From Mike Harrison
If you’re bothered by junk e-mail, or spam
(Letters, 29 August, p 50), a
database at the University of Illinois offers another chance to fight back (
http://cello.cs.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/slamm/ip2name). It will tell you who the
spammer’s service provider is, so you can complain.
Internet service providers have said they are willing to disconnect spammers.
The problem is catching them, as they often use false or shifting addresses. But
the header of an e-mail message always contains the service provider’s numeric
address. It’s the four groups of up to three numbers each, separated by full
stops (such as 123.456.78.90). Type it in and the Illinois site will give you
the “host name” of the spammer’s service provider (for example,
computer.services.net).
Then you can e-mail the service provider by adding “info@” to the first
phrase (info@computer.services.com, say) to make an e-mail address. Give
dates and times in your e-mail, and include a complete spam with its full
address header. If enough complaints are received, the spammer will be traced
and could be disconnected.
Godalming, Surrey
