympatico Service do to combat spam?
  http://www.rahul.net/falk/#howtos

• Many spam advertisers collect email addresses by searching newsgroups. If you post messages to newsgroups, modify the return address in your newsreader software so that spammers can't find your real address easily. For example, replace username@sympatico.ca with username@NOSPAMsympatico.ca, so that spam messages sent to that address will be returned to the spammer. But remember to include your correct address in the body of your message, so the people you want to correspond with can still find you! It also helps to send a message to your regular Internet friends to tell them to watch for this change.

• Set up email filters for spam.

Related questions:

How do I modify my return address?

What is spam?
What harm does spam do?
What does the Sympatico Service do to combat spam?

Acceptable Use Policy