SPAMMERS DIRTY LITTLE SECRET

Ever get those 'Chain Emails', you know the ones that say pass it on (or else...) to ten of your friends, if you pass it on to more than you will have better fortune, luck, or whatever it offers? Maybe an email that is so funny/entertaining, that you want everyone in on it? No need to answer this, I already know the answer, there is no avoiding them. It's what most people do with them that is the problem.

It is human nature to share interesting stuff that may be in common (starting back in the day of cave people story telling to the modern office gossip of today), it is how we set are place in the social hierarchy. With modern technology such as computers and internet it is ever so easy to do now. First I am not going to tell you to stop using email or don't share with your friends (it's not going to happen anyways), instead I am going to tell you how to reduce the risk of dooming yourself, colleagues and friends inbox to a flood of spam.

Here is why spam exists in the first place: Email is cheep to send (you only need an internet connection and an email program/interface). Email can be easily exploited (many options and features that support mass/bulk email). Email is unsecured and anonymous (systems can be compromised, sending sources can be faked). The list goes on, however the point is spam is here and unless something drastic changes how email works, it is not going away.

To be a successful spammer you need a real big database of VALID emails and a network of systems to distribute your product (the spam email). Valid email addresses are worth big bucks to spammers, and these chain email most originate from spammers to collect valid emails. Disguised as thoughtful or entertaining email to encourage the passing on of these messages (collecting addresses along the way). This is the stuff spammers love, free valid email addresses! People unknowingly FW email with everyone email addresses in them all the time. Emails like the ones mentioned above keeps collecting more and more valid/verified email addresses each time it is forwarded! Not only chain emails will give your buddy's address to spammers! Careless sending of office memos, news letters, or any other message that goes out to more than one recipient is gold to spammers too.

So just how does this help the spammer? Easy the spammers really are just another breed hackers, they use hacking techniques to do the dirty work of spreading spam. First they write some sort of virus that get in to someone's system, a software robot that does what ever it is told to do (hence the term 'bot'). If your system is infected with this bot and it is active in your system, your system is now considered a 'zombie' doing what ever the hacker wants it to do. I the case of the email hacker (spammer), this bot will read any and all incoming emails for email addresses, then send them off to the spammer's email database (to sell) and/or use them to send spam anonymously from the infected system. The infected system only sends a few at a time not to alert the user of the infected system. However when several hundred systems spread throughout the internet are active (a bot net), then you have hundreds of thousands of spam flooding inboxes everywhere! So now you can see the problem of sending messages around packed with email addresses.

To make the problem worse, some email software are not helping. Take MS Outlook Express for instance, when you want to forward a message, why to they have a 'Cc' (carbon copy) field in plain sight, yet hide the 'Bcc' (blind carbon copy) field? Maybe if enough people make some noise over this, maybe someone will do something about it.

Some people (if not most) don't even have a clue what Bcc even means let alone use it. Bcc (blind carbon copy) simply put is how you send email to multiple people without revealing the other email addresses you are sending to. Anyone that sends business emails should be knowing and using this, as this prevents sending out your client list email addresses to the other clients.

Let's put the spam machine on a diet!

Only forward messages that need to be forwarded or at least use 'Bcc' NOT 'To' or 'Cc' and remove ALL and ANY email addresses in the email body.

ALWAYS keep up-to-date anti-virus, anti-spyware, and a firewall that monitors both incoming and outgoing network traffic of your computer.

Ways of protecting your own inbox; when sending out any email, use an invalid reply email address like 'no-reply@yourdomain.net' .

In your message direct recipients to a web form on your web site instead of an email address. If you have to let the recipient know how to email you back, say it in a non-email-format like: my user name at my-domain dot net.

Remember  Don't sell-out your colleagues/friends email address and trust, If you must forward or send out to more than one address, please use 'Bcc' NOT 'To' or 'Cc' and remove ALL and ANY email addresses in the email body.