Spammers are everywhere! They are like that annoying fly that keeps buzzing around you and sometimes making you smack yourself in the face as you try to swat them away. In the internet world, spammers usually operate through email, in which they obtain these email addresses through searching for web pages that may have unprotected lists of subscribers, forum post and other similar subscriptions that requests email information. They are annoying just as the buzzing fly and can cause much frustration amongst the masses. Spam mail can deter people from wanting to even check their email messages in fear of being bombarded by these pesky annoyances. However, an even bigger issue is the fact that it is nearly impossible to make the spammers and their spam mail go away. So just how does one combat this type of privacy invasion? Well, one step by a certain company has started putting a dent on this process of spamming.
Many companies with their primary business revolving around email marketing and email campaigns often use software that combats the use of spam mail with such tools and methods as disallowing the use of unsolicited emails addresses, non-use of duplicate messages and various other types of software tools that is designed to notice certain qualities of spammers and their spamming emails, where detection will lead to heavy consequences. Even the federal government has became involved with the passing of the CAN Spam Act that has many restrictions on the use of spam and also considers this annoying bombardment on people as a federal offense.
ImageShack is a hosting site of images like Flickr and other image hosting sites. The company has designed a tool that replaces the popup images in spam mail with caution and warning alerts that give such statements as; “This is a scam!” or “Do not send money or you will lose it!” This system is used in conjunction with the already detecting spam email tools and simply provides an added incentive to the reader to know that they are clearly being solicited faulty advertisements that hold no merit. This can prove to be especially detrimental to the spammers themselves, as they would see a major decline in dishonest sales and revenue, due to the exposure of their various scams via such programs and tools as provided by ImageShack.
This isn’t a definite deterrence from the problem and isn’t a sure problem solver as a whole, especially as these spammers are more than likely to derive a new way to loophole around these protections. However, the alerts of such spam emails can be beneficial for many whom may not be able to detect some of the more savvy spam mail messages that they receive and potentially become victim through the use of their personal information like demographic and banking information. Outright knowing that certain email advertisements are purely spam mail will certainly lessen the blow of these spammers and help toward the protection and piece of mind of others.
Further protection from spammers can be taken from the general public themselves. Some key things to remember and take notice of include:
1. Check privacy policies of websites and pages that require personal information such as email addresses. Often a site with forum posts or commenting will ask for such information, but they will also inform the user that their information will be kept private and not be shared amongst third parties.
2. Be aware of websites that uses a lot of cookies and pop-ups, as third party vendors like spammers use these tools as an avenue for retrieving email addresses. Internet service providers are often equipped with various firewalls that automatically detect such issues of cookies and pop-ups and will display web pages in a “protected mode” unless personally requested by the user not to. Some web pages require that you enable cookies for full use of their website, as these sites are ones to be mindful of. Do not grant rights to sites that are not trusted.
3. Before handing over personal information on websites, it can be a good idea to contact the site owner and question their integrity regarding the use of personal information, if this information is not readily available. However, a site where it is hard to find this type of information is highly likely to use and sell your personal information, such as your email address, to third parties for their own personal use.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12450348, BBC News
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ImageShack, WikiPedia
