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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."
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