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The real solution is for everyone to take the problem more seriously.
 technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

T e c h n o f i l e
Are you gullible, too? If so, should you blame yourself for spam?


June 13, 2004


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2004, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2004, The Post-Standard

   Sometimes I get the answers to all of life's problems while I am sleeping.
   Take spam, for example. (Please take it!) I dreamt the other night that the only reason spam exists at all is because a lot of people are gullible.
   Don't take this the wrong way. I'm not calling you gullible. Or, rather, my dream isn't calling you gullible. It's your sister-in-law who's gullible. Right? Your neighbor. Your Uncle Marty.
   Think of it that way and it's easier on your feelings.
   In truth, of course, we are all gullible. It's a human thing. Who can resist the lure of an e-mail message that seems to be written with us in mind?
   "Hey, handsome" went the appeal of one of the messages I got last week. "I got your picture from my friend Kendra. You remember her, don't you?"
   In fact, I didn't remember this particular "Kendra," and of course this letter was just another spam. It was just another attempt to get a gullible person to click a link in an e-mail reply or on a Web page.
   But I'll be straight with you. What if I actually did know an Internet bimbo named Kendra? What if I had sat and stared at the screen wondering if this letter was legit? How many milliseconds of indecision are OK?
   If you react within a half second and hit the Delete key, does that make you less gullible than someone who reacts a quarter of a second later? How far out does the scale extend? Is five seconds OK?
   All these questions came out of my dream.
   But the only answer I got was the one that seems too hard to believe. Are we really responsible for spam? Are we like the clueless vacationer who leaves his car unlocked and then complains when someone opens the car door and steals his wallet?
   I'd have to say no. People who steal are responsible for thefts. Thieves are the bad guys.
   People who send spam are responsible for spam. We're not. They're the bad guys, and we're just humans who wonder now and then about Kendra. Or about enhancement pills. You know what I mean.
   But that still doesn't let us off the hook. Spammers are in league with the people who create viruses and worms. This means a lot of spam comes from ordinary home computers that have been infected by spam-sending robots. They hijack the computer and take it over during off hours -- at 3 a.m, maybe -- to relay spam.
   Experts who track these things say 65 percent of all spam comes from hijacked home computers. And all of them are Windows PCs. This is, so far, a Windows problem. Microsoft says one third of all Windows PCs have no antivirus software, no protection against this sort of spam-relay hijacking.
   My friends in the Macintosh user group say the solution is obvious. Everyone should use a Mac. My friends in the Linux user group say the solution is simple. Everyone should use Linux.
   But the real solution is for everyone to take the problem more seriously. If you use Windows, don't run your computer without up-to-date protection against viruses, and don't leave your computer plugged in when you're not using it. Spammers can turn on any hijacked Windows PC remotely, using a function built into the PC's BIOS (its basic operating instructions). Don't let them take over your Windows PC.
   Otherwise, the bad guys can turn you into a spammer.