While we do what we can to prevent unsolicited commercial emails (UCE, also known as spam) from making it to your inbox, the fact is that the companies and individuals sending the email have far more time to come up with ways getting around our preventative measures than we do to shore up our defenses.

UWRF utilizes spam filtering appliances which work similar to anti-virus protection. They scan each incoming message and apply a set of rules from a commercial provider which score each message according to its resemblance to spam. Messages which score high are blocked from being delivered to your inbox. Medium-scored messages are passed on in a modified form which allows them to automatically be filtered into a "Spam" folder in your email account. Low-scored messages are passed on unmodified.

Unfortunately there is no good way to deal with those messages. Like postal ("snail") mail, email doesn't support verification that the person sending the email has a right to use the return address specified in the message. Spammers abuse this loophole and utilize email addresses they harvest from various sources (websites, virus-infected computers, etc.) not only as recipients but as sender addresses.

While it is possible to set up a filter to catch these bounce messsages, it would also catch legitimate bounces as well (so you'd never receive notifications if an email you sent was undeliverable).

IT Services will change your email address when your name has legally changed, such as when a woman gets married or divorced. We do not change email addresses as a solution to unwanted email.

Perhaps the biggest step is be to be careful how you use your UWRF email address.

• Avoid the temptation to sign up for commercial advertisements and newsletters without reading the provider's privacy policy. Look for indications that they will not share your email address with third parties.
• Avoid using your UWRF email for "forwards", since if your message gets forwarded to someone whose computer is infected with a spambot virus, it may be "harvested."
• If you publish your email address on a website, obscure it in a format that's easily readable to humans, yet not so easily to computers. For example, "helpdesk at uwrf dot edu."