Before attempting to explain why some people seem to think you might benefit from inexpensive pharmaceuticals, or a cheap mortgage, here is a brief history of Spam.
If you ever wondered if the term has any connection to the inexpensive, and mysterious luncheon meat that goes by the same name… it does! Its origins go back to a skit (click here to see the skit) by the hysterical British comedy team, Monty Python.
In the skit, a couple sits in a restaurant wondering what to order. It soon becomes apparent that everything contains Spam, or is completely Spam. Before long the entire restaurant is taken over by patrons (Vikings actually) requesting Spam. So much so that nothing else can be heard but a chorus of “Spam, Spam, Spam…”
When e-mail became a tool of the masses, people soon learned to abuse the system by flooding the email channels with junk mail, so it seemed that it was all that existed in your inbox… like Spam.
Spam continues to be a problem to this day. In spite of filters and care in handing out your email address, Spam still arrives. From where does it come?
The following is a primer on some of the ways your email address gets into the wrong hands.
1. You give it to the wrong people. Someone you thought you could trust is less than scrupulous, and is using your e-mail for purposes other than you intended. You may have registered at a web site thinking you were going to find out how to cure your back pain, and next thing you know, you are getting daily offers on a miracle cure. You were deceived.
2. Your name was sold. This one is all too common. You registered on a web site, or gave your name to a store or organization. Some of these people will then sell your name and address to a list company. In fact, some of the sites at which you register, exist ONLY to get your name. In exchange they offer something of value like an article or “valuable information”. They then offer your name on lists of email addresses.
3. Your name is harvested. You may have registered on a site, signed a guest book, left a comment, or maybe you have a link to an email address from within your own website (ex: Info@mywebsite.com).
Bots, or spiders will crawl the web, visiting sites, the sites those sites link to, and on and on. They eventually find the one with your name.
Now it doesn’t matter that your email address doesn’t appear on the site, it just may be referenced as a link. No matter, the bots will find it, record and use it. Insiduously!
4. Your friends do it! So you are on a site viewing this most entertaining video, and you’d love Susan to see it. How convenient, there is an icon that says “mail to a friend”. All you have to do is enter your email and theirs and they will send Susan a copy. How thoughtful! Now they have two new e-mail addresses. And both fresh and guaranteed to work.
5. You confirm your address. Now you receive offers to view celebrity video antics, and are really enraged. You want to tell these people to cease. You reply to one of the messages telling them exactly how you feel, and you want this stopped. You have achieved two things by doing this. One, you wasted 2 minutes of time you could have used playing Solitaire, and secondly, you have just confirmed to these “people” that your email is still active, and furthermore, you DO read their mail! You just worsened your situation.
6. They guess. When spammers want something badly enough, they work hard. They will just go through a sequence of addresses, and a domain they target, and keep guessing. Well, at least their software does. They methodically try every sequence until the get you. The only defense here, is to create emails long enough, or complex enough, that they don't get to it. Or, create an elongated email by inserting "." in the name, so that it looks something like Sarahk.lastname.city.friendsname.favoritefruit@domain.com. This is long yet easier to remember then a 26 character string.
In the next entry, we’ll discuss remedies and defenses. Take note that nothing is perfect or does the whole job, however there are things you can do to minimize the problem.
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