What's Spam ?
Spam is any unsolicited
email.
Often somewhat misleadingly ( and way too politely ) referred to as junk mail.
Spam can arrive in your inbox just as legitimate emails can arrive in your bulk
( junk ) mail folder, so look carefully at the folders' contents list before
opening anything.
To make matters worse, if you get more than your fair share of
spam, remember emails can
arrive out of list sequence even while you've been reading ( say ) the 1st
entry.
This means that it's possible to open a previously unread spam email that didn't
appear in the list by clicking "next" and if ( by
murphy's law )
the "next" email happens to be the vehicle for a virus or worm, you've just
launched it. Also, if you use email clients, eg. outlook express or eudora, be
careful with the incoming mail settings.
Most spam is simply the email equivalent of telemarketing and as
such is merely a nuisance.
Other varieties spam include " too good to be true " offers, such
as ridiculously low software pricing or invite you to join some get rich
quick scheme.
NEVER respond to these emails, even
if they have an un-subscribe or opt out link.
All you are doing is telling the spammer that yours is a valid and active
email address.
The sheer volume of spam does have a detrimental effect on the internet
as a whole and mail servers in particular by way of increased traffic ( read
slower speeds ) .
There are some international cooperative efforts in place to combat the problem
and many countries now have strict anti-spamming laws in place.
Worse still, not all spam is benign - emails may contain or have
attachments which contain malware, ie. viruses, trojans
or worms.
Simply opening these emails or their attachments can activate any
concealed malware
Note : spam may not always arrive
in bulk or junk mail, lists of valid email addresses are often
sold to spammers so read privacy statements before signing up for
anything which requires your email address.
These are links to some Australian Government sites with further
reading about spam :-
Australian Communications and Media Authority - pamphlet in pdf format
Australian Communications and Media Authority - spam info
Consumersonline - spam info
Phishing
Emails you receive which in essence (and paraphrased here) might
elude to the following -
There is a problem with your account details / recent transaction -
If you help me I will deposit $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ into your account -
You have won ! please send $$ to cover legal / admin. costs
Phishing is a particular type of spam intended to dupe you into revealing sufficient personal information to enable identity theft and fraud or simply steal your money.
Banks, Credit Unions, etc
NOBODY and I do mean NOBODY - banks, credit unions, government departments, paypal, ebay, etc etc will ever unexpectedly ** (see note below) ask you to confirm or update any personal or account details, credit card numbers, passwords, customer reference numbers, etc by sending you an email asking for a direct response, if there really is a problem with your account, banks etc will most likely let you know by " snail mail ", ie. regular post, if you get an email from anyone that you think might be genuine, open a new browser and login, entering the URL address yourself - DO NOT login by following (clicking on) a link in an email OR by copying / pasting the link into your browsers address box.
Unexpected emails of this
sort are ALWAYS attempts at
identity theft and fraud, even though the email
might look genuine and / or there are warnings of dire consequences and / or
urgency.
The same thing applies to 'phone calls and/or faxes, even personal calls to your home /
business. Remember, successful con-artists, rip-off merchants ( call 'em what you like ) are very good at what they do.
They are "smooth talkers" and may be quite subtle in their approach.
For example :- they might only ask for a minimal amount of your personal information at first.
Then at a later stage there might be a "problem", the "company", "vendor", "lottery dept." etc, requires further details,
perhaps the same as a typical 100 point ID verification "nothing to worry about, it's just for verification" - yeah right!
Visa Asia Pacific have some excellent info on their
email fraud page.
You should NEVER click on an unsubscribe link in an unexpected email, you will
most likely be telling the spammer who sent the
email that your
email address is both valid and active.
eg. " There is a problem with your account, please follow the link below and confirm your details, failure to do so will result in your account being terminated / closed / forfeited ". or " Your account / subscription / membership requires immediate renewal / verification, click on the link below immediately ......" or " if you received this .....by mistake please click here to remove your address from our database.... " - be careful with this last one, genuine newsletter emails have wordings similar to this.
