The Horrors of Spam (and I Don’t Mean the Canned Meat)

I don’t know about you, but I am the recipient of a LOT of Spam. In my personal Yahoo email, my Spam folder is constantly full, and sneaky messages always manage to creep their way into my inbox. In my work account via Outlook/Gmail, the filter is a bit better, and most Spam is delivered directly to the junk folder. But all the ridiculous nonsense never ceases to amaze me, from ads for Viagra and other prescription meds to just plain gibberish. And I’m not one to input my email address into insecure online forms or give it away to organizations that will sell my info.

So, I often find myself wondering – what’s the point of all this junk, and where does it come from?

I mean, is anyone actually going to click on something that looks like the following (a message currently sitting in my junk folder)? (HINT: Do not visit the link below )

Discount id:

82755-56938-64661-68029

<br>

<br>

<a href=”http://phwviagra.net/”>http://phwviagra.net”>

http://phwviagra.net.net

</a>

I think not. Well, a recent CNN article sourcing several studies answered a few of my questions.

1. According to a study by IT security and control firm Sophos, the US is number one when it comes to Spam, producing 13% of the garbage mail across the globe. Surprised?
2. According to another study by Symantec, the majority (36.6%) of targeted malware sent in March 2010 originated in the U.S.
3. According to Sophos, Spam is responsible for 97% of all email received by business email servers.

I was blown away by these numbers.What an utter and complete waste of time and resources!

The article also outlines how most Spam is delivered – via computers that are infected, while their owners are none the wiser. Malware is one sneaky beast.

So what are the solutions? Well – there are two main ones, according to CNN.

One, keep up to date anti-virus software on your computer. This is the only way to stay protected and make sure you’re not unwittingly delivering Spam to others.

And two, don’t buy products sold via Spam. Period. No matter how tempting that gibberish email may sound … just say NO, and maybe over time we’ll all be able to squash the Spam monster from clogging our inboxes and wasting our server’s time and energy. To read even more about Spam, check out the article on CNN.com.

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