The TIS team will provide you with answers to common questions that affect our district technologies. This page will host frequently asked questions and monitored regularly to efficiently inform our users.

What is Spam?

Spam is unsolicited, commercial "junk mail" that's delivered to your email account or a newsgroup.

How can I tell if my email is a Scam?

• Check the "from" address

• Is the greeting impersonal?

• Check contact information and dates

• Check branding

• Check if the linked website is legitimate

• Asking for personal or bank details?

• Poor spelling, grammar and presentation?

• Trying hard to be "official"?

• Trying to rush you?

• Check with real company, brand or department by looking them up on the web. (But do not click the link in the email itself).

What is the difference between Spam and Phishing?

Spam: An unsolicited e-mail message or newsgroup posting sent to multiple recipients or newsgroups at once. Spam is Internet junk mail.

Phishing: A scam in which a perpetrator sends an official looking e-mail message that attempts to obtain your personal and financial information.

Suggestions to reduce the volume of spam

Spam is unfortunately, a daily occurrence - and annoyance -- in our email correspondence, and there isn't one definitive method for eliminating it. But, hopefully the following suggestions and tips will help reduce the volume of spam you receive:

• Try not to display your email address in public. That includes newsgroup postings, chat rooms,  websites or in an online service's membership directory. You may want to opt out of member directories for your online services; spammers may use them to harvest addresses.

•  Do Not Reply to Spam A lot of the spam that's received includes instructions on how to "remove yourself from our list." It's been well documented that not only does the "remove" command often not work, but also the removal attempt can help verify to the spammer the validity of your email address. However, this may be a viable option for messages sent by legitimate businesses and well-known companies. Use caution before you decide to reply.

• Do Not Respond to Spam Spam often contains advertisements for false claims. No matter how enticing or believable the message is, don't respond to it. Do not buy anything from a spammer. Doing so will encourage more spam.

• Create a secondary email address for personal use. Free secondary email addresses can be created via such web sites as hotmail.com or yahoo.com. A primary email address (pmustang@yisd.net) can be shared with family, friends and associates and a secondary email address (pmustang@hotmail.com) can be used when visiting chat rooms or message groups. You should also use your secondary email address when filling our forms or buying anything on the Internet for your personal use. When the volume of spam on the secondary email address becomes overwhelming, then the account can be closed and a new one can be created.

• Choose personal email addresses that combine characters and numbers. Spammers send email using programs that go through thousands of letter permutations. Mixing characters and numbers in an email address makes it more difficult for a spammer's "dictionary attack" to ascertain your email address if it includes numbers.

• Web Site Email Address Submission. When browsing the web for personal use, if asked to submit your email address on a web site, uncheck any options that allow the web site to sell your email address. If you must give an email address, use your secondary address if feasible.

• If you send an email to a group of people, then use BCC as the address field. It is possible for emails with large distribution lists to get in the hands of spammers. You can hide email addresses from a spammer by putting addresses in the BCC address field of your messages.

• Delete the messages as they arrive. This is the recommended method by YISD and other national authorities and law enforcement agencies.

What are some examples of Spam email?