Information Technology Rights and Responsibilities

Reporting incidents to other sites

1. Identifying the source
• Finding header information
2. Who can you report the problem to once the source has been identified?
• Abuse | Administrative contact | Outside agencies
3. Preparing the complaint or report

Identifying the source

The return address on an email message may not be the real source of the email. It's possible that a third party is trying to enlist your unknowing help in mail bombing the supposed sender. The third party first sends you and thousands of other people an annoying message that appears to come from the intended victim, then just sits back and waits for the victim to receive the angry responses. Email can be forged, and detecting a forgery can be difficult.

 

Finding header information

The "envelope" contains important header information. Most email applications hide headers (known as SMTP or trace headers) that help identify the source of the message, but they can be displayed by issuing the appropriate commands. For further information displaying and deciphering header information, contact the CIT HelpDesk

Who can you report the problem to once the source has been identified?

• Abuse

Most sites have an abuse administrator, though some sites ignore email sent to abuse. To copy to abuse, take the sender's email address and replace the sender's user name with "abuse". For example, if you wanted to complain about email you received from dork@geeks.com,  you would send email toabuse@geeks.com. If there is no abuse account set up, the email will bounce back to you. Then try sending to root or admin, for example, root@geeks.com or admin@geeks.com. Keep in mind that the abuse or system administrator might be the same person you are complaining about and you may only make the situation worse.
 
• Administrative Contact

All Internet sites are supposed to list an official contact person for their domain. Contact this person only for serious incidents. The easiest way to find this person is to go to the InterNIC Registration Services Center. Use their search facility to search for the domain name of the sender's site. For example, if the sender was dork@geeks.com, then the domain to search for is geeks.com. Again, keep in mind that the administrative contact might be the same person you are complaining about and you may not get any resolution.
 
• Outside agencies

If a situation is serious, you may get results by reporting the incident to the appropriate outside agency.
 
• Law enforcement agencies

These agencies accept reports of illegal activities in their jurisdiction.
UB Campus Police 645-2222
Buffalo Police 851-4444
Amherst Police 689-1311
 
• Federal Bureau of Investigation

The FBI pursues cases of wire fraud (applicable to the Internet since communications travel over phone lines). However, note that the FBI is mainly interested in "big" cases involving large sums of money (for example, over $10,000) or large numbers of victims (perhaps more than 20).
 
• Federal Trade Commission

The FTC deals with consumer protection. Investigates deceptive marketing practices and scams that cross state lines.
 
• US Postal Service

The USPS investigates cases of mail fraud, including pyramid schemes and other money-making scams that use the Postal Service to send money via the mail. If you have done business over the Internet and received an item via US Postal Service that wasn't what you paid for or you shipped an item via US Postal Service and never received payment, this is where you should file a complaint.
 
• Better Business Bureau

This is a private organization dedicated to helping consumers. They accept complaints about businesses and try to assist in settling disputes.

Preparing the complaint or report

• Include a brief, concise description of the problem, and be sure to identify yourself.
• Include copies of any communication that is relevant, including all header information.
• Send only one message. Remember that mail bombing is a violation of UB policy.
• Be polite and do not threaten.
• Do not blame the site administrator because one of their users misbehaves.
• Do not assume that the incident was intentional or malicious. Email is easily misdirected due to typos.
• Do not expect an immediate response. Some sites, like AOL, get lots of email.

This page is developed and maintained by the Computer Discipline Officer of  Academic Computing, CIT. Please write to us with your feedback.
E-mail: abuse@buffalo.edu