Dealing with spam

What is spam and why is it called that?

'spam' is any message you are sent from a person or business who you have not given permission to contact you. The message being not relevant to you and unrequested. It was given it's name by computer geeks after watching a Monty Python sketch about a cafe where meals included SPAM (the SPiced hAM canned meat). Effectively spam is something unwanted.

When was the first spam sent?

Even before the advent of the World Wide Web spam was becoming an issue. The first spam email was sent out  by Gary Thuerk on ARPNET, a predecessor to the Internet, on 1st May 1978. It's been with us ever since. At first, it didn't seem an issue but now the majority of emails sent are spam and comments posted on blogs are often flooded with spam. A huge amount of time is wasted just deleting spam and time costs money.

Is spam illegal?

That depends on your countries laws. In many - it is illegal to send spam. Certainly the majority of spam is sent from places which have laws against it. The trouble is that spam is effective because people have a problem:

People are gullible and can't resist clicking something which looks interesting.

So what can we do?

No laws will ever stop the spammers. It's up to you to minimise the impact of spam.

Email

Set up mail filters in your email program. I use Outlook. I right click a spam email, select 'Rules' then 'Create rule'. I can then add the sender to a blocked list, select unwanted words or phrases in the email subject or body and tell outlook to automatically delete the email or put it in a spam/junk folder.

• NEVER follow a link in a spam email - no matter how tempting.
• NEVER buy anything promoted by spam. They are already breaking the law so can you really trust them with credit card details? For the same reason never buy anything from someone who cold calls you to sell items.

Blog comments

The situation here is more complex. You usually invite comments on blogs. The trouble is many comments are unrelated to the blog and there either to get a link back to a website which helps their search engine ranking. You need to weed out these comments. 

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Here's a selection from one of my blogs:

I want to show my appreciation to the writer just for rescuing me from this dilemma. Because of exploring through the search engines and obtaining ideas that were not pleasant, I thought my life was over. Existing without the presence of approaches to the problems you have fixed as a result of your main article content is a crucial case, as well as the ones which may have adversely damaged my career if I hadn’t come across your website. Your primary understanding and kindness in controlling a lot of things was excellent. I don’t know what I would have done if I had not encountered such a subject like this. I can also now look forward to my future. Thank you very much for your skilled and amazing help. I will not be reluctant to propose your web page to anyone who would

like recommendations on this issue. [web link to boneoakforskolin]

Comment: All this text just to get a link to a website!

Frгeelancing also can result in an еnormous “plus” concerning your income.

As a suƄstitute օf having to acⅽept the precise salkarｙ thats provided by the one rеgulation firm that you simply worқ, you mіght ave a sbstantial amnount of leewaｙ iin setting your ownn payy rɑtes.

Comment: Notice all the typos? Not accidental - they are there to stop automatic spam detection from picking out spammers favourite terms. The sender of course provided a web link.

This issսe may end up in considerɑbly more moneу for ʏou.

Grow your online community with voice comments. Let your readers voice their opinions in a fun, fast and easy way. Improve your user retention, website SEO, and get more conversions. Get the Free Plugin here, [Link to Voice-Comments plugin]

Comment: Not at all relevant to the post but a spam promoting a wordpress plugin (which I don't want).

WordPress has now enabled voice comments for websites. Bring your website up to date and get the free plugin here, [Link to Voice-Comments plugin]

Comment: More of the same on a different post..

What’s up friends, its impressive post on the topic of educationand entirely defined, keep it up all the time. [link to malware infected sites mentioning jimgriffin]

Comment: The provided link led to a site offering software cracks. Nothing at all to do with the post. It originated from the same computer as the following spam. Download any of the cracks and you can be sure to infect your computer with malware.

Thanks to my father who shared with me about this web site, this blog is actually awesome. [link to malware infected sites mentioning jimgriffin]

Comment: This link lead to a site which immediately tried to infect my computer with malware.

Hello! I know this is kinda off topic howeveer , I’d figured I’d ask. Woul you be interestted in trading links or maybe guest autuoring a blog post or vice-versa? My website discusses a lot of the same topics as yours and I believe we could greatly benefit from eahh other.

If you are interested frel free to shoot me an email.

I look forward to hearing from you! Awesome blogg by the way!

[link to where you can buy silicone wristbands]

Comment: Yes it is off topic and spam, even if apologised for, is still spam.

Give Your Website Users a Voice. Let your readers voice their opinions in a fun, fast and easy way. Improve your user retention, website SEO, and get more conversions. Add Voice Comments to your Website for Free Today, [Link to Voice-Comments plugin]

Comment: Yet a third advert for that unwanted plugin.

Have you ever wanted to work from home or just top up your earnings ? This tried and tested system teaches you how you can make a small fortune from the comfort of your own home. [Link to Work-from-Home site]

Comment: Dummy! I DO work from home and I'm not interested in get rich quick schemes. If you are so concerned about my fortune - just send me the money.

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It's worthwhile checking the links commenters provide. However make sure you have up-to-date anti-malware software and I suggest you use an incognito browser window to check them. If the comment adds no value to the post and doesn't actually refer to it, then delete it even if it is full of praise.

