FAQ
What is Spam? Spam is any unsolicited message or posting, regardless of its content, that is sent to multiple recipients who have not specifically requested the message. Most Spam is commercial advertising, often for dubious products, get-rich-quick schemes, or quasi-legal services or pornography. It is also commonly known as junk mail, unsolicited commercial email (UCE) and unsolicited Bulk email (UBE).
How can I report spam? To report spam, please forward a copy of the offending message you received with its full headers to NetZero's Spamdesk at spamdesk@support.netzero.com. You can directly report spam using our Message Center interface. This will enable us to investigate your complaint and take the appropriate action. You could also report the spam to the postmaster of the domain from which the message originated. To learn more, please visit http://spam.abuse.net/userhelp/howtocomplain.shtml
Can I unsubscribe to a spam message? You should never reply to a spam message from an un-trusted source as most spammers use that method to validate the addresses. This would often result in more spam coming to your account.
How do the spammer get my email address? Spammers have a lot of different ways to get your address. Some of the sources of the address are: - Dictionary attacks, where the spammer takes common names or words and crafts email addresses from them. For example, joesmith@somedomain.com, joesmith1@somedomain.com, joesmith2@somedomain.com, and so on;
- Masquerading as someone known to recipient, where they trick the recipient to open/respond to the email by using a personal/friendly subject line like 'Hi!', 'Hey, meet for lunch?', etc. ; - Spoofing, where the spammer uses a fake email header to make the email look like it came from somebody else or somewhere else other than the spammer;
- Harvesting/Mining, where they mine the internet's public places, like message boards, chat rooms and personal homepages, using automated programs (called bots or spiders) for email addresses;
- Web beacons, where the spammer inserts an image in the email, which is invisible to the recipient. When the email is opened, the images send a message back to the spammer alerting him that the address is valid;
- Replies to spam, where the recipient unwittingly replies back to spammer;
- Viruses - mass mailing worms that send themselves to all available addresses on the infected machine.
How can I avoid spam? No spam filter is 100% effective as spam continually evolves and spammers learn new tricks. The best way to safeguard from spam is to be careful with what you do with your email account. Below are some tips on how to avoid spam: Do not - Reply to the spam
- Click on the remove/unsubscribe link given in the message. These are often used as a ploy by spammers to determine active email accounts
- Click on the URL given in the message. This could validate the existence of the account.
- Give your personal/account information over email without check the validity of the message. This can be crosschecked by contacting the help-desk of the legitimate company.
Do - - Report all spam to spamdesk@support.netzero.com.
- - Read the 'Terms of Service' document on external sites while providing your email address. Some sites/services, in turn, pass on the email-addresses to bulk mailers/spammers
- - Update your anti-virus software and run virus-scans on your computer periodically.
How can I block spam? The NetZero Junk Mail Filter detects over 90% of spam email and blocks it before it reaches your inbox. So while you may see junk mail from time to time, you are sure to see a lot less spam than with other email services that don't offer spam blocking. When you do see junk email in your inbox, simply click the "Report Junk" button if you're using Message Center or MegaMail to move the spam to the trash (or your junk mail folder) and automatically send a report to us. We use your report to continually improve the effectiveness of our Junk Mail Filter. To learn more about these features, please visit http://www.netzero.net/support/webmail/u-junk.html If you are using off-line email clients, you can filter out unwanted mail by setting up mail assistants: - Filters in offline email clients such as Outlook/Eudora
How to report abusive/threatening mails? If you receive a serious personal threat, please forward a copy of the message with its full headers to abuse@support.netzero.com with the word 'threat' in the subject line. Please note that we cannot take action against an account unless we have full headers.
What are Headers (Full headers)? Message headers, or commonly called full headers, contain routing information for messages, including the sender, the recipients, the date when the message was sent, and the path it followed through the network from the sender's computer to the recipient's computer. To learn more, click here.
