There are quite a few methods of attracting a person’s attention, but these days spam has become widespread. What is spam and what does it represent?
Regular Internet users, who have been such for quite a long time, most likely already know what spam is, from the fact that they have encountered it more than once in their daily activities. But if most people know about the existence of spam, then their knowledge is usually limited, but spam requires more attention.
Without a doubt, spam is one of the cheapest ways to attract a person's attention. And many advertisers have no qualms about taking advantage of spam. But it’s difficult to get customers for illegal products or materials that even adults don’t need to be familiar with and distribute in a pious way; for this, spam is almost the ideal, and sometimes even the only distribution option.
What is spam and how to understand it
In everyday understanding, spam can be considered absolutely all unwanted information that sometimes arrives in a not entirely clear way via email, this is certainly correct, but modern spam has long been no longer limited to email. Nowadays spam is distributed not only through the Internet, it is part of the Internet. Spam can be considered the excessive presence of any information that a person has to meet or even interact without his consent, thereby not only interfering and slowing down his activities, but provoking the emergence of danger both for the confidentiality of personal data and other unfavorable phenomena.
If we rely on the same email, then some messages may not be spam, but let’s say it will be unwanted information. In fact, it would be correct if everyone distinguishes for themselves what is junk mail and what is spam.
Spam- this is a mass mailing of unwanted information to users, the vast majority of which are automatic, and who, in turn, do not initially need it. This is a slightly outdated definition, although it can be associated not only with mail, but also with other types of messages.
Self spam concept, is a peculiar disease of the Internet, it applies not only to junk mail, but also to instant messaging services, social networks and even websites search results etc. For a spammer, spam in some cases is a way to attract attention, advertising and anti-advertising, and sometimes it is a way to enrich oneself due to the ignorance of the final recipient of information.
Why are mass mailings and mass publications used? Everything is simpler than it might seem, because with a large list of both mailing lists and recipients of information found in other ways, if this is advertising, you can almost easily find more potential clients or attract visitors to the site. Also possible, and usually pursued, is the search for potential victims of fraud.
The emergence of spam, how it all began
The term Spam itself comes from the excessive advertising of canned meat products left unconsumed by US soldiers after the end of World War II. They were called spicy or peppered ham from the English. SPICED HAM. People remembered the SPAM they encountered for a long time, and subsequently one of the unintentional mass mailings of e-mail messages was now associated with this parietal in 1993. This was caused by a program written with an error, with the help of which 200 exactly identical emails. But that spam was just a mistake, which cannot be said about many current mailings.
Types of spam and where you can usually find it
As was said earlier, such junk mailings cost the spammer almost nothing, but the recipient can pay quite seriously for incorrect actions. In addition, each Internet provider has its own tariffs and prices, and searching among junk mail and web spam for the necessary information may cost more due to overuse of traffic.
In addition to various methods of independently collecting email addresses, including automated ones, entire organizations engage in this not the most noble method, and mailing lists can also be purchased. Mailing can be carried out using any poorly protected computer, which is possible after activating software specialized for this on it.
Spam email
The existence of the possibility of receiving a potential threat is no longer uncommon, which could ultimately force or convince someone to transfer any amount of money to an unknown account. This is nothing more than swindling money, and for an attacker, distributing such information is a simple and sure way. The spammer hopes that due to the large number of spam recipients, someone will respond to it and fall into the trap.
In order not to fall for the scam, you need to understand the meaning of Phishing; this method of mailing fraud serves to lure confidential information. Such information may actually be information about a bank account; the attacker’s goal may be to obtain his login and password. Such mailings are disguised as closely as possible as official organizations with their own clones of official websites, on behalf of which the message was supposedly received. As you know, serious organizations do not ask for personal information. email.
Very often, mailings may contain attachments, sometimes even from the first time it is not clear what the content is computer virus or an email worm, which, for example, independently distributes itself, they can collect all possible necessary information and forward it all to the desired address.
Comments on websites: blogs, forums and message boards
At the moment, there are quite a lot of spammers, especially among webmasters, who want to leave a link in the comments of a blog or forum, which, with the right approach, can be a plus for his site, but for a site that has too many outgoing links, this can be a death sentence, because this is exactly what the Internet resource will appear spammy to the search engine. Owners of such sites should not forget about the need to moderate posts and comments.
As for bulletin boards, texts very similar to real advertisements can be published, with a large number of outgoing links, and if an inattentive moderator missed this type of spam, then this will affect not only the fact that the search engine will consider the board or site spam, but users will react with A warning to such Internet resources; strange advertisements will arouse suspicion.
