NOTICE   		 
 
Help Stop Spam
It's really easy ... and costs nothing. Yes, there actually *IS* something proactive you can do to stop spam. It's a logical solution that should be highly effective over a short period of time.
Here's all you need to do

CreatingOnline.com is the victim of a "Joe Job". You may have received spam email that *appeared* to come from creatingonline.com. However, please be advised this email DID NOT come from us. You are not on a mailing list that we have. The email headers were forged, and the "From" name and "Reply To" email address are also phony. However, there is no way to forge the *real* sender's numeric IP address. Therefore, if you know how to view the headers of the email and how to run an IP lookup for the last "Received From" numeric IP address listed in the header of the email you received, you will see that this email was not sent by creatingonline.com's host server, which is BlueHost.com. We have checked several of the IP addresses, and they have been sent from various countries. Therefore, we can only assume the emails are being sent by a "professional" spammer using zombie computers he's hijacked. Why would someone do this? Well, since most of the emails contain information about international stock market investments, it seems we are innocent bystanders caught in a "Pump-and-Dump" scheme. We are victims of illegal spam, just like you. We are being used as an unwilling "shield" for these spammers to hide behind while they perpetuate their illegal scheme.

SAMPLE SPAM EMAIL WITH FORGED HEADER:

 
Out of curiosity, we did a search at Google using the term "avzila", the fake name of a supposed person at creatingonline.com used to forge the "Reply To" email address in the sample above. We were surprised to find another very similar sample spam email with the same exact forged "From" name, Robin Morton, and the same person's name in the "Reply To" email address, avzila, at this website: http://www1.ietf.org/spam-archive/ietf-secretariat/msg43046.html. That spam email was sent out on the same day that our problem began, 04/24/2006, and both are promoting some sort of investment opportunity.
HELP STOP SPAM: SpamCop.com has made it simple for you to identify the server that is *really* sending the spam to you. However, keep in mind this server may also be an innocent party if a spammer has hijacked a computer in their network without the owner's knowledge and set it up as a zombie computer for spam distribution. There is actually something you can do to help stop this. Go to SpamCop and follow their instructions for how to copy and paste the spam email's header and click the button to run an ISP check on it. Send an email to the ISP's abuse email address that SpamCop will give to you to alert them that one of the computers on their network is being abused by a spammer. But here's the cincher: Carbon copy the Federal Trade Commission's spam department, who is actively monitoring spamming activity on the internet, by just adding this cc:SPAM at UCE.GOV (substitute "@" for "at", of course). And include the following paragraph at the top of your email to the ISP of the spammer just above the spam headers you've copied and pasted into the email:
This email is directed to the ISP of a computer that is being used to send out spam email, the header of which I've copied below. It is requested that you take steps immediately to prevent this computer on your network from continuing this illegal practice. A copy of this email is also being forwarded herewith to the FTC, so that they may log the number of times you've been notified and track your progress in taking the necessary steps to stop and prevent the future use of your network services for illegal activities.

I keep a little text file on my desktop with the SpamCop link, the FTC's email address, and the above paragraph. Then as I check my email and receive spam, I take an extra minute to do the above for every single spam email I receive. I like to feel I'm at least doing something to help free myself and others from this daily irritation.