Some blogsites use CAPTCHA to reduce the number of comments made by spambots. Unfortunately, although they are getting better, they are still a deterrent to genuine people and don't stop those humans whose purpose is simply to get a link to their site. How many times have you got one of these words in weird fonts wrong or failed to spot that corner of a road sign?

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Aaagh! Spam!

Just 27 minutes into 2009 I got sent my first spam e-mail of the year - from someone signing herself as Beverly and who suggested I go to her website for 'all kinds of medicines'.
It was quickly followed by more and by the end of the day I had 131 spam e-mails in my 'Junk' folder. Now that's a record! Not because of what you think - it's a record because that was the fewest spam e-mails I've had for a very long time! On average I get just under 500 spam e-mails a day.

Now at this point I have to point out that my e-mail filters will automatically delete any message which comes from someone I don't know and which contains certain words such as Viagra, tobacco, degree, bank, 'you have won', or which claim to have been sent from me to myself. The spam mail I'm talking about slipped through the filters.

Looking back at the January 1st spams I find:
40 spams offering me medications - mostly Viagra or slimming pills
29 offering to enlarge my penis
22 offering to sell me a (mostly fake) watch
14 offering me a (fake) degree or diploma
6 offering software
5 inviting me to gamble
4 invitations to online dating services
2 messages attempting to get me to check my password details at a bank account
1 each of messages offering clothes, mobile phone games and fake jobs
1 lottery winner prize
1 invitation to sponsor the next international tennis match
1 botnet test
1 offer to increase my breast size (and it was addressed to 'John'!)
and a spam from Sony about Playstation games (I distinctly remember un-ticking that box 'Do you want to receive...')

Now let's take a closer look at these:

First there must be a great many STUPID people out there on Internet! Now I know from my own experience that there are really two species of 'man' on this planet. Homo Sapiens (That's Latin for thinking or wise man) and just 'Homo'; but really! You have to be a total moron to believe that you can get a better deal buying prescription medicines from a spammer than through your doctor and a pharmacy. Haven't the people who fall for this heard of fake, dangerous drugs and credit card fraud?

How about the 'penile enlargement' ones? Would you honestly trust your member to a doctor promoted by spam? How about trusting it to someone who is not a doctor? Get real folks and for your information after a great deal of research I can tell you that the average size of a fully erect penis is 5¼ inches.(about 40% are now saying 'Phew'; 20% are going for a tape measure; 5% are thinking 'I'm deformed' and those suffering from a diphallic condition - go look it up - are wondering 'which one').

How about those watches? Yeah right - you expect to buy a Rolex for $5.00 or a Cartier for $6.00. IT'S FAKE! Not only that but it looks fake! If you want one - buy it at your local street market where you can see what you are buying and... offer less. It often works (which is more than can be guaranteed by the one you buy through spam).

Fake degrees. Do they actually work? Is any employer really daft enough to employ someone on the basis of a certificate from a university they have never heard about? If you really want a fancy bit of paper - design and print it yourself - that's even cheaper.

How about that software? If you want a full copy of MS Office for $12 and expect to buy it on-line I've got news for you - It's a pirate! If you're going to get a pirate copy of software you might as well go the full hog and get it free from Internet instead. If piracy worries you - it should - then get Open Office from www.openoffice.org which is MS Office compatible and free!

Dating sites? There are lots of chat sites on the net which are free, so why bother to pay for the ones that are not free?

Gambling? You really want to trust a site promoted by spam with your credit card numbers? You really think you will honestly win?

As for anyone who falls for the bank phishing scams - well someone so stupid does not deserve to have money! Just remember - Banks NEVER ask you to check your details online. They ALLWAYS suggest you type in their URL rather than follow a link and GOOD up-to-date browsers will warn you if that link is bogus.

Mr 'buy my games/ringtones' obviously hopes you are not aware of all the free games available or the free software (audacity) which allows you to make your own ringtones. He hopes you'll give him that crucial credit card number so he can take regular small amounts from it before you remember to cancel it or even worse - educate you about identity theft the hard way.

As for the rest - I buy my clothes where I can try them on; have lost faith in the $200 for 3 hours work a week; don't mind if the guy who tells me to claim my lottery win keeps it himself; find tennis boring and definitely don't want bigger breasts!

I'm not going to fall for any of these but it just takes one in a million to buy from a spammer to make it worth his/her while and as a result I get about 175,000 spam e-mails in my inbox each year. Now at say half a second to check each that means I spend a full day of my time deleting the stuff each year. Since I value my time as wasted if I don't make £27 per hour that means spam is currently costing me £648 per year! I OBJECT!

The first spam e-mail was sent on 2nd May 1978 by a guy called Gary Thuerk working for DEC. It was sent to 393 users of Arpanet (the forerunner of Internet). Since then spam has grown a little. more than 90% of all e-mail traffic is spam! It uses our bandwidth, slowing down our connection and costs us all money.

Now as of June 2008 there were 1.46 billion Internet users in the world and if just one in a thousand has the same level of spam and charges a tenth of my price for their time then that means spammers are stealing £94,000,000 ($138,000,000 US) from us per year! This is a MAJOR crime!

So what happens when a spammer is caught? Well here in the UK you could be fined £5,000 but the greatest fine so far has been nowhere near that!

Now what sort of punishment would be sensible for stealing £94 million and annoying 1.46 billion people? How about we bring back hanging for it?