The New Generation of Spam

Spam celebrated its 30th birthday last month and it's doubtful that anyone that ever owned an email address is singing its praises. In May 1978, 393 employees of Arpanet received the first ever spam email in history from another company called Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) advertising their new computer systems.

Arpanet, a predecessor of the internet, was used by the U.S. Air Force for security research and intended for official government business only. So these unsolicited bulk commercial ads were seen as a blatant violation of the use of Arpanet and it was determined that appropriate action would be taken to prevent its occurrence ever again. That was then... and obviously more wishful thinking than fact.

Thirty years later, sending billions of unwanted emails every day, spammers are trying to sell everything from Viagra to alopecia and weight loss treatments or anything else that might obtain money or personal data from users through deception. The word Spam once only referred to a strange form of meat in a can, but the term was later applied to junk email, referencing a comedy skit from Monty Python's Flying Circus, where all meals in a restaurant come with spam, spam and more spam. Junk email has since become the principal meaning of the word spam. Plentiful but not quite so tasty.

The number of spam emails has grown steadily over the past five years and according to recent data, over 92 percent of all e-mails sent in the first three months of 2008 could be classified as spam. Google, for example, has found that users of its email service, Gmail, receive four times more spam today than they did 2004 and the over all trend is only expected to continue upward.

The methods used by companies to send spam have changed a lot in the last three decades. Thirty years ago the senders of spam email had to type in each address by hand, while today powerful software programs known as botnets perform this task at amazing speed, sending out billions of unsolicited emails a day. But spam took a new step in its evolution in 2005 with the use of images such as GIFs and JPEGs which can easily escape anti-spam programs developed to sort through the text content of an e-mail message.

Spammers have continued to find ingenious ways to circumvent the spam filters, including the use of Word documents and other complex file types such as PowerPoint, PDF and zip files. Compressing the spam into ZIP files renders the e-mail unreadable by security gateways and other spam prevention software because a zip file can only be read once it is decompressed, or unzipped.

On of the more recent trends being used by spammers to get the message through is with the use of the MP3 format. The audio files are actually disguised as music by top musicians, which is usually just enough bait to get most people to open them. Stock spammers in particular have been using this method to convince the email recipient to invest in some obscure stock. Again as with most attachments anti-spam filters do not handle attachments very well because they can't analyze the attachment content.

So why do spammers put so much time and effort into designing such complex files, complete with images and even audio, if the spam can simple be passed through as a text file? While money is always the initial motivation there is apparently the challenge of beating the anti-spam establishment. Spammers admit that spam filters make their job more difficult but at the same time they take pride in the fact that they have never come across a spam filter that they couldn't get around.

Anti-spam technology has made some great advances in the last few years, but stamping out spam has proved far more difficult than originally imagined. Spam filters can give users a sense of false confidence. They can do their job very well but at the same time that can catch some important documents and for a business this can mean considerable financial loss.

As long as a faction of spam recipients not only open these emails but actually purchase product or service or fall for the various scams involved, spam will continue to flourish. But an educated internet consumer can go a long way in helping to quell that growth.

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Why Does Your Business Need a Spam Filter?

Spam plagues email inboxes around the globe. The cost of spam for businesses and individuals can be steep. From unwanted solicitations to identity theft, spam is a serious issue. Endless hours are spent on spam damage control. A spam filter helps to eliminate these annoying and potentially dangerous communications.

Recently Ferris Research revealed the worldwide cost of spam totaled $100 billion in 2007. A spam filter makes life easier by clearing up files. Spam protection also helps ward off possible viruses that may be lurking within suspicious emails.

Almost 100 billion spam emails are sent out everyday. A large number of these emails are sent from botnets or zombie networks. Spam communications include sales of products and services, pornographic content and viruses that can seriously damage your computer system.

More than a quarter of all corporate email received is spam. It takes an average of five seconds to delete a spam email. Hours are wasted deleting spam correspondence when employees could be spending their time performing more productive tasks. A spam filter saves your business time and money by filtering out the majority of these undesirable emails.

