What is Spam:
SPAM is considered commercial junk email. This is similar to junk mail you get at home in your regular mailbox. It is created by mostly marketing and software tools associated with it.
Why am I getting this stuff?
Unfortunately, people who create SPAM have ways of targeting many users and domains. They have specialized tools that generate 1000's of emails to mailboxes. Sometimes email information is gathered from websites you may have visited which is stored in a "cookie" file. It may be possible you have signed up for a newsletter and the company sold your information to marketers. Regardless of the method, it is very easy to become a victim of SPAM.
How SPAM Filters Work:
Every piece of email that comes into the district is scanned for certain criteria. This criteria is set by technical "rules" on the filter, and is adjusted in real-time. Every day new methods are created in attempt to bypass filters, and this real-time technique identifies this. The filter is then updated and trained to catch these new variances on the hour.
What to do:
How to submit SPAM to the filter.
How to check for messages caught as SPAM .
Note: It is best to not reply or try to "unsubscribe" to SPAM messages (unless you have voluntarily signed up for it and no longer wish to receive email from the subscribed list) as this will only confirm to the people who spammed you that the messages were successfully delivered...
The Washington State Attorney General's Office has a site for unsolicited email information and complaints. Please refer to the following links:
Main Page: http://www.atg.wa.gov/junkemail/
WA State SPAM Law: http://www.atg.wa.gov/junkemail/overview.shtml
Protecting your email address: http://www.atg.wa.gov/junkemail/protect.shtml
References: http://spam.abuse.net http://www.mailfrontier.com