Unwanted/offensive email

Why you may have received unwanted or upsetting e-mail with a Huddersfield University address.

Unfortunately a selection of email addresses having the Internet domain name "hud.ac.uk" are sometimes used to send messages advertising various Internet Web sites including sites containing pornographic material. We are not alone in suffering from this type of abusive activity: a number of other UK universities have also reported to JANET (our ISP) that they are the victim of similar activities.

These messages can be received by users both inside and outside the university but there is very little that we can do to prevent it happening. The messages do not originate from the University, making it impossible to block the transmissions and very difficult to trace the originators.

What you should do if you receive unsolicited e-mail

The sending of unsolicited e-mail is on the increase and trivial misuse of e-mail, especially on the Internet, is a fact of life that we will probably have to accept rather than assume it is something that can be controlled.

The simplest way to deal with unsolicited e-mail is to ignore it and delete the offending messages. You should always consider this option just in case there is a computer virus riding with the e-mail. Be aware that in some cases, if you manage to reply, the people generating unsolicited e-mail become aware that you have a valid e-mail account and will send you more e-mail.

You may wish to report the message to your ISP and ask them to trace where the message really came from. In this way, it may be possible for the originator's ISP to be contacted and action taken by them.

After reading this advice, you may still wish to notify us of the message you have received. University staff or students should report the facts or forward the email to the HUMS account Misuse and abuse of Computing Services

We are sorry that you have been troubled.