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Definition – SPAM is unsolicited commercial email.
Update - latest SPAM types!
Two types of SPAM have become more common lately:
You have a message/postcard etc - These purport to come from sites such as e-cards which are used to send out greetings cards on the Internet. However if you hover your mouse over the link given in the email it definitely does not come from the quoted source and probably has .ru domain. Delete these messages - they are SPAM.
Blank messages, no Subject, but with attachment - These are straight forward Spam because if you open the attachment (usually .pdf there is a text message promoting a dodgy share or something.
Image Spam
The latest thing to hit email users has been “Image Spam”. Because of the success of spam blocking projects such as SpamAssassin spammers have started including graphics images with the actual spam message in but innocuous text in the rest of the email so that it will not be caught by spam filters. The fight back has started and OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software has been brought in to read the text included in the graphics to decide if it is spam.
What does SPAM consist of then?
It is emails that the user has not requested in any way and consists mostly of adverts for Viagra, dubious financial services, sex services and various scams. Legitimate companies do not use SPAM.
Is it just an irritation?
Most people if they find that 60% or more of the email they receive in SPAM understandably get annoyed at the time being wasted. However all these messages take up capacity on the Internet and ISPs need to provide for this in order that legitimate traffic gets the bandwidth required. So in the end all users pay more than they need to for their Internet access to receive messages they don’t want!
Why is it worth the SPAMMERS while?
It costs the SPAMMER virtually nothing to send out hundreds of thousands of emails and so if only a tiny percentage of “victims” reply –eg by sending cheques for services purportedly offered it can add up to a very profitable operation. There is no mechanism on the Internet that is equivalent to the postage charge per item of snail mail.
Where does it actually come from?
Originally SPAMMERs would need a mail client and an Internet connection plus access to a mailserver. Most ISPs have an anti SPAM policy so it became easy to close down offenders. However the default on many mailservers used to allow anybody to access the server to send mail. This vulnerability has been virtually closed off by ISP’s restricting access to their own users for sending mail. ISPs in less sophisticated parts of the world as still as source of SPAM but nowadays the main source is home users PC’s with broadband connections that have been taken over by viruses and can but used by the SPAMMERs to send out SPAM. These machines are referred to as “botnets” and can be sending out SPAM without the owners realising. As the SPAMMERS have got more sophisticated because of efforts to stop them the “herds” of botnets have been reduced in size.
What do anti SPAM programs do?
Again in the early days of SPAM messages were easily diagnosed as SPAM because they were all identical! However nowadays each SPAM can be different and anti- SPAM programs have to pick up on key words and even context to decide if a message is SPAM. The rules used have to be constantly updated to keep detect and eliminate the SPAM.
How do SPAMMERs get email addresses?
A major source of email addresses is to use robots that trawl through websites picking up email addresses. Addresses are then traded between SPAMMERs. Of course in a legitimate marketing operation great attention is given to targeting advertising and promotions in order to promote products economically. SPAMMERs have no incentive to do this – all addresses are equally valid to them.
What can I do to reduce SPAM?
There are a number of things you can do to stop them getting hold of your email address – don’t include it in any websites and be very careful who you give your email address to on the Internet (eg subscribing to mailing lists). One technique is to setup an alias to your email address and then use filtering to reject anything else (depends on whether your mail service provider or ISP supports these features). So if your email is douglas.wilson@reallyniceproducts.com you could have an alias of doug@reallyniceproducts.com. Filters are set so that only mail for this address is sent to your mailbox. If you start getting a lot of SPAM to this address then you could change the alias to dougie@ etc and change the filters. Of course you need to let everyone know your new address!
Any more things I can do?
I suppose that the most important single thing that you can do is to always delete any SPAM you get unread as soon as received!! Never reply and never take up any of the offers included. Remember it is the fraction of a % who do respond that keep them in business.
What about viruses?
As mentioned above they are used to get control of PCs and high jack them to send out SPAM. Accordingly you can help by running antivirus programs on your PC and keeping them up to date.
Why is it called SPAM?
The name actually was taken from an episode in Monty Pythons Flying Circus where the protagonists where in a café trying to order a meal—everything came with SPAM
Hmmm but what is SPAM really?
It is a tinned meat product and of course has its own website:
www.spam-uk.com
