Sunday, September 6, 2009

Our anti-spam initiatives

We’ve been hearing reports that spam levels are increasing on Skype, and I want to reassure you that we don’t take this sort of thing lightly.

Unfortunately, Skype, like any other communications software, has a small minority of users who abuse the software. In order to deal with people who send unsolicited messages, we have resources dedicated to a number of ongoing anti-spam initiatives, focused around three areas:

  • Prevention: working behind the scenes to make it harder for spammers to send messages
  • Reaction: making it easier to report spam, and fine-tuning the way we deal with those reports
  • Identification: making it easier to identify messages from unfamiliar users

Please keep an eye on this blog, where we’ll announce the public-facing bits of our approach as we release them. In the meantime, please continue to block and report abusive users to us – doing so will help us to identify and deal with spammers.

Most importantly, however, you can rest assured that we’re working hard behind the scenes to combat spam, and will take action against spammers where appropriate – with the objective of keeping Skype a productive and friendly place for users like you.

Reporting spammers

To report spam directly from Skype, you need Skype 4.0 or 4.1 for Windows, or Skype 2.8 for Mac – download the latest version free if you don’t have it already.

In Skype for Windows

Report spam on SkypeWhen you get a contact request, click Block, then check Report abuse from this person and click Block.

To report someone who’s sending you instant messages, right click on them in the conversation pane, and click Block This Person. Then check Report abuse from this person and click Block.

In Skype for Mac

When you get a contact request, choose Block this person from contacting you in the future, then check Report abuse from this person and click Block.

To report someone who’s sending you instant messages, right click on them in the conversation drawer, and click Block. Then check Report abuse from this person and click Block.

Posted via web from swathidharshananaidu's posterous

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