More and more often you can stumble upon the supposed blog of taxi driver Roman, who earns millions, weight loss techniques and other sites that are actually useless for humans. Separate sites are being created to praise their site, which, apparently, due to low information content and usefulness, cannot achieve the required traffic. What can we say about filling such sites with machine text? An overabundance of advertising, including pop-up windows that interfere with viewing the necessary information, which are not always easy to close, is the lot of unscrupulous site owners.
Search spam is a type of clogging of search results with sites that do not provide anything useful other than the needs for which the owner created them. These sites very often appear in the first places in the search results, but thanks to constantly improving search algorithms, they also quickly fall under the filter, still be vigilant.
Spam on social networks
What spam is is most likely already clear from some of the material you’ve read, but social spam is a slightly different method of attracting attention.
For spam on social networks, hacked accounts of the most ordinary users are very often used, accounts can also be created on purpose, and false groups are created. You and your friends may also get into such trouble, and a strange message that arrives can only indicate its not entirely human activity. Just like when you receive suspicious email and spend time on a website, you should be wary of scams.
Often, people who use social networks are invited to groups they don’t need, or invited as friends, since this can be a mass invitation; this method is rightfully considered spam. Many social pages The networks to which attraction is carried out may, just like the sites, have unreliable information and offer poor-quality goods, although this is not a pattern, but the administration is constantly fighting this type of fraud.
SMS messages can also be spam
SMS messages with advertising or spam have long been common for mobile phone, and here, as elsewhere, you need to distinguish truth from lies. Otherwise, it is possible to subscribe to paid SMS news channels, the availability of which will only become known over time. Spam for smartphones is not much different; in such messages it often sends links to malicious programs, under the pretext, for example, of looking at a photo or updating the browser.
Several years ago, it was especially popular for a parent to request to top up their account with any amount in connection with a child’s problem, but there were those who fell into such a trap.
How to protect yourself from spam and its consequences
No matter how much you would like to have a short and beautiful mailbox name, this will not be a good option to protect yourself from spam, because such addresses most often end up in the mailing list.
If possible, you should refrain from publicly posting your email address in places where everyone can see it. In addition to manual addition, such addresses can be added completely automatically to the spam database using specialized software. Even if such a publication is still required, it must be done with minor changes, for example, change the @ symbol to the word of the same name or separate some characters with a space.
This method will help, at least a little, to protect against automated linking of your email address to the spam database. Actually, approximately this method can be used for ICQ and other network identifiers.
To register on websites, it would be a good idea to have an additional mailbox, thereby protecting your main one. On GSM devices you just need to ignore the incoming message and also not respond to it; the principles of the attackers’ work remain practically unchanged.
If a spam message still reaches you, then you should not follow the links in it and test the security of your computer by opening unknown attachments, and a response to such a message will only confirm that they are using mail and spam has reached the recipient.
Modern email clients provide one of the best ways Anti-spam means filtering incoming messages. Although there are a lot of automatic filtering methods, all of them are not ideal, since the most ordinary message can be blocked, which is why I create many services separate folder for such messages, the contents of which the user can familiarize himself with.
Also, to combat spam, you can set up rules that automatically transfer messages from regular spam addresses to a specific folder, this is possible with most email clients. As for the fight against spam on websites, a lot depends on their owners, and it’s probably best to avoid such web resources best option to protect your computer.
Spam has become so integrated into our lives that many people don’t even notice it. What can we say about the Internet? When asking the question what spam is, you need to look around, at the pillars, in your mailbox Sometimes you can notice a lot of excessive advertising, which can also be called spam, albeit everyday.
Canned ham (spam)
Modern look of the can
The word "SPAM" originally appeared in the city. It stood for SPiced hAM (spicy ham) and was a trademark for canned meats of the Hormel Foods Corporation (English) Russian - spicy sausage minced pork.
The point of the sketch is that in one cafe all the dishes on the menu contain “SPAM”, some even several times. When the main character of the sketch, who came to this cafe with his wife, asks to bring him a dish without “SPAM,” the waitress offers him a dish with “a small amount of SPAM.”
The visitor is indignant, and the choir of Vikings sitting at the neighboring tables begins to sing a song of praise to “SPAM”: “Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam... Lovely Spam! Wonderful Spam! (“Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam... Favorite Spam! Wonderful Spam!”), making dialogue between the waitress and visitors impossible (that is, “spamming” dialogue - "spam" dialogue), after which the sketch descends into chaos. At the end of the sketch, the hero’s wife exclaims: “I don’t like SPAM!” (English) “I don’t like spam!”) . In the credits, the word “SPAM” was also added to the names of the characters (Spam Terry Jones, Michael Spam Palin, John Spam John Spam John Spam Cleese, etc.). In total, this word is mentioned 108 times in the sketch. .
