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Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

T e c h n o f i l e
Why spam is a big problem, and how to know if you're doing the right thing


June 1, 2003


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2003, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2003, The Post-Standard

   My articles on fighting the scourge of spam prompted many of you to write with questions and comments. Here is a sampling, reworded to make the questions and comments more general.
   
   Q: Why do spammers send us all this junk mail?
   A: Because it pays.
   Spammers are mass marketers. Instead of buying ads in the newspaper or on TV, spammers send ads to your screen. This is extremely cheap, especially since a lot of spammers don't pay anything for mailing.
   One trick they sometimes use is to plant spyware on Windows PCs that relays mail. They can then send a few hundred spam e-mails a day each to a few thousand "captured" Windows computers, which relay the mail as if it came from the mail accounts of the hijacked Windows computers.
   Experts on spam usually figure that spammers make money if only one recipient out of a thousand falls for the bait. Success isn't measured by a sale; it's gauged by a positive response. Simply clicking on a link in a spam e-mail is enough in most cases.
   Most computer users fail to manage Web-browser cookies -- used by spammers to find your real e-mail address, among other tricks -- and only a few block so-called Web bugs, the invisible files that spammers use to find out what pages you opened and when you opened them.
   Armed with this kind of personal information, spammers usually don't care if you are only lurking instead of buying. They get a confirmed e-mail address and a confirmed computer location (the IP address) just from that single click you made to do some "window shopping." (My advice: Don't ever click on a link in spam.)
   
   Q: Some spam blockers give you ways to return the mail to the sender with your address marked as invalid. Is this a good idea?
   A: Returning mail to spammers is a bad idea. We seldom know the true return address -- it's almost always faked -- so all you're doing is picking on someone whose Windows PC was unknowingly hijacked, if the address actually leads anywhere, or you're taxing the mail servers by trying to send to an address that doesn't exist.
   
   Q: Some of the latest spam blockers ask senders to manually confirm their intentions before their mail will be accepted. The spam blocker on the recipient's computer blacks unverified mail until the sender asks for, and then receives, approval from the recipient. Doesn't that make sense?
   A: Yes and no. The idea is to stop all unauthorized automated mass mailings, and the system does that very well. Spammers and others who send out hundreds of thousands of letters an hour would never find time to respond to the "challenge" in such a "challenge-response" system. (Imagine what would happen to junk e-mail if every low-life who sends bulk mail was forced to click through a separate form for every letter the spammer sent out.)
   But imagine your Aunt Hazel clicking through such a form when she tries to send you the driving directions to the July 4th picnic. Imagine your Kiwanis newsletter, sent out by the club's overworked secretary, never arriving because the club can't spend the time to fill out 400 forms.
   Systems that rely on closed e-mail correspondence, in which the only mail you get is from pre-approved senders, turn e-mail into private messaging. I think that's a very bad idea.
   
   Q: Sometimes spam letters say you can unsubscribe by filling out a form at a Web site. That seems fair. If you don't want the spam, you can get off the list. Right?
   A: You never "subscribed," so how could you "unsubscribe"? You're simply a victim of a spammer. When you receive broadcast spam, which is sent out blindly, hoping for a few hits, the worst thing you can do is respond. When you click a link in the mistaken notion that you're telling the spammer to take you off a list you never willingly joined, you're just confirming your e-mail address. Don't do it.