Your email address is often posted on your business website. While this makes it easy for customers to contact you, it also leaves your business open to receiving spam. Consider using an alternate email address on your business website so your everyday email box is not overflowing with spam. Have a spam filter in place to filter out the most offensive correspondence.

Make sure you never open spam emails. When you open spam emails, you are likely to receive more or even be the target of a vicious virus. Warn employees to delete spam emails without opening them. Use a spam filter to minimize the problem of processing spam.

Viruses can compromise private corporate data and even cause identity theft. Protecting your business and your customers is of key importance. To have a successful online business, customers need to feel secure about your operations. Getting rid of spam helps your business maintain a higher level of security.

Your business is more productive when less spam is filling its inboxes. For a minimal monthly cost, a spam filter will help to get rid of offensive correspondence. Email should save time and not waste it. Get a spam filter to regain valuable business time and eliminate the threat of unwanted emails.

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Yahoo Email Message Headers - How Do You Find Them?

Few people in the world enjoy receiving unwanted email. Whether it's annoying spam of any variety or something more sinister, sometimes it's only natural to want to know where those unknown emails are coming from. However, if you want to learn more about a strange email address, you might not know where to begin. One place to start is by looking into the email headers of the message in question. Email headers are computer code attached to emails that tell computers where the message is coming from and where it's going. Here's how to implement Yahoo mail to find and use email headers to research unknown emails.

Finding email headers with Yahoo mail is easy. If you're using the New Yahoo Mail, simply view the message you want to open, and look for the words "Compact Header." By clicking on the down facing arrow just to the right of these words, a menu will pop up allowing you to choose "Full Headers." The email headers you are looking will pop up in a new window. If you're using the Yahoo Mail Classic, you can still find email headers, but it requires a few more steps. Choose the "Options" link for the menu bar, and then choose "General Preferences." Find the paragraph entitled "Messages," then locate the "Show Headers" heading and choose "All." Now, go back to your inbox and view the message you're interested in learning about. The full email headers should now be visible.

Finding the email headers is only the first step. Now you have to find out what they mean. Email headers can be tough to decipher because they are meant to be read by computers, not people. If you're trying to figure out email headers, the first thing you should look for is the phrase "Received: from." This phrase occurs every time the message is sent from one computer to another. The first time the phrase was written is actually the last one visible in the headers. Find the "Received: from" closest to the bottom of the headers, and look closely at that line. Next to "Received: from" there's usually a multi-digit number separated with periods. This is the IP address of the computer that originated the message. IP addresses are Internet identification codes that help computers find each other. You can use this IP address to learn more about the computer that sent the message, and possibly the person behind it.

Of course Yahoo email headers aren't the only way to find out more about a mystery message. If you need to find out who owns a Yahoo email address, you can use a reverse email search. Reverse email searches are services that provide information about unknown email addresses quickly and easily. No matter which method you choose, now you should have a better idea what resources are available to you on the Internet.

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Are You Experiencing Excessive Pop-Ups?

Personally I hate Pop-ups. They are everywhere!! They are taking over our computers and the internet. It seems like every single website is shooting them at you. Are you experiencing excessive pop-ups? Are you getting pop-ups on the majority of the sights you visit? Are you getting them when your internet browser isn't even on? If this is the case, pop ups will be the least of your worries. There is a good chance that you have spyware on your computer. I had the exact same problem.

Spyware is a program that is downloaded surreptitiously (secretly) on your computer without your approval. What this program does is spy on you. This is dangerous because it has the ability to track everything you do. It will know which sites you visit, your email content, instant messages, passwords, and it can even obtain credit card numbers if you make a purchase online. Spyware can also have negative effects on your computer. Some of these include, your computer will run slower, it will do wacky things that make it seem like your computer has a mind of its own, constant freezing, and ultimately the destruction of your system. The scary thing is how common it is. 90% of personal computers are said to be infected with this sneaky, little monster.

