"Spam, spam, spam, spam and spam"
Posted on
If all the emails I get are to believed, there are a string of eastern European ladies that miss me terribly; a myriad of companies waiting to pay me many times my current salary; a wealth of diet pills that would make me smaller; even more definitely-not-diet pills that would make me... erm... bigger; and a whole list of stock options that I would be mad not to buy. I have no doubt that somewhere, there are pills that would do as mentioned, jobs that might pay me more and stock options that would be worth a gamble (though I'm rather more doubtful of ladies, eastern European or otherwise, that would have any interest in me). What I'm certain of, however, is that not a single one of these emails are the real deal.
Spam email apparently accounts for around 80% of all emails sent. Some statistics put it as high as 92%. Of these, around 80% again are for so-called pharmacies. It is estimated that over 200 billion spam emails are sent every single day, and that number is increasing. Companies, and even end users, are spending a small fortune on software to help stem the flow, and yet the problem won't go away.
I've never really understood spam. While some of it makes a token effort at advertising something, the vast majority I get is junk. It is poorly written, poorly constructed and poorly delivered. If I wrote ‘buy mi drugz' in crayon on a beer mat and posted it through somebody's door, I wouldn't expect to hear back from them even if I included my phone number in the neatest writing I could manage. The electronic equivalent, however, is as ubiquitous as the common ant. Phishing emails are the worst. They prey on the gullible, attempting to garner personal data, passwords and (often) bank details so that they can steal from the victim.
But people do fall for these scams. If somebody you didn't know, or had nothing to do with, sent you a letter asking you to write your bank details on a piece of paper and pop it in the post to them, you would either bin it or report it to the police. For whatever reason, the Internet isn't always viewed with the same caution.
Some simple things to remember:
- Do not open emails if you do not recognise the sender or the subject looks dubious.
- Do not click on links in an email you don't trust. You can often move your mouse pointer over a link to see if it will take you to where it says it is (either by looking in the status bar of your browser for Internet mail, or on a mouse-over tooltip (usually in a yellow box that appears by the pointer) in a program such as Microsoft Outlook. If the address looks weird, don't click it!
- Do not reply to an email from a sender you do not trust—especially if the email was unsolicited. This will simply show the spammer that your address is real and they'll know to send you more spam.
- NEVER open an attachment if you don't know (and trust) who sent it and what it is.
- NEVER provide any bank details, personal information or usernames/passwords at the request of an email. No legitimate bank will EVER ask you for this information by email. Most other websites will not email you to ask for your details either.
- Do not get involved in forwarding chain mail (messages that are repeatedly forward to large numbers of people—often promising good luck to a willing sender if they send it to X friends). It's yet another way for spammers to collect email addresses and the subject is almost always fake. It won’t bring you luck and the virus/scam it’s warning you about doesn’t exist and never has. Sorry.
- No matter how lovely she seems, the eastern European lady asking for a loan so she can come and visit you probably isn't a good investment.
- Remember that if you didn't ask for it, you probably don't want it. If in doubt, DELETE the message.
The term 'spam', by the way, was apparently taken from the famous Monty Python SPAM sketch (look for it on YouTube), in which one can also find a Lobster Thermidor aux crevettes with a Mornay sauce, garnished with truffle pate, brandy and a fried egg on top and Spam. I'd email you a link, but... well...