What’s in a spam? Ask Allspammedup
My father, who is 65, has been asking me lately what it is that separates spams from normal emails? The reason for him to bring this up? Some of the emails sent to him by my brother-in-law have ended up in his
GMail mailbox’s spam folder. That those mails were a part of a long chain of forwarded emails is a different point altogether, but what is important is that my father is curious about spam.
I am sure there are others (among them, the readers of this website) who are similarly curious about spams. Now, since I run a website on spams and other similar subjects, I found it relatively easier to explain the term to my father. I am not sure many people will be able to do the same. Sure, there are many of us who know that spam is unsolicited email that unknown people with sometimes bizzare names send to us. We know that our email service providers very generously provide us with spam filters that separates them from normal emails. We also know that these spam filters sometimes fail to weed out spams. What more do we need to know?
You’ll be surprised at how much you didn’t know. Did you, for example, know that spamming is a multi-billion dollar industry? Or that most of the spams that infiltrate your mailboxes are not sent by humans at all? Yes, that’s right… they are, in fact, sent by computers that have been zombified by malware. It’s quite fascinating.
Why am I writing about this? Well, it seems my cut and dry explanations could not satisfy my father. So I started looking on the net for something he would find more interesting, and obviously, more informative. This made me stumble upon All Spammed Up.
All spammed up is an anti spam blog. It not only explains the spam phenomenon, but also provides regular updates on the newest of spams. I would advise all my readers to take a look at what this site has to offer, because personally, I feel it is important to stay on top of things like this.
Spam is a social engineering methodology. A well written spam has been known to entice people into giving up their bank account, or social security numbers. It is not always easy to distinguish between a spam and an authentic email, and people have fallen prey to such laughable baits as the Nigerian inheritance scam.
All spammed up gives you the tools and information you need to spruce up your email security and avoid getting conned by spams. The one vulnerability of spam emails is that they are sent out in large numbers at a time. Websites like All spammed up keeps track of every new spam email that goes out en-masse and alerts you about them. You can also discuss suspicious emails in the comments section of the website. You will find many others like you who will be visiting to find a sounding board for suspicious emails.
I found the articles on business anti spam (especially the updates on the myspace spam lawsuit), especially interesting. If you are a small business owner, you might consider subscribing to the AllSpammedUp newsletter/RSS Feed to get regular updates. It’s one thing to have mail in your personal mailbox, and another thing to have all your corporate email’s precious bandwidth clogged up by spam emails.
So the next time you find an email informing you that you have won the UK state lottery worth £1000,0000, you can always put a brake on the temptation of clicking on the CLAIM IT link and head over to all spammed up to find out whether you are really that lucky. Although it may dishearten you to find out that the mail was a fraud, you will be saved from much graver fortune that you might have encountered had you believed in that spam.
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