It is not uncommon to receiving unsolicited emails both from inside or outside the Institute. These unsolicited mass mails are referred to as junk mails, or "spam" mails. The Institute has established policies to handle junk mails sent by staff and students. For junk mails sent from outside the Institute, there is no sure way to stop but there are a number of good practices to deal with them.

How do spammers get my address?
Since email addresses are so essential for communications today, they unavoidably have to appear in name cards, web sites and in many other ways which facilitate communications. Professional email spammers can systematically collect the email addresses from various sources. The more Internet activity you participate in, the more likely you'll end up in a spam list.

What should I do if I receive "spam"?

1. Delete the message. Think of it in the same context as throwing away the junk mail you receive at home.
2. DO NOT REPLY to the spam message. Almost all spammers use fake addresses and your "REPLY" action might cause another flooding of junk mails to all original addressees.
3. DO NOT respond to "instructions to remove me from the mailing list". This often serves as a confirmation that your account is active and the mail is being read. For advertising purposes, this makes your address more valuable.
4. If you are receiving a lot of offensive junk mails, you can set up Outlook filter rules to automatically remove these junk mails.
5. If you know the ISP of the junk mail sender, you can send an e-mail to complain to the ISP (but not to the sender as stated in 2 above). Responsible ISPs could take necessary actions to alleviate the situation.

Use the EdUHK email account only for official purpose
It is strongly recommended that you use the EdUHK email account only for official purpose. For personal and commercial purpose, you are strongly encouraged to use your personal email addresses from ISPs or from some free email service providers (like Yahoo and Hotmail). Personal and commercial activities on Internet have a much higher chance to receive junk mails.

Note: Outlook provide a Junk E-mail Filter function, user can refer to "Junk Mail Filtering" session for details.