Anyone with an email address is familiar with spam. It's the collective term for any type of unsolicited message sent to large numbers of people, usually promoting some medical miracle or other too-good-to-be-true offer. And it keeps coming because people still respond to it. Spam is so cheap to send that spammers only need to make a few sales to make a profit; some reports now put the percentage of email that's spam at 95% and rising. The only way to stop spam is for everyone in the world to not respond.

At Humboldt State University, Google Mail helps us to keep spam off the network and out of everyone's inbox by detecting and blocking most of it at the network perimeter, where the Internet meets the HSU network. Any that does get through should be deleted immediately. Never click the unsubscribe link in a spam message - all that does is confirm to the spammer that there is a live person at your email address, thus ensuring you get even more spam.

When in doubt - kick it out.