Apr 25, 2003 09:01 PM
2710 Views
(Updated Apr 25, 2003 09:03 PM)
Writing a review on dealing with Spam Mails was never on my list of “Forthcoming Distractions” but the amazing regularity with which one of my recently opened e-mail ID receives Spam made me to pen down my thoughts on this growing menace.
What is Spam?
Simply put, Spam refers to unsolicited commercial junk e-mails. More often than not, It is that harmless mail that floats into your mailbox saying “Reduce 8 kilos in 1 month” or “Do you want to be debt-free in 3 months?” or some such fancy thing. To individual users, Spam does not pose any hazard except that it leads to a great wastage of time in weeding and deleting them. The damage is more severe on large companies where it not only leads to wastage of(Wo)/man power but also blocks the bandwidth so that normal mails pertaining to the business are prevented from reaching their recipients on time.
While Spam mostly refers to receiving commercial mails from unknown entities, a few of us too contribute indirectly to this growing problem. I’m sure most of us would have(in good faith though), at some time or the other, received forwarded mails from friends or colleagues containing “Good Luck Charms”, “Chinese/Tibetan Talismans”, “Friendship Mantras”, etc. These exhort the recipient to in turn forward the mail to 10/15/50 people to get “good luck” or promising that one’s life will change drastically(dunno which way). What nonsense! The primary goal of such chain letters is to flood servers with thousands of useless e-mails and waste everyone’s time in the process. I hate receiving such e-mails as much I detest sending them to others. The only treatment such mails deserve is to be deleted with contempt and since I assume that most of you also would have been at the receiving end of such mails, request you not to forward them to your friends and relatives.
Who send these Spam e-mails?
The senders of these Spam mails are mostly third grade rasc*ls or small time fly-by-night companies/ firms who are out to con gullible public. Online studies and research on Spam has revealed that more than 60% of these mails are related to debt reduction plans, weight reduction therapies, online gambling, pornography and get-rich quick schemes to name a few.
How do they get hold of our e-mail IDs?
There are various methods by which this is done. The most common technique, I’m told, is that the Spammers write algorithms or scripts that “create” millions of mail IDs using all possible combinations of the English alphabets and other commonly used characters like underscore, dot, etc. Then they begin sending Spam to all these mail IDs. There is a very good chance that half of the created IDs might not exist, but they are able to reach the other half anyway.
Spammers also collect mail IDs from the databases of various websites, mostly those related to shopping, leisure, pornography, etc. In some cases, we inadvertently leave behind our mail IDs on certain websites to receive newsletters and shopping brochures. At the time of signing up, we overlook a small point which says “Tick here to receive interesting offers from our associates”. That’s where we succumb to these Spammers. For them it’s a bonanza because they are able to tap a huge customer base at a very low cost. For us, it’s an annoying waste of time.
What to do about it?
For one thing, we are helpless because so far there is no law that deals with Spam mails though most nations have woken up to the fact that something needs to be done about it. Once you start receiving Spams, you are condemned to religiously keep deleting them on a regular basis. A small relief is that not all spammers are of dubious reputation. Some websites(far and few) that have a good reputation often send these mails only when we willingly opt to receive them.
In most cases, they also provide us with an option to “Unsubscribe” from their mailing lists. Once we opt out, they ensure that we are not troubled again. Unfortunately, this option of unsubscribing works as a double edged sword in the sense that we continue to be relentlessly bombarded with Spams even after unsubscribing. If anything, our response only reinforces the Spammers hope that ours is a valid e-mail ID and the Spamming continues unabated.
Here are a few things that could make out life more peaceful from the onslaught of Spammers:
If the option of “Unsubscription” exists, go for it. There’s a 50-50 chance that the sender might not be a professional Spammer. This worked for me quite a few times but all might not be that lucky.
Block Addresses or use Filters – Most e-mail Softwares like Eudora, Outlook Express, etc. and e-mail service providers like Yahoo and Hotmail allow the users to set certain pre-defined criteria to block such Spams. These are not totally effective as Spammers frequently keep changing the mail IDs from which they send Spam. No harm in trying it out for all that it is worth.
Always take care to check the integrity and reputation of the website when you leave your e-mail ID there to receive newsletters, product updates, shopping brochures or on newsgroups, chat sites consumer forums, etc. Such websites are mandatorily supposed to disclose their “Privacy Policy” at the time of signing up for their services. Make sure to go through it before signing up – it’s worth the time and trouble
There are plenty of free-to-download software programs(Spam Assassin, Spam Butcher, Junk Filter, etc.) that promise to block and combat Spam mails with 100% efficiency. I won’t comment on that as I haven’t used any of them but if you are a Hotmail user, its very likely that you will be interested in trying out some of these software programs, though at your own risk.
Not replying to Spam mails discourages a few Spammers to some extent and prompts them to take you off their Spamming List.
Never ever try to counter-spam the Spammer! All said and done, he’s a master at his art and its quite probable that he will only get back with a renewed vengeance if we give him a run for his money.
Have an e-mail ID that is not easy to guess or figure out as much as possible. Many e-mail service providers strongly recommend their customers to create IDs that are alpha-numeric and don’t match too closely with their names.
Thus Spake TiC
It is estimated that nearly 35-40% of all e-mails sent around the world today are Spam and this number is set to increase rapidly over the next few years. It’s a headache that we all have to reckon with for a long time to come because even if strict laws are passed banning Spam mails, it’s very unlikely that their threat will abate. The best we can do is to take care that we don’t stomp around cyberspace handing out our e-mail IDs like visiting cards on all sites that we come across. More importantly, we need to strongly discourage such mails by not forwarding them to other unsuspecting souls.
