 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Junk E-mail - What Is It? Ash Nallawalla ash@melbpc.org.au |
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This article is for readers who have not received an unsolicited
e-mail or who don't know how to deal with it. Not all unsolicited e-mail can be regarded as junk,
but sometimes that is in the eye of the beholder.
Terminology
The terminology used to describe annoying e-mail is imprecise. Sadly, the term "spam" has
caught on as a convenient, concise word to describe such e-mail, so I will use it in this article.
(This usage has no connection with the commercial product "SPAM" a trademark of the Hormel Foods
Corporation.) Spam was originally intended as a term to describe an "excessively crossposted" news
article, where "excessive" was defined by a moving measure based on some criteria. News articles,
by the way, refer to the distributed Internet resource known as newsgroups - that is beyond the
scope of this article.
Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (UCE) and Unsolicited Bulk E-mail (UBE) are distinguished only if one
believes that UCE is more annoying than other forms of UBE. You often don't know or care if the
offending item was sent in bulk or not. The point is that you received it and it annoyed you.
The "How" and "Why" of Spam?
Spammers either harvest the addresses from Web sites and newsgroups, or they buy a CD-ROM
containing such addresses. Only the incredibly naive or incredibly astute person will resort to
sending spam, but their motives are beyond the scope of this article or are otherwise apparent in
the message content.
Types of Spam
- Solicited spam. Pardon? Yes, you will invariably do something on
the Net that will result in spam. Typically, you might complete a form that includes fine print
that hints at unspecified communications from the company and its associates. Yes, you asked for it
and you have nobody to blame but yourself. Be sure to look for checkboxes that are pre-filled for
you; uncheck them, if applicable.
- Commercial spam. Most spam that I get tries to get my money in
one way or another. These messages usually contain ALL CAPITALS and repeated symbols ($$$$,
!!!!).
- Noncommercial spam. These are messages asking you to "pass on"
the message to every person who is in your address book. It may be an urban legend or an appeal for
some cause.
- Dangerous spam. Regardless of the content, some e-mails contain a
virus or other content that may damage the information on your computer or your reputation (if you
unwittingly propagate it further). Never click on an attachment unless you know that it is safe to
do so. Never assume that the sender is "reliable". For example, I will never click on a file whose
name ends in .exe (Outlook 2000 won't let me do that, or even let me save the attachment).
- Unsolicited e-mail. Not all unsolicited e-mail is spam; if you don't care to reply, think about the consequences (if any) and ignore it. For example, companies receive a good deal of unsolicited job enquiries and they cannot reply to everyone.
Spam is bad because your ISP usually pays for its carriage. While that does not directly impact users, the growing mountains of spam clog the Internet "pipes" and slow down legitimate traffic. Often the spam sender uses a free, or cheap, disposable address to do the dirty work, knowing that the address will be clogged with more complaints than genuine responses. This traffic jam can cripple a small ISP and adversely affect its regular customers.
I am not interested in knowing whether spam can be ethical or not - for example, some people argue that traditional (paper based) junk mail is also sent to unwitting recipients. The difference is that spam has a near-zero cost for the sender but it costs an unknown number of recipients and intermediaries.
Avoiding Spam
Just accept that if you use the Internet normally, that is, by displaying your primary e-mail address, you will receive spam. However, you can minimise it. One way is to use a "dispensable address" when filling out forms or for news posts and use your primary address for trustworthy correspondents. Yahoo and Hotmail are just two sources of a free e-mail account. Some ISPs may not like your use of a third-party address, so check its rules.
You can cloak your real address in news posts, e.g.
ash@melbpc.nospamhere.org.au
is better than
ash@nospamhere.melbpc.org.au
because the latter will reach my ISP and waste bandwidth whereas the former will not leave the sender's ISP (because the nospamhere domain is fictitious for the purpose of this article and unallocated when going to press). Both forms have the disadvantage that a novice who sees your news post may not know how to "correct" your address and send you a genuine message.
If you are faking a "nospam" address, be sure that the domain is fictitious, else you will create a problem for yourself. For example, the domains "nospam.com" and "nowhere.com" are very real, so it is not a good idea so use "nobody@nowhere.com", for example.
Never Acknowledge
Sometimes, if you bother to read the contents of spam, you will see a link that purportedly enables you to get off their list. Unless you are sure of the sender's bona fides (usually that is "solicited" spam or the company is reputable), do not click on that link; else you will simply confirm that your e-mail address is a "good one".
Don't Fight It - Delete It
The best advice I can give is that you delete spam immediately upon receipt. Better still, set up a "rule" in the e-mail program to delete it automatically. As Editor of this magazine, I sometimes get unsolicited press releases or "news" that has no relevance to our readers. Two of those companies are immune to polite requests for removal from their mailing list, so a rule in Outlook 2000 quietly relegates the spam to the bit bucket.
Unless you know exactly what you are doing, do not try to get back at the spammer. Sometimes the spammer uses a random, but otherwise innocent party's address as the alleged sender, or it may be a deliberate act. You do not want to harm an innocent party. Often, spam is sent by exploiting "open servers" -- some poorly configured sites can be manipulated to relay spam so that they become the unwitting senders of the material for an unknown perpetrator.
Finally, do not complain to your own ISP about spam. If you cannot deal with spam, do not use the Internet.
Reprinted from the May 2001 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
