Spammers beware! Your activities are under the spotlight

The Internet has changed the way we do business. We rely so heavily on Internet spin-offs such as the World Wide Web and email to perform our daily tasks that we would probably be unable to function without it. Unfortunately the Internet is not witho

Our telecommunications companies charge some of the highest usage rates in the world. And until the legacy of limited competition in our country disappears we will have to deal with these cost and efficiency issues.

Of far greater concern is the growing abuse of email by individuals with less than honourable intentions. We refer to such individuals as spammers who are responsible for the deluge of garbage emails directed to our email addresses. Spammers generate unsolicited email advertisements which are forwarded to millions of email addresses on mailing lists or newsgroups. The problem with spam is that it wastes time and uses up bandwidth.

The cheapest postal service ever

It is not difficult to see why spam is so popular today. The Internet provides a global network which enables email to function as the cheapest postal service ever. At the click of a button a document can be sent from a single location directly to the inboxes of millions of Internet users around the globe. This means that there is no real cost to dissuade someone from sending out a pointless message. And this low cost means that marketers can make a healthy living from even the tiniest of responses.

In this article we look at three categories of spam. The first category consists of conventional marketing spam. Marketers send millions of emails in the hope that they will solicit more orders for their product, will build brand awareness or boost traffic to their Websites. Because this form of 'advertising' is virtually free they can afford to send repeated offers without the concomitant fear of marketing failure.

The second category of spam is one with a more devious intention. Individuals in this category are known as stock spammers (also called 'pump-and-dump' spammers) and send out millions of emails tipping a share listed on one or other global stock market. Their intention is to raise interest in a share in which they already have a sizeable stake. If enough suckers respond to their spam message the share price will rise significantly and the spammer sells his stock at a significant profit.

Today this 'pump-and-dump' spamming technique accounts for as much as 25% of all the spam generated on the Internet. To give you an idea of how huge these spam email campaigns can be, experts at SophosLabs recently detected 500 million emails containing advice to invest in a single obscure US listed company.

Con artists use spam to good effect

The final category of spam is that used by the genuine con artist. Fraudsters and con artists use the Internet as a platform to launch attacks on unsuspecting individuals with the sole intention of stealing money. They use various tactics to commit identity theft, and then use this information to siphon money from their unsuspecting victim's bank accounts.

South African Internet users should already be aware of many of these 'phishing' scams. In one example, the con artist sends a message pretending to represent your bank. To make the scam more realistic, the spammer usually creates a Website to mirror your bank's Website. If you respond to the email you are taken to the dummy website where you are requested to login and inadvertently share your personal and banking information.

Another example of spam in this category is the tried and tested lottery-win email. In this case you receive an email announcing you have won a huge amount of money in an international lottery. Should you respond to the email in an attempt to claim your winnings the con artist quickly gains your trust before demanding that you send some money to expedite the payment. You are kept on a string until they realise you are on to them and you never receive a cent of your so-called winnings.

Refuse to accept it or simply throw it away

South Africa is behind the rest of the world where Internet legislation is concerned. The good news is that a protection of personal information bill is being debated at the moment. The bill is aimed at preventing the abuse of personal information, including email addresses and cell phone numbers. It proposes draconian measures to put a stop to spam including the possibility of a 10 year prison sentence.

Until the law catches up with email spammers there is little likelihood the practice will diminish. Giant Internet companies like Yahoo! and Hotmail have struggled for years to filter out spam. Despite their best efforts, a certain amount of unsavoury spam still reaches their customer's inboxes.

Your options in dealing with spam are quite simple. You can block it which is never 100% successful, or you can simply delete the unwanted mail that lands in your inbox. You dont have to read mail that you never requested to receive in the first place.

Editor's thoughts:
Internet, the web and email have been in common use in businesses and residences in South Africa for nearly two decades now. We have definitely reached the point where the Internet, email and cell phones are indispensable technologies. Do you respond to unsolicited emails or do you simply delete them without a second glance? Send your comments to gareth@fanews.co.za