Some of the other ways to detect spyware besides excessive pop-ups include, your computer runs noticeably slower, it freezes often, your computer seems like it has a mind of its own, your home page will change to an unfamiliar sites, and lastly nothing because some spyware is undetectable. This is the most dangerous because there are no signs of its existence. To diagnose this type of spyware you can get a scan of your system.

There are a lot of anti-spyware companies that will scan your computer for free. If your computer does have it, in order to remove it, you need to obtain anti spyware program. It is best to stay away from the free programs because many have turned out to be actual spyware. Be cautious of what you click because the sneaky menace is everywhere. If you are tired of too many pop ups, and are experiencing these other symptoms you should tend to them right away. They only get worse. Just remember that excessive pop-ups may be the least of your worries.

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Reverse Email Search - Here is a Great Way to Stop Annoying Spam

The Internet and e-mail access have opened up an entirely new universe of communication and convenient discourse to millions. However, all the good they seem to provide can be spoiled by nothing more than an inbox full of spam e-mails. These days, those unwanted and unsolicited e-mails are more than just a nuisance, many of them are illegal.

So how do you go about reducing or eliminating the spam you receive? There are number of things you can do, including conducting a reverse e-mail search.

First, make sure your spam filter for your e-mail is turned on. This will allow you to flag unwanted e-mails, resulting in unsolicited senders being blacklisted and blocked from your account.

You can also report spam to your system administrator, who will able to eliminate the problem. Contacting the Internet provider of the offending e-mails can also be extremely helpful. These providers do not want to be a facilitator of spam, so they are likely to take steps to drop the offending customers.

In addition, you can report unwanted e-mails and spam to the federal government. Make sure you have a copy of the unsolicited e-mail, as well the e-mail address, to send to the proper authorities. Having the name and address of the person or agency that is sending the unwanted e-mails can help expedite the process of ensuring you don't receive them anymore.

A number of Web sites offer reverse e-mail searches that can give you additional information about the offending "spammer." These sites normally offer their services for only a nominal fee. This additional information will speed up the process of helping you rid yourself of spam.

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Stopping Spam in the Era of Social Networks

The rise of sites like Facebook and MySpace has brought surprising challenges for those who want to share their personal information with friends and colleagues. While these sites take great pains to make sure their users are all real humans, it is perhaps unsurprising that spammers have found ways to harness these sites and cause problems for unsuspecting users.

In the past five years, the amount of email spam worldwide has increased by nearly five times. During the same time span, in spite of efforts to enact strong do-not-call list legislation in most countries, those same spammers are harvesting users' private information in order to make phone calls -- frequently to cellphones -- advertising unwanted products and services.

Many services exist to identify and block email spam. Bad emails are increasingly hard to identify because spammers have improved techniques aimed at bypassing filters. Still, collaborative filtering, where users across the Internet identify which emails are spam, is an effective tool for removing spam from most people's inboxes. So, the impact of harvesting personal details from social-networking sites is much less pronounced that it otherwise would be for email.

A different situation exists for those with cellphones and landlines which might receive unsolicited telemarketer phone calls. These calls are almost never invited, and in many cases the recipient has registered with the appropriate do-not-call list to prevent such a call from even coming in.

While many social networks do not allow users to provide phone numbers, with the rise of mobile-phone usage for social networking via SMS, such services are becoming more common. Alongside them, spam text messages and actual phone calls have doubled in frequency in the past five years.

Luckily, there exist services like collaborative email spam filters for telephone spammers. By sharing information based on what the caller said, and the actual phone number the person called from, online users are fighting back to block these calls. One of the most successful of such sites is Telemarketer Catcher, a free social network where users can exchange their experiences with solicitors and spam callers.

Take Extra Precautions and Stop Spam   The Scourge of Spam and How to Tackle It   Spam Filtering For Small Businesses - Increase Productivity and Protect Your Data   Ways to Fight Fraud   Secret Techniques to Stop Spam That Work Every Time   Email Spam Blocker - Free Up Space in Your Inbox