How to Report Spam Emails with SpamCop.net

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By Amy Kreydin
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Fight unsolicited emails using a spam reporting account through SpamCop.net

Email spam is defined as unsolicited and unwanted electronic mail. While the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has created laws to protect consumers from receiving email spam it hasn't made the situation go away.

Use a program like SpamCop.net to report spam emails to entities that can remove the spammer's email account access. It may cut down on your junk emails and can be more effective than simply marking it as "spam" through your email provider.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

An Internet Connection
Access to your email account

Step 1

Go to SpamCop.net and sign up for a free account (see link provided below).
Step 2

Follow the instructions to add each of your email addresses to your SpamCop account. You will need to have access to each account to confirm your email addresses.
Step 3

Choose to forward the junk email directly to SpamCop.net, they provide you with a personal email address at sign up, or manually enter the email's content through their website. The latter is a bit more technical and will require the user having a knowledge of how to access the original source code from an email (see tips below).

Tips & Warnings

To find the original source code from an email in Gmail, open the email and click on the "reply" drop down box, choose "show original." This will open a new window with the source of that email. You can copy and paste it right into the body of the spamcop reporting box on their website.
For Microsoft Outlook users: right click on the email and select "options," copy the text in the "internet headers" box and paste it into spamcop, then copy the body of the email and paste it into the second box in spamcop.
The FTC keeps a database of illegal and spam emailers, you can forward a deceptive email to them at spam@uce.gov. It may not have the person in handcuffs right away but may lead to their eventual arrest in the future.
Always beware of emails soliciting donations, asking you to confirm a password or soliciting personal information such as your name or street address. If in doubt call the bank institution or the business that has emailed and ask to speak with someone over the phone concerning the matter.

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