Need replies on internet spam

[ambika_parmar]

Hi everyone,
Iam new to this forum. I have few queries regarding internet spamming. I hope i'll get positive replies.
My queries are as follows:-
1) i often hear people talk about spamming and scamming, is there a difference or the two of these are alike?
2) what exactly means "spam"?
3) what is the problem with spam?
4)what are ISP's doing about spam and what can i do about it?
5)what is government doing about spam?
6)Is there any efficient way, if anyone knows, to reduce spam to its minimum?

Please Please, i shall be greatly thankful if i get as many replies as i could in reference to my online poll regarding internet spam.

lots of thanks in advance.
Ambika

[RosieD]

1) i often hear people talk about spamming and scamming, is there a difference or the two of these are alike?
Spam is for instance unwanted mail that is sent to your email account, or else posts made on forums by people who are not real members and have no intention of being part of your community. Scams are things that you get taken in by.
2) what exactly means "spam"?
See above.
3) what is the problem with spam?
It frequently contains graphic images that are unsuitable for minors.
4)what are ISP's doing about spam and what can i do about it?
They aren't doing a whole lot, but for your forums you can use things like captcha to try and keep them out. For email, report any offending mails to your provider (there will be a button to do this).
5)what is government doing about spam?
From the US it is illegal, but they can't stop it from elsewhere.
6)Is there any efficient way, if anyone knows, to reduce spam to its minimum?
Not really-its a battle that has been fought for years.

[mawells]

1) i often hear people talk about spamming and scamming, is there a difference or the two of these are alike?
SPAM is unsolicited email (usually) and scam is fraud. Someone has "duped" you into responding to a phony claim.

2) what exactly means "spam"? I'm not sure if it's an anagram for anything, but generally it means unsolicited email.

3) what is the problem with spam? Besides filling up your inbox it can overwhelm a server causing it to go into a "denial of service" mode to protect itself from crashing. When it is forced into "denial of service" mode all websites and emails on the server go down.

4)what are ISP's doing about spam and what can i do about it?
ISP's frequently subscribe to spammer lists and try to "mark" spam. Different providers will do different things. Huge amounts of spam going or coming from one address will get the ISP's attention and they mail shut down the account. You can set filters in your email to block spam, subscribe to a service like Postini, and use capcha on your website forms.

5)what is government doing about spam? As stated above, it is illegal in the US to send SPAM, but there is some differing opinions on what constitutes spam. Not all unsolicited email is actually spam - some may be from companies that you do business with.


6)Is there any efficient way, if anyone knows, to reduce spam to its minimum? Not really.

[juliansr]

1) i often hear people talk about spamming and scamming, is there a difference or the two of these are alike?

<b>These are alike, except that spam may in fact carry legitimate advertisements while scamming is an illegal attempt to trick someone out of their money/property using lies and manipulation. </b>


2) what exactly means "spam"?

<b>Thus the meaning of the term at least: something that keeps repeating and repeating to great annoyance. see Origin of the term "spam" to mean net abuse </b>

3) what is the problem with spam?

<b>It's the same problem as TV commercials, it gets in the way of what you really are interested in by advertising things you dont want. It's annoying and takes up lots of bandwidth on the web that could be used for more productve things</b>


4)what are ISP's doing about spam and what can i do about it?

<b> ISPs use filtering systems that edit for content and also use HELO handshaking to verify that servers are indeed who they say they are(and not spoofed). </b>


5)what is government doing about spam?

<b> delegating responsibility to the senders by making sending these types of solicitations illegal and suing the senders in class action style lawsuits for potentially millions of dollars</b>


6)Is there any efficient way, if anyone knows, to reduce spam to its minimum?

<b> you can use a gateway appliance or mailserver that uses challenge-response sender verification methods to verify that email coming into your server is from real people by having them confirm their identity once, allowing all subsequent mail in without issue</b>

[akanemd]

Here are a few supplemental answers.

The problem with SPAM- All the emails have to be addressed. Either you have to filter them out so they never get to your in box or you have to delete them manually. The problem with filtering the email is that you are going to miss emails that you really want to get. The problem with doing it by hand is that it eats away at your time and eventually you are going to miss import emails.

What can you do about it? Do not have any html coded email links on your web site. If you want to put a clickable email address on your site, put it in Java Script. Alternatively, use a help desk for people to contact you. Just be sure to use a CAPTCHA script to eliminate robot posts.

I was getting about 1000 SPAM emails a day. Doing these two things I now get less than 10 a day.

Good luck.

