Will There Ever Be An End To Spam?
The other day I went to my mother’s house to pick up my mail, when she handed me a thick envelope and asked if I knew the sender. I looked at the name, Jeremy Young, and the address, which said New Orleans, Louisiana. I don’t know a soul in the state. I opened the envelope to find, but what else- spam. A huge letter explaining to me how I could make money by investing in some business and requesting that I forward the letter on to others. Isn’t it enough to receive email spam? Now I have to contend with it through regular mail? I thought perhaps this person found my address through my domain, however it’s still registered as private, (DreamHost once removed this feature for some reason and I had to re-register as private). So how did my home address end up on some scammer’s desk?
The Latest Spam Threat
Most likely in the same manner as email addresses-by being sold to third parties, even when we agree to a “privacy policy,” or through unsecure websites. I recently read an article from BorderWare, a software vendor specializing in “application specific” security products, how PDF spam is on the rise. To be honest, I have never given much thought to image spam, but spammers are able to bypass most security systems such as firewalls and spyware programs using images-half of which are through the PDF format. Most email security applications cannot scan and detect these images. As Internet users, we fight spam on a daily basis and honestly- I’m tired of weeding through emails and running spyware and anti-virus applications each time I open or view an item online.
The Solution?
The BorderWare Security Network (BSN) is utilizing it’s latest, patent pending technology, Intercept™ Image Analysis. According to the website, by using real-time scanning, BSN is able to detect and stop PDF spam by scanning attachments sent via email, through the web and instant messenger services. The technology is able to “learn” of new spam threats by analyzing the PDFs and characteristics of the attachments.
As the Internet continues to grow, so will the threat of spam and other malicious attacks on computer systems. In the last year alone I have noticed a huge increase-and whether a spammer intends to harm a computer, or simply wants to advertise a scam, the threat, unfortunately is here to stay. But with new technologies coming forth, such as the Intercept™ Image Analysis, our frustrations are more bearable.
At the launch of his annual report last week, Information Commissioner Richard Thomas Thomas referred to the inexcusable security lapses of the past 12 months that have seen laptops holding personal details stolen and credit card statements found in waste bags.
The annual report highlights how the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has received almost 24,000 enquiries and complaints concerning personal information.
It’s not surprising the UK – and the Western world more generally – has a problem with spam, when enterprises are so lax with individuals’ personal data.
Until people stop responding to spam there will be spam. Especially email spam, as the setup costs are very low, the spammer needs only a very small percentage of the population to respond to make it cost effective.
Another new source of spam/fraud I have encountered is on craigslist, gumtree, where people will spam people offering to buy your item with a cheque, banking that someone will not realise that cheques can be invalidated even once you have withdrawn the money.
Spam will never die. The reason it gets worse is because it works.
I sometimes hold off checking my email because I probably receive about 150 spam emails a day and now it takes me 5 minutes to wait for outlook to stop downloading it all. The time spent on deleting it is such a waste of time
Imagine a spam free world… it’s probably harder to achieve then world peace.
You could redirect your email to a gmail account. Its spam filter is working pretty well for me, and
that way you wont have to sit and wait for anything to download.