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If you're like me, you're bone weary of the scores, even hundreds, of unwanted (often
offensive) emails (aka spam) you get every day. Of course, these miscreants have the right to say and
publish whatever they want. But you and I have the right to not be exposed to their rubbish.
Unfortunately, governments are highly unlikely to ever stop this intrusion.
There is only one reason unwanted mail comes to your inbox every day: Money.
There is only one way to effectively stop this invasion: Don't give 'em any money!
Never buy anything from spam advertisements, no matter how
attractive the offer.
Never buy from an advertisement you get via pop-up windows!
Urge everyone you know to do always likewise!
Spam is always bad news. Nearly all of it is fraudulent. If you
respond to spam, you are asking to land on every spam list in the
world.
Spam is also used to spread computer viruses and spyware.
Spam is a key component of phishing schemes, which aim to steal your
credit card information or even your identity.
Sure, they occasionally advertise a worthwhile product or service in which you have a
legitimate interest. In that case, do NOT respond to the ad. Instead, do a web search to find that product
or service. Then buy it via that website. Your objective is to boycott the spam and pop-up window method of
advertising.
If we all do this, the reason for this egregious imposition will fade away as will the
imposition itself.
Fully one-third of us have
clicked on a link in a spam e-mail message--you know, the kind that
can easily expose us to viruses and alert spammers to live e-mail
accounts--and one in 10 have actually purchased products advertised
in junk e-mail, according to a new survey conducted by the security
firm Mirapoint and the market research company the Radicati Group.
Another 18 percent of respondents have tried to unsubscribe to spam
using the "unsubscribe" link in the e-mail. This isn't any better
than clicking on links embedded within spam messages, since many
spammers exploit the unsubscribe link to identify active e-mail
accounts. Once individual e-mail addresses or entire domains are
found to be active, the likelihood of follow-on spam or other
security attacks increases dramatically.
We only have ourselves to blame for spam e-mail. Since it costs
basically nothing to send out huge volumes of spam messages, the
fact that 10 percent of recipients are purchasing products
advertised in spam is clearly continuing to drive the economics of
the spam industry. It's called bad e-mail behavior. "This
preliminary data is surprising and somewhat shocking to us," said
Marcel Nienhuis, market analyst at the Radicati Group, in a news
release announcing the survey findings. "It explains why e-mail
security threats including spam, viruses, and phishing scams
continue to proliferate. Major advancements in technology approaches
that routinely achieve 90 percent plus catch-rates are becoming
widely available, yet no technology in the world can protect an
organization if users' exercise bad e-mail behavior." |
