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.

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.

Ever hear the old adage you get what you pay for?

There is an ever increasing number of fake Spam products that are disguised as real protection for your computer.

This is known as Scareware. It’s those little flicker boxes that jump up on your screen telling you “click here for a free trial - you’ve been infected” or some other such scare tactic.

Imagine for a moment you are walking along a bustling metropolis street and a guy jumps out at you and “Hey hey I got the real deal designer bags over here, come take a look!” he then proceeds to show you “Prada”, “Chanel”, “Fendi” and all sorts of other “real” designer bags at one one hundredth of the cost it would be in Saks or Neiman Marcus etc. Now, you may consider buying one of these bags, but you would have to know somewhere in your mind that they are fake being that they are being sold in a dark alley on a side street by a guy who clearly doesn’t look legit.

That is not unlike Scareware. So, if you imagine the little pop up boxes etc that hit your computers the way you would in real life it is likely you wouldn’t bite.

If someone offered you a free security system for your house you just have to give them a set of keys you probably wouldn’t go for it right?

You get what you pay for.

It seems like a ridiculous question.

I didn’t know it was Spam.

It looked legitimate.

I thought it was from my aunt Gertrude.

I needed to lose weight and it looked promising.

The endless list goes on and on, but the truth is marketing. You were a recipient of well planned marketing. No matter what you think the reason you responded to the Spam was the reality is you were “hooked”!

The subject line or that is was from someone who looked familiar, whatever it was you took hold of the line. That is what marketing does. Good. Bad. Legal. Illegal. All the same, it hooks you.

Would you open the front door of your house to someone who maybe looked like someone you know? NO!

If you start looking at your email as a real life communication channel, like your front door, you would think twice and stay away from the curiosity that is often just bait for bigger troubles!

Unfortunately, the answer is yes.

Often times when there is economic strife people will look for a get rich quick scheme, or buy more Lottery tickets than usual, or look for a great deal on something they are looking to buy.

In today’s economic and electronic times this means more Spam, more Spam, more Spam.

Spammers are predatory in that they don’t care who they solicit or what they solicit. They only care about their own bottom line. Not the American way, certainly not the way of a Republic, but it seems to be the growing trend in today’s modern world, an “all for one, one for none” type of an attitude, which helped with the economic collapse the world is experiencing today.

Recent surveys from the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) suggest that 80% of consumers surveyed after visiting a Spam site or responding to a Spam message in the U.S. don’t think that it is possible to get a virus, mal-ware etc., from such a visit.

This “never going to happen to me” attitude is problematic because in fact it likely will happen to anyone clicking through to a dangerous site solicited by Spam.

Further, according to the survey, most people who think that they cannot be infected are the best targets because they don’t pay attention and look for problems in their system and therefore are in a “dangerous” position.

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.

The Nigerian email scam is a spam based scam that is targeting people all over the world. The first thing you need to know about any scam is ANYONE asking for investments over email is not someone to be trusted. EVER.

The name "Nigerien Scam" came from one of the original documents which were mailed rather than emailed with postage markings from Nigeria and other African states. When it hit the email scene the name at the end of the email was often African, thus the name "Nigerien Scam" stuck.

This scam has cost people anywhere from thousands of dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Should you receive an email about the Nigerian email or 4-1-9 report it to the Better Business Bureau http://www.bbb.org/ and you can also fax a letter to your local representatives office (go on the net and look at the state in which you live dot gov dot org, eg., http://www.ca.gov/ and look up your local representative) informing them that you are a target of such Spam and that you would like legislation enacted prohibiting such offenses.

Even if this email comes from an address that you think you know it is dangerous and should be deleted.

Every ISP (Internet Service Provider) has their own rules and procedures.

The industry standard is generally thought to be that ISPs will block a sender IP address (an Internet Protocol address, which is a numerical identification that is assigned to devices participating in a computer network utilizing the protocol for communication between its computer) if it gets 1 complaint out of about 1,000 emails sent.

So, if you are getting spam, definitely report it.

Unfortunately serious spammers (of the viagra and fake watch variety) don’t send from one constant IP address. They vary it often and make it otherwise very hard to spot them, so reporting may not stop it.

The people who do use a constant IP address are generally from a real company and either don’t know better or thought they were some how above it (they did have a box you checked which said they could spam, I mean email you).

For those who are sending these emails.  Make sure people want what you are sending and you are sending what you said you would.  If you are using an old list, some of your subscribers may have forgotten about you or their email addresses may no longer be valid. There are even some subscribers who just use the complaint (”mark as spam”) button when they want to get off of a list because it is more convenient than the unsubscribe link.

So, put the unsubscribe link at the top and the bottom so that people will do that before they hit the report spam buton.

I have done this myself and sometimes feel like I am spamming my friends.  It isn’t that many names, but it still feels generic enough that i wonder.

The definition of spam per the Encarta dictionary is “an unsolicited, often commercial, message transmitted through the Internet as a mass mailing to a large number of recipients”.  So did all your friends opt-in to your mailings and want it?

Usually your friends have not, and some of them don’t want your bulk email, I am sure they even joke that you are spamming them.

So, what should you do?

Don’t spam them.

If you have something you want to tell your friends, send them an email, each one, one at a time.  If it is important enough for you to send them an individual email you will and they will appreciate it.

If it is too much work and not worth it to send them each an individual email, it was probably friend spam.