What is Spam
Spam is unsolicited junk mail sent to you or your mail server. People who indulge in such activities are called Spammers. These are sent by commercial advertisers who may offer dubious products, get rich schemes, products that do not suit your life style, promote illegal activities, etc. The intent here is to make you spend money. Almost 60% - to 70% of Spam is related to Porn. There is another type of spammer who sends large number of e-mails that flood your mailbox or mail server. The intent here is to cripple your e-mail service to such an extent that you cannot receive genuine mails. This is termed as Denial-of-Service (DOS) attack.
Why Spamming happens
As technology advances, people find new ways to subvert it. The rapid spread of Internet and the easy availability of free e-mail service has given a cheap and easy means to send and receive messages. The flip side is Spam. Spamming provides a very cheap and ‘cost effective’ means to reach a wide audience. It costs the Spammer almost nothing to send mails and invariably get an eyeball count.
Losses caused by Spam
Some of the losses caused by Spam are listed below:
- Spam is received through e-mails and may have alluring subject line like: Free offer, Chance of a lifetime, etc. Invariably you try to open the mail and read it. That is what the Spammer wants you to do. Opening the mail, reading it and then deleting it, consumes your Internet access time and costs you money. The mail servers that have delivered the mail through a series of servers have spent money and used bandwidth to deliver junk you did not want. Probably the junk mail was ahead in the queue for mails to be delivered and was given precedence over an urgent mail.
- Some Spam mails have attachments and the mail asks you to open it. If you do so, you risk running a virus that may be hidden in the mail. The costs involved in removing a virus from your system are massive.
- Some Spam mails after enclosing an alluring description of products or services, ask you to click on a link for further information. These links may open porn or other sites that you had no business visiting. But details of the visit are recorded in your server and you may have a lot of explaining to do.
- Products advertised through Spam mails require that you provide your credit card number and other personal information. Besides getting your account billed for junk items, you also open yourself to more Spam.
Are there any Anti-Spam Laws
The US Congress has introduced Bills, which should deter Spam authors. These laws make illegal, the act of sending unsolicited mails, bulk mails, mails with forged headers and sender name. If any such mails are sent, they should carry the author’s physical address, e-mails ID and opt-out instructions.
How Spam Works
Spams are sent through e-mails, which is why you are reading this white paper. There are two entities: sender and receiver. Intermediaries like ISPs, and mail servers unwillingly or willingly pick up Spam and send them to you. Now how does a Spammer living in another country, manage to get your e-mail ID?
- When you register for a free e-mail service, fill in forms, register with a news group or mailing list, you may have entered information related to your personal life style. Spammers manage to hack this information, or they register as genuine users to these sites and get access to your e-mail ID.
- Spiders: These are special software programs that run through the Internet. They search for code in WebPages that looks like e-mail IDs and when such data is found, they copy it into a database. Spam authors use the data to Spam.
- E-mail extraction software: These are commercially available software’s that allow you to search for target e-mails IDs. They have a search engine and if you enter key words like Vacations, e-mail IDs of companies that provide services for Vacations and people interested in Vacations is generated.