Anti-advertising
"Nigerian Letters"
Sometimes spam is used by scammers to lure money from the recipient of the letter. The most common method was called “Nigerian letters” because a large number of such letters came from Nigeria. Such a letter contains a message that the recipient of the letter can somehow receive a large amount of money, and the sender can help him with this. Then the sender of the letter asks to transfer him some money under the pretext of, for example, completing documents or opening an account. Extorting this amount is the goal of the scammers.
A narrower name for this type of fraud is scam or scam 419(by article number in the Nigerian Criminal Code).
Phishing
According to experts from the Russian Association of Electronic Communications (RAEC), in 2009 the damage to the Russian economy from spam amounted to 14.1 billion rubles. Meanwhile, FBK analysts claim that every year spammers cause losses to the Russian economy in the amount of 31.3 to 47.2 billion rubles.
Performance ratings
Testing and analysis of spam results invariably shows its extremely low effectiveness, and often almost complete ineffectiveness. For example, during an advertising campaign in California, 350 million notices about the sale of a new natural-based medicine were sent out from 75,869 computers in 26 days. As a result, the company received 28 orders.
Spammers
American Sanford Wallace, nicknamed “King of Spam,” was fined $4, 234, and $711 million (2006, 2008, and 2009, respectively).
The famous Russian spammer Leonid Kuvaev, who ranks second on the list of the most malicious spammers on the Internet, started his business in America, but in 2005 he was put on trial - the Attorney General of Massachusetts determined that Kuvaev’s spam network, including the BadCow affiliate program, generates $30 million annually - and the native of the Russian Federation was awarded a fine of $37 million. However, he went back to Russia, from where he could not be reached even with the help of the FBI. His sites continued to sell Viagra without a license and send spam through botnets. In December 2009, Kuvaev was arrested in Moscow for pedophilia, and a case of sixty counts of molestation of minors was brought to court.
- The American English Center is one of the most famous Russian spammers.
- Center Plus, Extra M - the most famous representatives of “paper spam”
Fighting spam
Ideology
It is obvious that spam brings economic benefits to its customers. This means that users, despite their dislike of spam, still use the services advertised through spam. As long as the return from spam exceeds the cost of defeating the defense, spam will not go away. Thus, the most reliable way to combat this is to refuse services advertised through spam. There are proposals to use public condemnation, up to the cessation of communication, against persons purchasing goods and services advertised by spam.
Other methods are aimed at making it difficult for spammers to access users.
Preventive protection measures
The most reliable way to combat spam is to prevent spammers from finding out your email address. This is a difficult task, but some precautions can be taken.
- You should not publish your address on publicly accessible sites.
- If for some reason the email address has to be published, it can be encoded something like "u_s_e_r_(a)_d_o_m_a_i_n_._n_e_t". Spammers use special programs to scan sites and collect email addresses, so even this kind of address masking can help. It should be remembered, however, that in the simplest cases the “encoded” address can also be recognized by the program. In addition, this creates inconvenience not only for spammers, but also for ordinary users.
- Most public sites do not publish the email addresses of registered users, but provide the opportunity to send a message using a nickname. The real address is substituted by the server from the user's profile and is invisible to other users.
- The address can be represented as a picture. There are online services that do this automatically (however, keep in mind that some of these services may themselves collect and sell email addresses entered by users). Moreover, this can be done in any graphic editor or simply write the email address by hand and take a photo.
- On web pages, email addresses can be encoded using JavaScript.
- You can create a special box for registering with services that do not inspire much trust, and not use it for regular work. There are even services that issue disposable email addresses specifically for the purpose of indicating them in doubtful cases. The most famous of them is mailinator.com.
- You should never respond to spam or click on links contained in it, including links supposedly intended to unsubscribe from the mailing list. This action will confirm that the email address actually exists, is actively used, and its recipient is reading spam, and will lead to an increase in the amount of spam.
- The fact that pictures included in the letter are loaded when read can be used to check the activity of the mailing address. Therefore it is recommended when requesting mail client about allowing the upload of a picture, prohibit the action if you are not sure about the sender.
