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Spam
Total email: delivered and filtered spam 
Email and filtered spam statistics - data is measured in millions
Tips to help minimize the deluge:
Teach your email client to recognize junk mail
An important piece of the spam management puzzle requires you to take steps to minimize your spam risk. Learn to use the built-in junk mail filtering system in your email client. Based on criteria you set-up, these junk mail filters are designed to 'learn' which messages you consider spam and 'teach' them to be considered junk mail.
Configure junk mail controls:
Keep your email address private
If you use newsgroups, chat rooms, blogs or other public online places with any frequency, you might consider establishing a alternate account with a free service. Use your Yale account for academic related purposes and the other for blogs and chatrooms. Spam bandits troll the Internet looking for valid email addresses. Learn more by visiting protecting the privacy of your email web page.
Do not reply to or click on links or images in unsolicited email
NEVER click on anything in an unsolicited email; just delete it. When you click on a link or image embedded in the body of the message, your email address may be confirmed as a valid address. Links and images also may contain viruses or malware. It is good practice to never respond to unsolicited email, but most spam is sent from a "spoofed" address, so if you reply directly to the email, it may be returned to you as undeliverable or go to some stranger whose email address was hijacked.
Don't open email from unknown sources
A simple rule of thumb is, if you don't know the person who is sending you an email, be very careful about opening it and any file attached to it. Examine the FROM: field with particular skepticism. To and From headers can be Spoofed/Forged. Should you receive a suspicious email, the best thing to do is to delete the entire message, including any attachment. Even if you do know the person sending you the email, you should exercise caution if the message is strange and unexpected, particularly if it contains unusual hyperlinks.
Never buy any product or use any service that you learn about through unsolicited email
If spam was not effective people would stop sending it. If more of us make efforts to be less gullible the spam market might fall apart. Set up filters or rules in your email client. Set the filter to mark the email as junk if the sender is not in your address book. If an email gets into the “junk” folder that shouldn’t be there you can always add that sender to your address book.
When the University or ITS sends messages on behalf of the University, we always provide a link at the bottom that confirms the authenticity of the message by taking you to the Official Yale Messages website. Learn more by reading How to tell if an email message from Yale is legitimate.
Install virus protection
Ensure you have virus protection on your computer and that the virus definitions are up-to-date. Remember to do this for all your computers, including those at home.
Report internal spam
If you receive spam from a Yale account, report it to abuse@yale.edu and include a copy of the email with full headers (see an example of full-headers). If you need assistance with full-headers, contact the ITS Help Desk at 203-432-9000 . Do NOT forward email from non-Yale email accounts to abuse@yale.edu.
If you feel directly threatened or you believe a crime is being planned or committed, please contact the Campus Police immediately at 203.432.4400.
If you need assistance configuring any of these systems, please contact the ITS Help Desk at 203-432-9000 , or your local support provider.
