Spam

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Spam

What is it?

Spam was originally applied to irrelevant posting back in the days of newsgroups (the parent of both blogs and forums). These were mostly commercials - the electronic equivalent of junk mail - and were not popular as they made it hard to follow discussion threads.

There was also a famous Monty Python programme where the repeated singing of the word ‘spam’ blocked every other communication.

Either might provide the loose ‘etymological’ link. Spam was soon the term applied to all bulk email, also known as ‘unsolicited commercial email’ (UCE).

Unsolicited messages would appear in the inbox offering some deal, or enticement, to visit a website. Because this method of marketing was almost costless to the sender, it became so prevalent that it threatened to clog the electronic arteries.

Spam has evolved from an annoying, intrusive method of distributing emails into an untargeted, sinister, high-tech game.

The name "spam" is a trademark of Hormel, Inc so it is always lower case. The company has a sense of humour. See http://www.spam.com/ci/ci_in.htm for their official statement!

How does it work?

In the early days email addresses were harvested by scanning the web or just capturing the emails of visitors. Guest books and discussion forums provided a rich source of email addresses in those naïve and optimistic days! An email address is easy to spot with the @ separator in the middle. Programmes could be written to crawl the web and list the addresses. Such lists used to be openly traded.

There are two types of spammer.

First there are the ‘bullet-proof spammers’ who take advantage of unregulated environments, but these are increasingly confined to less regulated territories.
The second, more technically sophisticated type, use ‘open proxy’ and relay to distribute their spam. The ‘home’ of this epidemic is mobile but Brazil, France and Portugal have been mentioned as sources. In 2004, WritersServices was attacked unsuccessfully by several programmes from a Portuguese domain.

Blocking spam is hard because it is normally the innocent domain that has been taken over. The real culprit has to be tracked and that is much harder.

Why spam is bad

	It clogs up inboxes. This costs time and those with free email like Hotmail can find them full of rubbish and refusing to accept new messages.
	If you have a slow link, all this mail has to be downloaded and deleted, possibly wasting limited online time.
	It can stop legitimate newsletters. Our news server is regularly interrogated by those managing large company sites to see whether we really exist. Only then do they allow the newsletter through. Happily we only qualify for a single star on the 4 star ‘spam spotter’ scale.
	There are viruses that can hide among and look like spam and the spam can distract network managers as titles can look like macro-worm bait. Against a noisy background it becomes harder to identify the dangerous traffic.

Why does spam continue

Money! According to some research broadcast on the BBC in late 2007, botnets can be hired for $1000 an hour during which the enslaved machines would be expected to send 5-10 million spam emails. And just enough people respond to the spam to make the exercise profitable.

How to limit spam

The big servers such as Hotmail, Yahoo and Lycos are trying hard to block spam and all of them offer a range of options to stop the junk. Take full advantage of these. But if you want any newsletters you will need to leave the door ajar.

Tracking spam requires the correct interpretation of email headers. This is a list of servers the mail has used which you might only see when an email you send bounces back to you. Sadly, these postmarks can be forged, so success is not guaranteed. ‘Bulk senders’ now cover their tracks and relay through a legitimate domain. The best one can hope for is to limit the number of sites that relay spam and get on their case as quickly as possible.

If a spam sender can be traced to the originator, there are normally grounds to close the account, although the spammer can be back in action almost immediately.

What can you do to help?

	Subscribe to a very good, medium-sized internet service provider. Those running the network are the first and best line of defence.
	Make sure you take advantage of any of the spam blocking offered by your service provider. If the spam does not get through it will discourage them.
	Set up your email software to filter spam to an-easy to delete folder. (see One way to deal with spam)
	Never read or follow the links of spam. Some have the cheek to ask your system to confirm that you have read the mail. Don’t ever do this.
	Inform the person who oversees email at every website, normally called postmaster@domain.com or , that you have spam. (Don’t expect a reply, but they are grateful). Postmasters can block access, preventing email from that account from being relayed through their domain.