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By now, most UO faculty, students and staff know they're encouraged to report spam they may receive on Darkwing, Gladstone, or Oregon to spam@uoregon.edu Once we receive a report, we can file complaints or tweak our local filters to block chronic spam sources. (As always, when you forward spam to us, please be sure it has full, "verbose" headers and was received within the last day or so, otherwise we may be unable to help.)Aside from routine, nuisance spam, you may also receive some unsolicited email that's of special interest to federal regulatory or law enforcement agencies. In that event, you may report it directly to the appropriate agency, as described below:
The SEC's Office of Internet Enforcement Complaint Center (http://www.sec.gov/complaint.shtml) indicates that investment-related scam spam can be forwarded to enforcement@sec.gov To see examples of the sort of litigation the SEC has brought against parties engaging in Internet-related securities manipulation, go to http://www.sec.gov/divisions/enforce/internetenforce/litreleases.shtml
If people attempt to sell you prescription medications online without requiring a physician's prescription, the Food and Drug Administration would like to know about it. You can report emails promoting illegal medical products by forwarding those emails to webcomplaints@ora.fda.gov (see http://www.fda.gov/oc/buyonline/buyonlineform.htm ).
Occasionally you may receive spam related to child pornography. As noted at http://www.customs.ustreas.gov/enforcem/child.htm you should immediately report this to the US Customs Service at 1-800-BE-ALERT or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678, or contact the Customs Service CyberSmuggling Center at C3@customs.treas.gov (see http://www.customs.ustreas.gov/enforcem/cyber.htm ).
Please note that you should not download any child pornographic materials under any circumstances, since the mere possession of this type of material is a violation of federal and state laws. Let trained law enforcement officers conduct their own investigation when it comes to child porn spam.
Internet fraud complaints may be filed with the FBI's Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) at http://www.ifccfbi.gov/index.asp The IFCC is particularly active in the area of online auction fraud, but it also handles a variety of other Internet-related fraud.
This type of scam spam, in which overseas, often Nigerian, con men typically offer you a share in millions of dollars worth of "over-invoiced contracts" (if only you will "temporarily" cover the cost of some "advance fees") can be reported to the United States Secret Service by faxing a copy of the 4-1-9 solicition to (202) 406-5031, as noted at http://www.secretservice.gov/alert419.shtml
The Secret Service also has jurisdiction over online credit card fraud, among
other scams.
If you receive spam that's a pyramid or chain-letter scheme and it uses the United States mail at any step along the way (for example, if it instructs you to send money to an address via the mail), it is illegal and should be reported to the U.S. Postal Service. As noted at http://www.usps.com/websites/depart/inspect/chainlet.htm you should turn over a copy of the chain letter or pyramid scheme advertisement to your local postmaster or nearest postal inspector. The nearest Postal Inspection Service office for Oregonians is:
POSTAL INSPECTION SERVICE
UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE
PO BOX 400
SEATTLE WA 98111-4000
Phone : 206-442-6300
Fax : 206-442-6304
According to its Consumer Complaint Form site at https://rn.ftc.gov/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01 the FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft and other fraud-related complaints into a secure, online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies worldwide.
If you wish to report unsolicited commercial email to the FTC, you should forward
that spam to spam@uce.gov
Last spring, Wired News writer Joanna Glasner reported in her article, "The
Law Is Going After Spam" (see http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51486,00.html
) that over ten million spam messages have been forwarded to spam@uce.gov
since the beginning of 1998, with over one million pieces of spam being forwarded
in the month of March 2002
The Oregon Attorney General's Office indicates that consumers can report email scams to the State Department of Justice Consumer Hotline at consumerhotline@state.or.us (see http://www.doj.state.or.us/fraud_spam.htm ) However, there is no indication what will be done with spam that gets forwarded to that address.
Some states, such as California, have been faulted for establishing spam reporting channels but then failing to follow through. (See "Spam Report: California Stumbles Over the Junk E-Mail Question," at http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/13817.html )
For comparison, you may want to take a look at a couple of other state spam complaint policies at