Letter: Spammer in the works

When the Hotmail service I use received spam (porn or money-making schemes) from British academic addresses recently, I did not assume that the academic addresses added "credibility to messages" ("Offensive spam plagues colleges", THES, February 23). I assumed that poverty-stricken students had been offered a new sort of part-time work.

Call me cynical if you like, but just how sure are universities that no messages originated in Britain? And can we all be told how to put false addresses on our emails?

Adrian Williams
London N5