You'll find some excellent consumer info at
Bev's Homewares, pay particular attention to the section about credit cards
about ⅔ down the page ). There's lots of links to official government advisory
sites as well.
The Key Word here is
UNEXPECTED.
** It is common practise to send an email
requiring confirmation regarding something you have signed up for, often
requiring you to follow a link directly. Such an email is likely to
arrive in your bulk folder and even though there may be a considerable delay it
can't really be described as unexpected.
Be Serious !
You will NOT win anything in an overseas lottery EVEN if
you did actually have a ticket in one.
Political refugees do not want you to care-take their money by depositing it in
your bank account.
Ultra Cheap Software
Current version software offered at ridiculously low prices is ALWAYS at best pirated and cannot be registered / activated ( read is worthless ), at worst will be infected with one or more viruses. This assumes you do actually receive anything at all which may not happen.
Earn $1000's working from home
Invitations to join get rich quick schemes usually with
testimonials from people who have supposedly made thousands of dollars.
These invitations might appear very sincere and genuine.
If you request further information ( which can require the purchase of an
introductory manual and / or CD ) you will be bombarded with similar offers.
The people running these scams also make money from selling lists of email
addresses of those who have responded.
If you receive an email which begins " Hello friend..... " or " Dear friend.....
" don't bother reading any further.
These are the classic beginnings of socially engineered pitches designed
specifically to engage your interest.
Think about it, if you came up with an honest, legitimate and easy way to make lots of money would you tell anyone ?
Schemes which are widely publicised require people to sign
up to make a profit.
They either make money by requiring some up-front payment but more often than
not they are simply pyramid selling tarted up to make it look legitimate.
If any of the above sounds too obvious to bother saying, remember these scams and others persist for only one reason - they work !
Reporting fraudulent or bogus emails (spam) in Australia
If you feel confident that opening
** any emails of the
sort described above doesn't pose a threat, please forward them to the
Australian Communications and Media Authority. The people at the A.C.M.A.
are working to fight spammers and their efforts are having an impact. The
more public assistance they get the better.
The A.C.M.A.
has developed the
SpamMATTERS spam reporting system , a free add-in for Microsoft ® OutLook ®
or OutLook® Express allowing you to report and delete spam by simply clicking a
tool bar button.
Otherwise visit
Australian Media and Communications Authority and follow the instructions
carefully.
If you're using yahoo mail - on the opening page click
Options ( top right of
page ) when the
Mail Options
page opens, scroll down about half way and click on
General Preferences when
the
General
Preferences page opens, scroll down to the heading
Messages and select
A bit further down, under the heading
Message Actions
I would also recommend selecting
See a
partial screen shot here ( opens in a new window )
** Note: quite often a
3rd party cookie will be sent when you open a spam email, if you're using
Internet Explorer you can selectively block 3rd party cookies on the fly.
See a picture of
Advanced Privacy Settings ( opens in a new window )
The Victimless Downside
Even if no-one ever got ripped off, the sheer volume of
spam does have a detrimental effect on the internet as a whole by way of
increased traffic ( read slower speeds ) and mail servers in particular, we are
talking about many millions of emails.
This means even non-criminal spammers are adversely affecting the quality
of the internet service YOU are paying for.
Some Excellent sites for further reading
Latest email scams - hoax-slayer.com has heaps of up to date info
about dodgy emails etc.
There is a periodical newsletter as well.
Spam advice - sol4.net covers more than just spam.
" everything you didn't want to have to know about spam"
spamlinks.net is a
comprehensive site covering all aspects of the spam epidemic.
Fight
Spam! Click Here!
Spam Hosts blacklist
sol4.net presents a list of domains and some hosts that are responsible for the propagation of spam.
My personal suggestion
If the owner(s) of any domains or hosts are unhappy about appearing on any blacklist, I have a simple suggestion - either stop hosting or being spammers and / or improve your business practises / security / filtering / monitoring to prevent your server becoming a drone or spoofing of your domain.