- When choosing an email address, you should, if possible, choose a name that is long and difficult to guess. Thus, there are less than 12 million names consisting of no more than 5 Latin letters. Even if you add numbers and an underscore, the number of nicknames is less than 70 million. A spammer can send mail to all such names and weed out those from which he received the response “the addressee does not exist.” Thus, it is desirable that the name be no shorter than 6 characters, and if it does not contain numbers, no shorter than 7 characters. It is also desirable that the name is not a word in any language, including common proper names, as well as Russian words written in Latin. In this case, the address can be guessed by searching through words and combinations in a dictionary.
- It's possible to change your address from time to time, but this comes with the obvious challenges of communicating your new address to the people you'd like to receive mail from.
- Companies often don't publish their address, instead using CGI to contact users.
All address hiding methods have a fundamental drawback: they create inconvenience not only for alleged spammers, but also for real recipients. In addition, it is often necessary to publish the address - for example, if it is the contact address of a company.
Filtration
Since promotional emails tend to be very different from regular mail, a common method of dealing with them has become to filter them out of the incoming mail stream. Currently, this method is the main and most widely used.
Automatic filtering
Authorization of mail servers
Were offered various ways to confirm that the computer sending the letter really has the right to do so (Sender ID, SPF, Caller ID, Yahoo DomainKeys, MessageLevel), but they are not yet widely used. In addition, these technologies limit some common types of functionality of mail servers: it becomes impossible to automatically redirect correspondence from one mail server to another (SMTP Forwarding).
The most widespread practice is that “the mail provider is responsible for its users”: the email service provider establishes rules for its use that limit the mass of possible mailings and ensures their implementation. Public providers use authentication for this both when receiving and sending mail. Internet providers allow clients to establish SMTP connections only with their (provider's) servers, prohibiting connections with other servers or “transparently” redirecting them to their server. This allows you to block spam mailing directly - to the SMTP servers of email recipients, but it is inconvenient for those who want to send mail through their own SMTP server (for example, corporate or public, which is especially important for users mobile computers). A solution here could be to separate the flow of sending letters by mail programs (via port 587 with mandatory authorization, RFC 4409) and the flow of sending letters between SMTP servers (via port 25), which is supported today by many servers (including public ones, for example , mail.ru, yandex.ru). However, this has not become a standard and almost all email programs use port 25 by default to send mail.
Gray Lists
This method currently allows us to filter out up to 90% of spam with virtually no risk of losing important letters. However, it cannot be called flawless either.
Other methods
- General tightening of requirements for letters and senders, for example - refusal to accept letters with an incorrect return address (letters from non-existent domains), checking the domain name by the IP address of the computer from which there's a letter coming, etc. Using these measures, only the most primitive spam is eliminated - a small number of messages. However, it is not zero, so their use still makes sense.
- Sorting emails by the contents of the email header fields makes it possible to get rid of some spam. Some client programs (for example, Mozilla Thunderbird or The Bat!) make it possible to analyze headers without downloading the entire letter from the server, and thus save traffic.
- Challenge-response systems help ensure that the sender is a person and not a robot program. Using this method requires the sender to perform certain additional actions, which may often be undesirable. Many implementations of such systems create additional load on postal systems, in many cases they send requests to fake addresses, so such solutions are not respected in professional circles. In addition, such a system cannot distinguish a robot that sends spam from any other robot, such as one that sends news.
- Systems for determining the signs of mass messages, such as Distributed Checksum Clearinghouse. Built-in software mail server modules calculate the checksums of each letter passing through them and check them on the Razor or DCC service servers, which report the number of times the letter appears on the Internet. If a letter appears, for example, several tens of thousands of times, it is probably spam. On the other hand, a mass message can also be a legitimate mailing. In addition, spammers can vary the text of the message, for example, adding a random set of characters to the end.
- A general change in the ideology of e-mail, in which in order for the recipient’s server to accept each message, the sending system must perform a certain “costly” action, for example, report the result of a relatively resource-intensive mathematical algorithm. For ordinary users who send dozens of emails, this will not be a problem, while the spammer's costs are multiplied by the number of emails sent to him, usually measured in the millions.
Atypical methods
An interesting story happened with Alan Ralsky, one of the five largest spammers on the planet. User of one of the Western forums
Spam is something every network user is familiar with.
In the most common sense, spam is the mass sending of advertising emails to users who have not given their consent.
Now spam has many more meanings and variations: SMS spam, spam on social networks, and so on. But let's start with the origin of the word itself.
