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Green Eggs And Spam
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By Richard Warlow
[Hits: 9592]
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To clarify, I am not talking about rotten eggs or that horriblestuff the poor depression dwellers had to eat, I am talkingabout computer e-mail spam.
What is this spam I speak of?
Spam is best defined as unsolicited and unwanted commercialelectronic messages or e-mails that are sent to large numbers ofpeople.
Ask any computer user and the most annoying thing about havingand using e-mail is the annoying amount of spam you get. It ispredicted that spam could eventually kill the usability ofe-mail unless effective barriers and law changes are introduced.In 2003 it was reported that 40% of all e-mail traffic in the USwas spam up from just 8% in 2001. Over the past 6 months thisfigure has doubled. Hotmail a popular e-mail service, says that80% of e-mail coming to their servers is spam.
You might say that I don't get as much spam as I used to. Wellthis is thanks to internet providers and businesses filteringthis out before you see it. One problem with spam filters isthat occasionally users encounter false positives in whichimportant and legitimate e-mail gets blocked. Due to thesenecessary anti-spam measures, the costs involved are huge. Notonly does all this excessive internet traffic clog up theinternet freeway, but all these e-mails are downloaded toservers before the anti-spam software deletes it. Businessesworldwide report that 20% of all e-mail received is spam. It isestimated that the true cost of spam for businesses in theUnited States alone is $8-9 billion US dollars per year.
Why is there so much spam?
The simple answer is that there is a market for spam. If peopledidn't buy from spam e-mail there wouldnt be any spam. All thespammer needs is for one person, out of a few hundred thousande-mails, to buy something and it makes the whole process worthwhile. Sending the spam requires little effort on the spammerspart as the computer automates the process meaning that it isvery easy to send out over a million e-mails an hour.
What is the world and in particular New Zealand doing about allthis spam?
On the 23rd of February '05 the Information Technology minister,Paul Swann, released a proposed law will that make it illegal tosend spam that originates from NZ. Only problem is that only 1%of spam originates from Australia and NZ, and to actually catchand prosecute a spammer is very difficult due to spammers beinggood at hiding there identity.
In April '05, a 30 year old spammer in the United States becamethe first person to be prosecuted for spamming. He was sentencedto a nine year prison term. He is described as a modern daysnake oil salesman being the eighth most prolific spammer in theworld, sending up to 10 million e-mails a day from his house.His income was $750,000 US per month, with one in every 30,000e-mails sent generating money. He sent out so much e-mail thathe received, on average, 15,000 credit card orders a month, eachorder worth an average of $US40. His total worth is $24 millionUS dollars, he advertised pornography, fake products andservices. During the court case the assistant attorney generalsaid and I quote "When your marketing to the world, there areenough idiots out there who will be suckered in."
Remember that spam is only a problem due to people purchasingfrom spam e-mail, if there was no demand there would be no spam,security firm Mirapoint, reports that 1 in 10 people buysomething from spam e-mail.
So how do I protect myself from spam?
There are a three main ways to stop being spammed.
The first and the best form of defence is not to give out yourpersonal e-mail address. Don't publicise your address in chatrooms or fill in forms on a website. For this purpose, you arebest to use a public e-mail address such as a hotmail account,as some web site owners are more than happy to sell your e-mailaddress to a spammer.
Secondly use an internet provider that controls and monitorsspam.
Thirdly install anti-spam software on your PC.
Therefore in this day and age there really is no need to eatgreen eggs and spam!
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