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Down With Junk
Mail
MIND MAGAZINE | Since you
can read this article, I assume that you have access to the Internet. It
offers a wealth of possibilities. You can access so much information and
get into contact with people that you normally wouldn’t be able to, just
by switching on your computer. The vast majority of people who are using
the Internet also make usage of e-mail (electronic mail), because it’s
often the fastest way to get to reach someone. You can log on to your
e-mail server (like Hotmail, AOL, etc) and check your e-mails in
instants. A few years ago, I noticed a strange message in my account: it
wanted to sell me some computer software or something… I didn’t give it
much thought, because I figured my address had been added to a mailing
list by mistake. But just like me, you must have noticed the increasing
flow of advertisements and the flourishing imagination of senders to get
us to read their advertisement. Nowadays, my account is flooded by junk
mail and I have to check it regularly to prevent it from going over the
limit. If you’re a junk mail (or spam) victim, you’re not the only one.
The phenomenon is taking epidemic proportions, and the time and money
losses are so high, that spam is now just as harmful as computer
viruses. The truth is spammers are so successful that the plague is far
from slowing down.
The European Commission published in January of 2001 a study about junk
e-mailing. The report was meant to figure how much time, money and
energy was lost on spam e-mails. To give you an example of the extent of
the problem, it was estimated that about 11 billion dollars are being
wasted annually just on lost connection time! That’s not even including
the loss of productivity at work, the money spent on anti-spam software
or people scammed by fake contest winning messages. On the Internet,
about one e-mail out of three is a spam, and junk e-mails are growing at
an alarming speed: in the year 2001, 340 per cent more spams were sent
out than the year before.
And why is there so much junk in your e-mail account? Probably because
scammers are very successful, and some numbers don’t lie. About 10 to 15
per cent percent of junk messages will give a turn out; people will
either purchase the product or show some interest by clicking on the
link. For regular mail advertising, that proportion is only around 0.5
per cent.
Two persons in the United-States made a cool 630,000 dollars with just a
couple of hours of work: they sent 50 million e-mails promising a prize
in exchange of a $35 administrative fee. Their case is far from being an
exception, and more and more people are getting aboard to send even more
spam to you.
Getting your message across the Web is easy; basically anyone that can
use a regular e-mail account have the possibility to transform it into a
massive spam-sending machine. Downloading an automatic e-mail sender or
finding an address lists can be done in a few minutes. And even if you
keep your electronic mail very private, you could be the victim of
address generator software (its sends e-mails by creating combinations
of letters and numbers). Alan Ralsky, the biggest man in the spam
business, powers 190 servers with such software to send an average of
about one billion junk e-mails every day! A new tendency is to steal
people’s e-mail password so that they can use their account to send spam
to others. Software that spies the communications between your computer
and the e-mail server can easily do the trick. On top of getting your
password, those people can frame personal information like your credit
card number, among other things.
So how can you protect yourself from junk mail? Well, you can start by
having one account for serious stuff and another to give away whenever
you’re asked for your address, when downloading a program, or getting
access to a restricted web site and so on. Moreover, you can install
spam killers on your computer to prevent most of the junk to get into
your inbox. Using your block list helps against frequent spammers can
also solve some of the problem. And very importantly, protect your
passwords against theft by changing it often and by signing out of the
account as soon as you’re finished.
The best way, finally, to prevent junk e-mail from continuing its
expansion, is to stop opening them and above all, don’t buy or
contribute to anything that’s offered to you. Most of the stuff you’ll
get is not worthy of your trust, and even if the offer sounds
interesting to you, verify its validity before you’re tempted to buy.
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