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DEALING WITH SPAM
What spam is
Spam - unsolicited commercial email - is analagous to ordinary junk mail. Since it
can be sent almost for free, spammers can send millions of messages and still make money even
from a tiny fraction of responses.
Spam volumes have increased dramatically - it is estimated that junk mail now
comprises over 90% of all email traffic on the Internet! This huge volume is part of the
reason that more people now receive more spam. (See this article for current security
news on trojans and botnets creating spam and virus increases.)
Asking an Internet Service Provider to eliminate spam is a little like expecting a
mail or newspaper delivery person to sort out unwanted flyers. Nonetheless, the Community
Network expends a great deal of effort to ensure that minimal spam is delivered to customers.
In spite of the perception of some people that they are receiving a lot of spam,
protection mechanisms used by the BEC Community Network block at least 95% of it - the
average person actually receives less than 5% of all spam that would be received if the
Community Network had no protections in place.
The greatest difficulty is expecting software to separate spam from legitimate
messages that often have characteristics similar to spam.
More stringent restrictions mean less spam, but also mean increased possibility that
some legitmate messages might also be blocked.
We are working on new spam-blocking techniques that are expected to significantly
reduce the amount of spam that escapes detection.
Why spam has increased
The Internet world has changed a great deal. Spam has increased dramatically for
various reasons, including:
- The number one reason: it's profitable. If no one ever responded to spam,
it would die a natural death
- The proliferation of parasite software that exploits weaknesses in computer
software and human psychology
- Millions of people who are unfamiliar with computer security have always-on
high-speed Internet connections. Scores of millions of computers around the world are
"zombies" that are secretly controlled by hackers. These zombie computers can send millions
of spam messages without the owners realizing it.
- Some people do things online that invite spam (see below)
- Spammers are always devising new means to get around the defences of Internet
Service Providers
Why you get spam
The BEC Community Network NEVER provides personal information to other entities, nor
does it allow remote Websites to determine your email address. However, if you voluntarily
provide your email address on a Website (or if someone else provides your address), you have
no control over what happens to that information. Don't provide your email address unless
you trust the Website!
Spammers may get addresses for their victims from:
- Web pages - if your email address is on a Website anywhere, it will almost
certainly be harvested by automated Web "spider" robot software that searches for addresses.
Web designers can use special code to make addresses much harder for robots to find, but few
do so.
- Parasite
software: installed surreptitiously on your computer, or on someone
else's computer that happens to contain your address in its addressbook,
this software can report addresses back to unknown persons.
- Addresses submitted to Websites, by you or someone else.
This might include, for example, "free" e-card sites, contests,
downloads of "free" software, "information" sites, sites you might not
want to show your mother, etc.
- Web bugs (see bugnosis or this faq):
tiny images hidden in html-formatted email (and Web pages) that secretly
tell senders when you open messages.
- Responses: most spam headers, including return addresses, are faked. But if you
reply to spam, even to complain, that could just confirm that yours is a real address.
"Unsubscribe" links are usually ploys. Never respond to spam.
- Harvesting from from other messages, including from mailing
lists: probably you have received messages that display multiple
addresses. This poor etiquette is
easily avoided with a bit of effort.
- Viruses/worms/trojans
- some of these act like some parasite software
- Anyone can find out which Internet domains are set up to
receive email. Special software can rapidly generate addresses; fast
computers and high-speed Internet connections (including zombie
computers and those operated directly by spammers) send huge quantities
of mail. Spammers don't care if most of the software-generated
addresses don't exist - all the resources involved in this waste are
essentially free anyway. Even a tiny response rate makes it worth their
while.
- Spammers sell, rent and trade lists - some spam even offers to sell you millions
of email addresses on a CD! Once your address is on a spammer's list, there is no way to
remove it.
You may receive spam even though your address isn't displayed.
It's easy to hide email addresses (e.g. by using the bcc - blind
carbon copy - feature available on most email software), and to fake
them. Viruses and parasites commonly fake all the headers on messages
they generate, so it's impossible to know where they really came from.
Managing spam
There is no magic bullet! Managing spam requires a
variety of procedures, none of which is a perfect answer.
- Take appropriate precautions based on the list above
- Follow recommended
security procedures
- Never respond to spam
- Never click on a link in a spam message
- Delete spam promptly
The Community Network runs spam detection software, using
sophisticated criteria to assess whether incoming mail is spam. If the
software suspects that a message is spam but is not sure, it places the word "SPAM" at
the beginning of the Subject Line to alert you to the probablility that the message is spam.
Options for handling spam:
- Sort your email on the mailserver before downloading by
using BEC's Webmail. In Webmail,
turn off automatic delivery notification: Options | Display Preferences
- disable "Enable Mail Delivery Notification".
(Webmail also allows you to set various spam filters
(Options | Spam Filters), but be aware of potential pitfalls in trusting
other sites to be involved in managing your mail.)
- If the spam you receive has common elements, you can create
Message Rules
in Outlook Express that will delete messages from the server based on
criteria that you specify.
- Use a mail client such as Thunderbird that
can be trained to recognize spam.
- Many software products, including freeware, shareware and
commercial software, claim to control spam. See MailWasher or POPfile automatic mail
classification tool, but beware of many inferior products.
Although spamming is illegal in most jurisdictions and there are
potential legal remedies, in practice it's very difficult to pursue
unless you are highly committed and knowledgeable.
For much more information about spam, try some of these links:
Canadian task force on spam
Coalition Against Unsolicited
Commercial Email
Spamcop
Paul Hsieh's
antispam page
Death
to Spam
Junkbusters
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