Save yourself from swimming in spam

Get the credit you deserve
NO assembly required! HOT NEW Remote Control Helicopter!!
Give me 30 Seconds...
You better get moving - millionaire status is waiting...

Or not. These aren't sounds of opportunity knocking, these are just a few of the hundreds of spam e-mail that get sent to millions of people around the world every day.

Taking up space in millions of mailboxes around the country, stealing money from unsuspecting web users and advertising at an impossibly high rate, the presence of spam on the world wide web has dramatically increased globally in recent years.

These messages, which can often times be offensive, slow productivity for companies and individuals as it takes up space in e-mail boxes and prevents other, more important and relevant messages from being received.

The problem with spam

According to a LA Times article, spam accounts for more than 70 percent of e-mails. This creates major problems, especially for companies whose employees may spend countless hours sifting through unnecessary junk mail.

With spam, those receiving the unwanted mail end up paying more than those who are illegally sending it. SpamAbuse.net reported that AOL receives approximately 1.8 million spam messages daily. "Assuming that it takes the typical AOL user only 10 seconds to identify and discard a message, that's still 5,000 hours per day of connect time per day spent discarding their spam, just on AOL. By contrast, the spammer probably has a T1 line that costs him about $100/day. No other kind of advertising costs the advertiser so little, and the recipient so much," the article said.

Spam also damages users because it often plants viruses and worms on unsuspecting users' computers. "Spammers were behind three of the five biggest virus outbreaks of the past year," said Matt Piercy, UK manager for F-Secure, in a VNUnetwork article. The viruses included the MyDoom worm, which resulted in $4.5 billion in damages, Sobig, which cost businesses $2.75 billion and Netsky, which cost companies $2.5 billion.

Type 1: Advertisers

The primary purpose of spam is a cheaper, faster way for businesses to advertise to millions of people at a simple click of the mouse. "A company can gain exposure to millions of potential clients at minimal expense. These companies may offer discounts, special promotions or free giveaways as part of their marketing efforts," said a SmartComputing.com article.

The major problem with this type is that it blocks inboxes from receiving important e-mails and takes up valuable time from people who are just trying to check their e-mail. Companies complain that they lose money because of this waste of time.

Type 2: Fraud

The second kind of spam is the spam that tricks people into giving out personal information that spammers can then use to steal money. Spammers will trick unsuspecting internet surfers into purchasing an illegitimate product or Internet service.

They also try to get people to reveal their credit card numbers and other confidential information by imitating banks, video stores or even Ebay. According to the SmartComputing.com article, the main problem with this is that "many operate from foreign countries that have few laws regulating online activity and behavior."

Type 3: Religion

Most recently, there has been a new wave of spam with messages that sell religion instead of products. The major problem with these messages "is that unlike commercial spam, it's not illegal," reported a CNETAsia News article, "because they don't plug products, just religious ideals."

Matt Sergeant, antispam technologist for MessageLabs, said in the article that this type of spam does not apply to spam laws. "It's legal according to most national laws. It's not commercial, and that's interesting in a way because there is a cost, yet no financial return, but they may believe there is a spiritual return," he said.

Solutions

In response to the spam problem, Congress passed the CANSPAM act which "covers all email for which the primary purpose is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a product or service" and "excludes emails related to transactional relationships such as billing statements, announcements of warranty information [and] follow-ups to customer requests," according to WorldLawDirect.com.

The law also outlines several rules marketers must follow when sending legal e-mail marketing messages. For instance, the full address must be clearly displayed in each message and a descriptive subject must be provided to reveal the nature of the e-mail.

However, regardless of the new law, a Reason article reported that spam is still increasing. This may be because a study revealed that "less than 10 percent of junk email complies with CAN-SPAM."

Luckily, Congress is not the only group working on the spam problem. Others include the Anti-Spam Technical Alliance (ASTA) in which some of the largest e-mail providers on the Internet - Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo! and Earthlink - joined together to come up with new solutions. The Reason article also reported that the group published its initial proposals in June in an attempt to "slow the onslaught."

States have also begun to set forth their own solutions which focus on prosecuting people who start spam chains. Virginia, said to have one of the country's toughest policies, is currently in the middle of a trial which may send a man to prison for nine years because of his spam activities. Richard Campbell, deputy attorney general for the commonwealth, said that Virginia's convictions are sending a message to the world. "If you defraud individuals and encumber ISPs with illegal spam, there are consequences," he said in a L.A. Times article. Maryland has followed in Virginia's footsteps making spam a felony.

Ray Everett-Church, who works with the anti-spam group Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail, said that no one solution will solve the spam problem. "It's going to require a mixture of techniques and approaches to really bring some change to the environment," he said in the L.A. Times article.

Blair's Solution

According to computer specialist Daryl Hamond, Blair's e-mail service protects against spam. "BEN has a spam filter integrated into its system," he said. There are three levels of protection on the filter. It is automatically on by default, but students can change the level in the spam settings section.

Even so, spam is still able to get through the system. "It's not perfect. It's a spam reducer, not a blocker," he said. "All email that comes through is checked through a virus scanner so it's rare that [a virus] will get in."

Protect Yourself

There are many ways to take extra precautions to ensure that a computer is not effected by unwanted spam. First and foremost, safeguard your e-mail address. "Avoid publicizing your e-mail address on web pages or in newsgroup postings. If you need to enter an address in web forms for online purchases, contest entries and the like, consider getting a second address, such as a hotmail.com account, just for this purpose," said a Macworld article.

Also, always read the privacy statement when a company asks for an e-mail address. Do not give out an address unless the policy states that the company will protect e-mail addresses.

Should a spam message show up in an e-mail inbox, refrain from replying to it. Although the response may be an attempt to unsubscribe from the mailing list, all that will result from the transaction is a confirmation that the e-mail address is valid.

Lastly, take Advantage of spam Filters. Most e-mail services come with spam filters, which "function as e-mail gatekeepers, separating invited guests from the riffraff," the Macworld article said.

If the filter does not work, consider one of the following downloadable Programs:

• Spam Monitor 2.5
• Spam Extract 2.01
• AntiSpamWolf 1.51
• Spam Filter
• Spamfree
• Spam Cop (a service that reports and filters spam)