Facts About Spam
The number of unsolicited email messages - commonly referred to as spam - has grown dramatically over the last few years. According to industry sources, 56% of all email messages sent in November 2003 were spam - up from 41% one year ago. Unfortunately, governmental regulation has yet to catch up to the use of email for criminal and commercial purposes, and we are all being bombarded with free mortgage quotes, little blue pills, free Lotto prizes, gibberish subject lines, and the lost treasures of dead dictators. Since email has become commonplace, marketers and criminals alike have realized that they can reach you via email at far less expense than regular mail. Whereas abuse of regular mail is prohibited by law, the absence of any regulatory laws governing email use has also lowered the bar on the content of advertisement - messages that you wouldn’t normally see in an envelope sent to your home now show up in your email, including offensive materials.
How did these people sending the spam - these spammers - find you? For the most part, an email address first ends up on a spammer’s list because someone manually typed your email address into a web page. You may have done this yourself by subscribing to an email list or “listserv”, or by submitting your email address when making a purchase at an Internet store (e.g. to obtain an emailed receipt), or even by subscribing to a general Internet service that “requires” an email address - ostensibly so that it can email you your password or future information such as weather or Internet auction information. It is also possible that an acquaintance of yours has inadvertently subjected you to the barrage of spam by typing your email address in the “Send a link to this web page to your friends” field at their favorite website. Your email address could also end up on a spam list if it is being published on a website. The spammers run computer programs that scavenge email addresses from sites such as listserv archives, or Web directories.
Once you are on a Spammer’s list, you can never get off. Spam email lists are constantly bought, sold, traded, copied, compiled, and redistributed. In a matter of time you aren’t on just one spammer’s list - you are on hundreds of lists, and are receiving dozens of spam messages a day. Replying to a message, or following the links in the email that supposedly allow you to “Unsubscribe” or “Opt - Out” only makes matters worse. These actions only notify the spammer that you are actually reading the email they send to you. This enables the spammer to distinguish valid email addresses from inactive or abandoned addresses. Rather than removing you from the list, the spammer places you on a special premium list, that can be sold by the spammer at a higher price. Even opening a spam message may have the same effect, since many of the messages sent as web pages direct you to websites that track when you opened the message.
In addition to the mass - marketing application of spam email address lists, many criminals obtain and use spam email lists in order to defraud. Email scams typically promise something - usually large sums of money - in return for the recipient’s involvement, assistance, or release of personal information. These scams are often long and involved, and may even transcend the email medium. Many email scams ask the recipient to forward personal data, bank account numbers, and other information. Criminals use the information in various ways to either steal directly from the individual, or to commit identity theft. In September 2003 The Federal Trade Commission released a survey showing that “27.3 million Americans have been victims of identity theft in the last five years, including 9.9 million people in the last year alone. According to the survey, last year’s identity theft losses to businesses and financial institutions totaled nearly $48 billion and consumer victims reported $5 billion in out-of-pocket expenses”. The Federal Trade Commission website offers more information on identity theft at http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/ and email scams at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/doznalrt.htm.
The campus community is reminded one should never respond to any type of communication with personal or professional information unless they are one hundred percent sure that the request for information is legitimate. Remember: if an offer is too good to be true, then it probably is. Email users are further reminded that email is not a secure medium, and any transmission of personal information such as social security number, bank account, or credit card number may be intercepted electronically. Personal and financial information should only be transmitted to a legitimate business or institution on the web via a direct secure connection, usually evident by the presence of a small locked padlock icon on the bottom right of the web browser window, when viewing the business’ web site. Personal and financial information should never be transmitted via email, even if you have a secure connection to your email service.
Please keep in mind that the most effective method to fight off spam and email scams is for you to observe the sender and subject of each message you receive before clicking on the message. Once you have identified a message to be spam, you should immediately delete the message. Do not view or preview a message unless you have determined it is not spam. Viewing a spam message in any way often triggers a visit to the spammers web site - the spammer identifies your address as a valid email address, and also may get paid for drawing visitors to the site as a result of their email spam.