Spam and scams

“Spam”: the name given to unsolicited bulk electronic mail sent indiscriminately to millions of people, mostly for advertising purposes but many are also “scams”, confidence tricks that aim to abuse weaknesses in  human  nature.

 

 

Typical spam messages are easily recognized – do you really want to buy medication without a prescription from an unknown supplier who may be located somewhere far away and certainly in a remote jurisdiction who, having taken your money will send you nothing or a fake product. Of course there also many who are legitimate and will fulfill your order but how do you know in advance?

 

Scams are numerous and some are well thought out – they may tell you that the nephew of a minister in a distant country needs to transfer millions of dollars to another country and that if you help them there will be a large fee… except that they need you to give them some money in advance to facilitate the process. Incredible as this may sound, hundreds of people continue to fall for such scams.

 

A more sophisticated one uses the compromised e-mail address (and contacts list) of someone you know to send you a message that they were mugged during their travels, lost their passports, money and telephones. Therefore they urgently need you to send them money to help them return home.

 

Why is this an issue?

Two reasons – spam ills your electronic mail inbox with trivia or worse. Scams can cost you financially and, if have fallen victim to one, make you feel truly stupid.

 

 

What you should do about it

Get a spam filter. Many e-mail service providers include one in their offering but some spam will get through.

 

If it sound too good to be true, it almost certainly isn’t. Never reply to spam, not even to take up their ofer to “remove yourself from the mailing list”. Doing this confirms that your e-mail address is active and that you have read the message. his is an invitation to receive much more of it.

 

Don’t give money to anyone before you have confirmed his or her situation. The person supposed to be travelling may well be at home, and if not, should be in a position to give you a way to reach them.

 

Many e-mail service providers offer an anti-spam service that lets you verify what they detected as spam in case there are false-positives, i.e. messages you wish to see.