Anthony Kane, MD

Get ADD ADHD Child Treatment, Behavior, and Medication Help
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[Hometutor]

Quite often I see people confuse spam with a commercial answer to an email. Just because a solution offered costs money doesn't mean it's spam. It must also basically be off topic and completely unsolicited for a reasonable person to consider it spam

Rick

[claybutler]

For reducing spam I've had very good luck with Spam Assasin filters on the server side followed up with a well trained Thunderbird boolean logic filter on my mail client side. I get at least 300 spam email a day. Spam Assasin catches about half and my Thunderbird catches (automatically redirects them to my Junk folder) about 90% of what's left. As long as you don't set your Spam Assasin too aggressively and you properly train your boolean filter on your email client you can get the junk that makes it through down to spam levels you would have seen in 1999...and with NO false positives.

[zbatia]

Ambika,
I believe you need to write the esse about the spam and asking the basic questions in a hope that gurus will do this job for you. I am sorry if I am wrong but based on how you wrote the questions, you need it not for yourself but for your professor.
There are many sources on the net that cover spamming and scamming, just Google it or go to Wikipedia.
If you really want to know more, perhaps take a look at my blog where I cover it in details introduciong my method to fight with it.
1) Secure Cyber: * My War with the SPAM
2) Secure Cyber: My war with a Spam. Continue...
3) Secure Cyber: Update to SPAM text file has been posted

[astro]

Originally Posted by RosieD

1) 5)what is government doing about spam?
From the US it is illegal, but they can't stop it from elsewhere.

The biggest problem with spam is there is so much of it out there it slows down and clutters up the internet by using resources which could be otherwise employed. I read somewhere that over 80% of mail traffic is spam, but I cannot verify this. Another interesting fact is it may be on the statute books as illegal in the US, but I notice every time a hurricane hits the US east coast, spam drops in my mailbox for a few days.

ISP's providing blanket filters from known spamming addresses can also cause problems to innocent mail senders if their email address has been hijacked. On a personal level I have a problem when in Greece emailing anyone with a tiscali or BTconnect email address, the ISPs have banned Greek IP's, there are a couple of other smaller ISP's which off the top of my head I cannot recall. It's a real pain.

On a very personal level I would happily shoot both knee caps of all who use spam as a marketing tool, without compunction.

That said we are our own downfall as too many cannot resist the temptation to open and read it (my own partner included) and then click on the links. By doing this you confirm an active email address thus propagate the spam culture and your own spam increases. If we all just deleted spam as it comes in it would stop. Why bother if it does not work. Sadly we are by nature curious and that tag line got us interested.........

Spam succeeds on the Internet because of one thing only, as individuals we are all unique thus unpredictable. As a Species (Homo Sapiens) we are all 100% totally predictable.

/Astro

[jabo]

I would rather be spammed than scammed.

[govindseo]

Originally Posted by ambika_parmar

Hi everyone,
Iam new to this forum. I have few queries regarding internet spamming. I hope i'll get positive replies.
My queries are as follows:-
1) i often hear people talk about spamming and scamming, is there a difference or the two of these are alike?
2) what exactly means "spam"?
3) what is the problem with spam?
4)what are ISP's doing about spam and what can i do about it?
5)what is government doing about spam?
6)Is there any efficient way, if anyone knows, to reduce spam to its minimum?

Please Please, i shall be greatly thankful if i get as many replies as i could in reference to my online poll regarding internet spam.

lots of thanks in advance.
Ambika

Hi,
read this article here good tips about SPAM: Tips to Beat SEO Spam
Thanks!

[knoxtenn]

According to Internet law, it is acceptable to send unsolicited emails provided you include your company name, address, phone number, and a legitimate method for people to request removal from your list. Although a good business will work hard and for a long period of time to obtain subscribers to its mailing list, it is not illegal to send unsolicited emails as long as you follow the above mentioned standards.

I have a mailing list of over 150,000 subscribers. It has taken me over 12 years to build that list.

Spam is not "sending unsolicited emails." Spam is where you do not follow government guidelines in so doing.

Last year it cost me over $70,000 to change all of my online forms over to captcha. I have over 58 active domains with lots of online forms. The amount of spam was overwhelming. Now I get very little spam.

Federal and state governments do not have budgets to go after spammers. It is extremely costly to find the spammers. I think if we continue to keep our eyes and ears open, we can spot these people and turn them over to law enforcement. For example, a man visited my Sunday School class a couple of years ago. A member of the class was requesting prayer for a friend of hers who could not afford to buy needed medication. The visitor chimed in that she could give his name to her friend because he sells cheap drugs online which he gets from a doctor friend. How illegal is that?!!! He also said he gets business by sending out tons of emails to people. I contacted church staff the following day, but they did not want to pursue the matter. I should have gotten his business card and turned him in to the feds myself.