Spam

Evolution of an Online Parasite

by YTCC Data

Spam, Junk Mail, Unsolicited Messages. For decades people have been getting junk mail via the postal service, but do you know where the first online Spam started? Newsgroups! Newsgroups were actually one of the first forms of online communications, a sort of universal message board. People would post unwanted advertisements on the newsgroups. This continues to happen; today most newsgroups are flooded with various advertisements.

Email was the next target as it grew in popularity. Email Spam has increased sharply and is up hundreds of thousands each year. 59 percent of all email is considered Spam. Companies make bulk e-mailers to send emails to thousands of email addresses. Email addresses are harvested from message boards, member directories, or even going into an AOL Chat Room. These addresses are then shared and shared again.

U.S. Congress has put laws in place to try and combat this form of Spam. For instance, Federal Law requires that all bulk e-mailers include a removal link at the bottom of such emails. Many of the commercial ones do and some even act professional about them. However, some of the ones spamming you just to get a profit from an affiliate code for a website which lacks class may not only not remove you, but send you more from a different name and share your email with other people. There are bills in the work, which would inflict heavy penalties on Spammers as well. One such proposed bill, The Burns-Wyden-Stevens Can Spam Act carries fines of up to $1.5 million, and is currently growing in support.

Selling your email address has become more common than possibly imagined several years ago. As various websites have closed, they have sold their customer database of email and contact information. Big companies such as Disney have offered millions for the customer lists. To them, each email address is like a dollar bill. A few companies have even updated their privacy policies to note that if they ever go out of business that they reserve the right to sell your information. Your email address is a sellable “asset.”

New email filters however are beginning to work more effectively which result in new, more aggressive tactics by Spammers.

Spam via Instant Messages may now even be more common than email. For Approximately the past 3 and a half years Spammers have used AOL Instant Messenger to aggressively spam AOL users. Directing them to all sorts of crude sites usually again with an affiliate code for a small profit. Most of these Spammers use bots to Instant Message people they see online on the AOL member directory. This practice is also common on other messaging services such as ICQ.

AOL has an option to block Internet Users so now they use regular AOL accounts out of desperation. These accounts are obtained using password scams of a webpage stating you've received something or won something and go to a common website like geocities and enter your password. The other type is people actually download a virus and their password is recorded and emailed. It appears even with AOL's password warning plastered on IM and email windows; people still fall victim to this; which allows Spammers to have a field day. This is becoming increasingly problematic. If I go to sleep and leave my AOL name signed on, I can come back and have received 12 instant messages, all from Spammers by the time I wake up.

The old practice of email Spam is evolving to be more aggressive as well. New tactics are being used with email to try and boost email methods. One of my friends sent me one of those personal surveys to see “how well I knew them.” Well, at the same time she put my name in for the website to send me a copy of the survey link, she also subscribed me to a newsletter from some joke site which had off-color and lacking of humor jokes 3 times a week and several advertisements surrounding the jokes. In other words, if your friends put your names on a website to send them a copy of something, they may also be signing you up for other things, which are unwanted.

You don’t have to do anything to get Spam anymore.

You used to have to opt-in if you wanted to be included on some newsletter or offers from a website. Now it's the complete opposite for many sites, you are opted in automatically; you have to opt-out. I remember hearing of one site, which states in their privacy policy "we reserve the right to sell everything even your social security number." It’s no longer “would you like to join?” it’s “would you like to leave?” I remember I had signed up for a newsletter. One day I received an email from that site. “In order to better serve our subscribers, we have decided to split this one email into three separate mailings.” And if you decide to leave, when you unsubscribe, most sites have a clause in their privacy policy that says they can give your email address to their affiliates.

So what are some ways to stop or reduce Spam?

Methods are now being taken by many software companies to stop Spam. The upcoming version of America Online 8.0 is reportedly going to have some sort of junk mail filtering. Apple Computer introduced a new junk mail filter built into their latest version of MAC OS X 10.2. Both Yahoo and Microsoft Hotmail both have built in Junk Mail filters to help. If you don’t want to continue to get Spammed to death there are two options you can use to help combat it. Blocking or using some sort of filter to keep Spam from reaching you is one method. Or you can report Spammers to try and get them in trouble. If they have a free website such as Geocities or Angelfire you can go to the website and report them to have their site removed.

Here is list of people you can contact and places you can go to help prevent your mailbox from overflowing with spam.

On AOL
Unsolicited email, both commercial and non-commercial can now be forwarded to: TOSReports or you can simply click the Notify AOL button on your mailbox window.

Anywhere
The Federal Trade Commission is now aggressively targeting Spam. You can forward spam directly to the Commission at UCE@FTC.GOV.

Helpful Websites:
www.SpamCop.net offers a free service for reporting Spam. Often, Spammers lose their accounts and even get charged "cleanup fees" by their internet providers.
www.dmaconsumers.org (Direct Marketing Association) offers users to be put on many “do not mail lists” for a $5 processing fee. They cover about 5,000 companies that Spam.

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