30 years on, fighting spam remains a global challenge
Despite new measures put in place by the internet service providers to fight the scourge of spam, thirty years on, the menace has grown into an underground industry that sends out billions of messages by the day, making up more than 80% of e-mail traffic
The trend which has continued to grow in geometric progression has remained a source of worry to both internet users and the service provides including yahoo, Microsoft, America Online, among others.
But after the first recognizable e-mail marketing message, according to record that was sent on 3 May, 1978 to 400 people on behalf of DEC - a now-defunct computer-maker, the ugly trend has remained unabated.
Viruses, spam, spyware - the list seems endless. Indeed, as technology becomes more sophisticated and accessible, so too do methods of corrupting them.
Statistics suggest that more than 80%-85% of all e-mail is spam or junk and more than 100 billion spam messages are sent every day globally. Further statistics gathered by the FBI suggest that 75% of net scams snare people through junk e-mail. In 2007 these cons netted criminals more than $239m (£121m).
Majority of these messages, according to findings, are being sent via hijacked home computers that have been compromised by a computer virus. A recent report from North Carolina State University, for instance, showed that most internet users are unable to tell the difference between genuine and fake pop-up messages.
Junk mail, according to IT experts, is used by hi-tech crime gangs as the vehicle for a variety of scams and cons. “Spam is a burden on all of us,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos in a media recent report “What’s worse is that a lot of spam is deliberately malicious today, aiming to steal your bank account information or install malware.” he added.
With almost half of all e-mail being reported as unsolicited, it is not surprising that spam tops the list of one of the most bothersome internet irritations..
However, with every internet user falling victim of this dangerous computer threat, the service providers appear helpless in bringing culprits to book even with the CAN Spam Act of 2003.
The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) establishes requirements for those who send commercial email, spells out penalties for spammers and companies whose products are advertised in spam if they violate the law, and gives consumers the right to ask emailers to stop spamming them.
The law, which became effective January 1, 2004, covers e-mail whose primary purpose is advertising or promoting a commercial product or service, including content on a Web site. A “transactional or relationship message” – email that facilitates an agreed-upon transaction or updates a customer in an existing business relationship – may not contain false or misleading routing information, but otherwise is exempt from most provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency, is authorized to enforce the CAN-SPAM Act. CAN-SPAM also gives the Department of Justice (DOJ) the authority to enforce its criminal sanctions. Other federal and state agencies can enforce the law against organizations under their jurisdiction, and companies that provide Internet access may sue violators, as well.
Spam, according to Vanguard Computers E-business check, is annoying and time-consuming to get rid of by hand as many of them may contain viruses and spy ware that can damage users’s computer.
Although most spam mail originate with advertisers looking to push their products, some are much more malicious in their intent.
In particular, identity theft via spam email has become a major concern
Vanguard Computers & Business recent check also revealed that spam is flooding the internet by seconds with many copies of the same message, in an attempt to force the message on internet users who would not otherwise choose to receive it.
Although majority of junk mails are commercial advertising, often for dubious products, get-rich-quick schemes, or quasi-legal services, the truth of the matter is that it costs the sender very little to send one mail to many receivers with a click of button as most of the costs are paid for by the recipient or the carriers rather than by the sender.
This development, according to findings, has left many users worse off whenever they open their e-mail box. In most cases, users lose important mails as majority of mails in the junk box are usually regarded as spam.
Many users may have been wondering how perpetrators of spam get people’s address. Technically, according to findings, e-mail spam targets individual users with direct mail messages. Further findings revealed that e-mail spam lists are often created by scanning use net postings, stealing Internet mailing lists, or searching the web for addresses. But ironically, it costs money for ISPs and online services to transmit spam, and these costs are transmitted directly to subscribers.
One particularly nasty variant of e-mail spam is sending spam to mailing lists (public or private e-mail discussion forums.) Because many mailing lists limit activity to their subscribers, perpetrators of spam, according to findings use automated tools to subscribe to as many mailing lists as possible, so that they can grab the lists of addresses, or use the mailing list as a direct target for their attacks. But be it as it may, the apparent truth is that war on spam may not be won completely because of new technologies that are being evolved by the day.
Original Article
