Internet Defense Technologies

Did you blind cc them????? If not, I would guess ALL your friends would call it spam!

There is nothing more annoying than having your email blasted to a bunch of people you don’t know and likely don’t want to know!

However, if you sent an email with a blind copy, you probably did okay and no, it isn’t really spam. At least most of your friends will think so, though there are bound to be a few who feel a little spammed.

Spam is technically classified as an unwanted, unsolicited email from a non recognizable source, in other words people emailing you and a massive number of other people who don’t know the emailer and never asked to be emailed.

Make sense?

You should check with your friends and see if they mind getting occasional blasts from you and anyone who does mind, take them off your list.  Then, stay away from the “cc” line on a mass email, it is just the more polite thing to do.

Spam emails often contain certain types of virues, mal ware, etc., that can infect your computer, but in order to infect your computer you have to OPEN them.

Imagine you knew a person who had AIDS. Would you rub an open sore to a bloody sore on their body? Of course not.

I know it’s graphic, but the reality is that is not unlike the viruses your computer can get. It is a matter of life and death to your computer.

Spyware, in an instant, can rape your computer of vital information and take that information and deplete your savings or open credit card accounts in your name only to destroy your credit.

In today’s day and age, when electronics are so prevalent in our society the undoing of such viruses is so time consuming it sometimes can take years for someone to repair the damage done.

So, just let those spam emails die in your trash can and keep your computer and yourself safe.

There is a new study out which offers some evidence that spam mass mailings can generate sales at a notable rate.

Results show that in the weight-loss category, a significant percentage receiving spam-mail pitches purchased the products.

• 18.5% of those who described themselves as suffering from weight issues bought products
• 5% of those without those hurdles purchased them.

Even, the lesser 5% conversion rate dwarfs direct mail and likely much of so-called permission-based email.

Open rates were also high:

• 40%-plus of those with weight problems opened messages
• 18% of those without weight troubles opened the messages

Helps to answer why people keep sending spam out.

The study appears in the latest issue of the Southern Medical Journal and was conducted by Joshua Fogel, an associate professor in the Brooklyn College economics department, and Sam Shlivko, a former student at the college.

More information:

Losing Argument: Study Finds Spam Works For Weight Loss Pitches

Spam Works for Weight Loss

Malware:  This is a term that is a compound word formed from Malicious and software. Shortened to MalWare.

The word Mal comes from the Latin word Malus which means bad. Ware is usually used to refer a kind or class of merchandise or of a manufactured item like, silverware; glassware, software.

The derivation of this is Germanic and is a literal translation of the word ware.

So, basically this new mad up word means any type of software that is malicious in nature that could cause harm to your computer. This type of software is easily downloaded by visiting a site that offers “free” things. If your computer is not protected by a service that guards against this type of activity you may find an infected computer that no longer operates up to par.

Every year or two, Ferris Research updates its estimates for the total cost of spam, earlier this year they did the 2009 estimates .

Their estimates: "Worldwide, spam will cost us all $130 billion; in the U.S. alone, $42 billion. That’s a 30% increase over our 2007 estimates, which themselves were a 100% increase over our 2005 figures."

They further explain the breakdown of where this is costing money:

• User productivity cost (deleting spam, looking for false positives, etc.): 85%
• Help desk cost (IT helping end users deal with spam): 10%
• Spam control software/hardware/service (licensing fees, amortized capital costs, etc.): 5%

Well with Total Mail Defense making it so you have don’t have to delete spam or look for false positives that reduces that amount by 85%.

I am feeling pretty good about our assistance in helping the economy by reducing the money wasted.

Just one of our systems blocked 13.1 million messages in one week.

That equaled 99% of all traffic sent through it!  Meaning that our customers servers never had to bear that load and this barrage never slowed down their systems.

With 1% of email making it past our first level of filtering, another 27% were blocked at the next stage.

Through all of this, not one legitimate email was blocked.

This is WAY more than usual amounts of traffic, email spam is definitely not slowing down.

Some really fun and good articles to read:

Computerworld article - Top 10 spam-friendly registrars named and shamed

Computerworld article - Undercover: The Company that Did Everything Wrong

Salt Lake Tirbune - Nigerian web scam bilked Utah out of $2.5M

That honor goes to Angelina Jolie who is the most popular celebrity name used by spammers to tempt people into opening unsolicited email, according to new research.

The other famous figures in the top 10 table ranged from those well-known internet favourites Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, to less obviously appealing figures like Hillary Clinton and Osama bin Laden.

Spammers use the names of celebrities - frequently with a sexual twist - to encourage people to open emails which often contain damaging viruses.

Spam email bait top 10:
1) Angelina Jolie
2) Barack Obama
3) Paris Hilton
4) Britney Spears
5) Jessica Simpson
6) Hillary Clinton
7) George W Bush
8) Osama Bin Laden
9) Brad Pitt
10) Michael Jackson

Original article: Angelina Jolie most popular spam email ‘bait’ from UK Telegraph

Saw a report from the Federal Trade Commissions (FTC) recently released a list of the top email scams:
1. Advance Fee Fraud
2. Phishing
3. Check Overpayment Scams
4. Work-at-Home Scams
5. Weight Loss Claims
6. Foreign Lotteries
7. Cure-all products
8. Investment Schemes
9. Pay-in-Advance Credit Offers
10. Debt Relief

You can forward any emails you get on this to spam@uce.gov

Forbes also did a list of the top scams which all of which can be done via email. There list was:
1. Home Construction
2. Bait and Switch Mortgage
3. Fake Check
4. Internet Coaching Services
5. Layaway Loans/Payday Loans

Hopefully these lists will help you be aware of what can come to your email box and that it should just be deleted. Don’t get trapped in one of these scams.

When I tell people that I work for an email spam company, one of the first and most surprising questions I get asked (after how do I stop the spam) is why do spammers spam.

Well, results from a new survey by Marshal show that 29% of respondents to a recent survey admitted they made purchases from spam messages. This is up from 2004 where only 20% admitted to doing so.

That pretty much says it all, unfortunately, spammers do it for the money and enough people buy stuff or get caught by the scams to make it worth their while to keep going.

My objective, educate everyone I met on email spam, how not to get caught, not to respond and definitely not to buy. Really in the end, if we hit the spammers where it counts (in the back pocket) they will eventually give up.