What is a virus? Simply defined, a virus is a self-replicating piece of software. To learn more, click here
What is email address spoofing/forgery? Spammers often alter the 'From' and 'Reply-to' lines of the messages they send, in order to disguise their identities, deflect complaints about their messages, and to generally confuse recipients.To learn more, click here.
Why am I getting email that is not addressed to me? It is possible to receive a message that appears to not have been addressed to you. To learn more about this, click here.
Why do I receive mail delivery failure for mails not sent by me? If you have received Mail Delivery Failure notices to your NetZero account for messages you have not sent, it is possible that the original spam message has your NetZero account name forged in the From field and/or the Return-Path fields. To learn more, click here.
What are scams? Email scams are spoofed/falsified emails that are designed to fool recipients into giving their personal data in order to secure an unfair gain. To learn more about scams, click here.
What is hacking? Hacking is the act of penetrating or gaining unauthorized access to computer systems for the purpose of gaining knowledge about the system and how it works. To learn more, click here.
How do I detect and report hacking attempts? Hacking can be detected using hacking detection software. It reports any attempts of unauthorized access to your computer and provides a personal firewall to help prevent people from hacking into your computer while you are on the Internet. We recommend you to report any hacking attempts (port scanning, port probing, or use of a hacking program) to us. Please send the following information to us at abuse@support.netzero.com. i. All IP addresses involved. All port numbers involved (be specific). ii. Date and timestamp for the attempt, including time zone. iii. A description of the attempt (this might be a log excerpt). iv. Your NetZero account name, if applicable.
How can I change my password? How to change Password
Why am I receiving a notification about limits? NetZero sets certain limits on its email service (as do most ISPs) to prevent people from abusing our service by sending and receiving bulk email (). These limits actively reduce spam on the Internet and do not usually interfere with normal use of the service. If you exceed the limits NetZero sets on all outgoing email messages, you will receive a notification with the subject line "This mail exceeds the limit of the number of people you can mail to concurrently." Or "This mail exceeds the limit of the email per time period" The current limits are as below. NetZero's Email Policy - NetZero Platinum members and Free users each receive mailboxes on the NetZero servers. Platinum members receive mailboxes that can hold up to 2 GB and Free users receive mailboxes that can hold up to 1 GB of mail (including file attachments) at a time. NetZero will not allow you to send a message or attachment to another member if their mailbox is full. Email that is sent to such a member will be bounced or returned to the sender with a message explaining that the NetZero member's mailbox is full. The only way to retrieve bounced email is to have the sender resend the mail after full-mailbox user's mailbox becomes free again.
- NetZero Platinum members and NetZero Free users can send and receive messages up to 10 MB. Any messages or attachments sent to a full mailbox will not be accepted. Members who have trouble sending large attachments may be trying to send a file that exceeds the permissible size limit. To get around this, we suggest that members either try breaking up their attachments into smaller parts before sending it out, or using a compression scheme.
- Members can only send email to 150 recipients (email addresses) every 2 hours. Members who exceed the recipient limit will receive a notification saying "This mail exceeds the limit of the email per time period." This limit is in place for anti-spam purposes.
Members who exceed the NetZero email limit will receive a notification saying "This mail exceeds the limit of the number of people you can mail to concurrently."
How do I contact NetZero? The NetZero Customer Support team is here to provide fast, easy and reliable ways for you to get answers to your questions regarding your NetZero service. If you have an issue to resolve or a question to ask, we offer several convenient support methods that allow you to get answers anytime, anywhere. From Web to Quick Help (our offline assistance tool), email to telephone support, choose the option that works best for you! Please click here to get a comprehensive list of all support options.
How do I block access to certain Web pages? There are several ways in which you can control access to Web pages on the Internet. You can set restrictions through the Internet Explorer Content Advisor or you can purchase Parental Control Software which allows you to monitor and restrict access to Web sites through a third party software. To learn how to set restrictions through Internet Explorer's Content Advisor click here. Or, to view a list of the different Parental Control Software available, please visit http://www.netzero.net/legal/children.html.
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