TAG | “Celebrate” 30 years of frustration - with junk mail spam |
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| by Alex Zaharov-Reutt | |
| Monday, 05 May 2008 | |
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Page 2 of 2 Spam continues to be successful because of a strange human trait – the desire to not only click on the spam message to see what it says, but worse still, to actually buy some of the products advertised via spam. If people simply stopped responding to spam, much of the impetus to send it would disappear, although it wouldn’t stop virus and malware writers from using social engineering techniques in spammed messages to try and infect our computers and join them up to botnets, or to successfully steal information in phishing attacks leading to identity theft. Internet security company Sophos has research showing that 95% of all email sent out is spam, with Sophos appealing to “Internet users, advising them to resist clicking on spam links, in the hope that spam will not reach its next landmark anniversary. A recent survey conducted by the firm revealed that a worrying 11 per cent of people admit to having bought goods via spam.” Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos said: "Users are always just a click away from spam - from weight loss medications to drugs used to improve sexual performance, spam is a burden on all of us. What's worse is that a lot of spam is deliberately malicious today, aiming to steal your bank account information or install malware. People who buy goods sold via spam are merely perpetuating the problem of junk email for all users and must be stopped." Cluley continued: "Gary Thuerk could never have imagined what he was starting when he sent that mass email 30 years ago. There is a generation of people today who have never worked in a world without spam clogging up their inboxes. The internet community needs to do what it can to make sure that spam doesn't celebrate a 40th or 50th birthday. That means educating the public about never buying goods sold via spam. If you receive an unsolicited email message advertising goods to you - don't buy, don't try, don't reply." Although clearly a marketing opportunity for Sophos, taking advantage of the 30th anniversary of spam email, Sophos have created a Facebook Group titled 'The Sophos Spam Pledge - "I won't buy goods advertised via spam"', and has also released a YouTube video of people taking the oath, promising never to click on links in unsolicited emails. You can find out more about the Sophos Spam Pledge at its website .
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