Term
The word “spam” itself, or rather the English version “spam”, has a rather funny origin. SPAM was originally a trademark of an American company; Under this brand, canned meat began to be produced in 1936, of which so much was produced during the Second World War that an urgent advertising campaign had to be carried out - it was necessary to sell them before the expiration date. These canned foods were advertised everywhere, and were also advertised on the radio.
This situation was played out in one of the episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus, and the word SPAM acquired its current meaning in 1986, when many identical messages from financial pyramid advertisements appeared.
Currently, the amount of spam varies from year to year. For example, in 2017, the share of spam in total email traffic was slightly more than half, 56.63%; Moreover, the largest amount of spam (more than 13%) came from the United States.
Types of spam
- Bulk mailing- the most famous type of spam. Spammers buy databases of email addresses and then send emails with commercial offers (which most often contain viruses, phishing, and so on).
- Messages on social networks and instant messengers. Previously, these were the same advertising messages as in letters, but now a scheme is becoming popular when a user’s account is hacked, and then messages are sent on his behalf asking him to transfer a certain amount of money.
- Spam on forums. Spammers are also active on forums: they leave messages in discussions and send private messages to users. Sometimes this is used to build up the link mass of a site.
- Spam in comments on the site. The type of spam that website owners hate the most. The goal of spammers is still the same - either to advertise their goods or services, or to increase subject citation index(tIC).
- Spam in catalogs and message boards. Directories are used to promote websites (although less so now), and message boards are used for fraudulent advertisements.
- Spam via SMS. Just like when sending emails, spammers buy user databases mobile operators and send spam messages of an advertising or fraudulent nature.
Safe and dangerous spam
Spam messages can be divided into two large groups - safe and dangerous. The first ones are unpleasant, but they only threaten you with a spoiled mood and a waste of time, but the second ones can harm your computer and finances.
Safe spam
- Advertising of legal goods or services. These are ordinary letters of an advertising nature, with the difference that users did not give their permission to receive them.
- Advertising of goods or services prohibited by law. If the law prohibits advertising a product or service, then spammers begin to actively use mailings; they have nothing to lose.
- Compromising letters. May be related to politics; are sent with the aim of discrediting competitors, and can also be sent supposedly on behalf of competitors in order to change opinions about them for the worse.
- "Letters of happiness." Messages (including in instant messengers) with a request to forward a text to other users so that something good happens or something bad doesn’t happen. Sometimes such letters are used by spammers to collect a database of addresses for subsequent mailings.
Dangerous spam
In general, spam is far from a harmless thing, so any messages that look like spam should be treated very carefully.
How to deal with email spam
In order to reduce the amount of spam in your mail as much as possible, you need to start by understandinghow users get on mailing lists.
- Inattention when registering on the site. Often, in the registration form there is already a checkbox indicating consent to receive advertising materials. However, in this case it is not difficult to refuse spam: at the end of each letter there should be an “Unsubscribe” link.
- Hacking. Fraudsters hack websites and user emails and gain access to databases (contacts).
- Sale. Address databases, unfortunately, are sometimes sold by website employees themselves.
- Phishing. The user enters his data on fake sites.
What to do?
The main advice that has repeatedly shown its effectiveness:
register at least two email addresses. One for personal and work contacts, and the second for registration on commercial sites, sites with dubious content, and so on.
The next tip is to choose a reliable email service (for example, Gmail ). In such email services, spam filtering works well, so most of the fraudulent emails will go straight to the Spam folder.
If some letter nevertheless “breaks through” into the main letter folder, be sure to mark it as spam - all further letters from this user will end up there.
You can also use filters and create rules to get rid of spam (for example, in Yandex mail).
Conclusion
Spam is a serious problem - mainly due to the dangerous links and files that can be found inside the email, spam is a serious problem, especially for unsophisticated users. Therefore, even if you are sure that you will never fall for scammers, be sure to tell your family and friends about the dangers.
Spam is anonymous, unsolicited mass e-mail, i.e. the electronic equivalent of the paper advertising mail that clogs regular mailboxes. Spam is most often used to advertise goods and services. Spammers send large numbers of advertising messages and profit from those who respond to them. In addition, attackers use spam to carry out phishing attacks and distribute malware.
Over the past ten years, the scope of spam has expanded, and the volume of delivery has grown significantly. At first, spam was sent directly to single user addresses, and it was easy to block. Over time, high-speed Internet channels appeared, which made it possible to quickly and cheaply send spam messages en masse. Spammers also discovered that they could use the modems of individual users for their purposes - the modems were not equipped with protection against unauthorized access and could be used by attackers from anywhere on the planet. In other words, unsuspecting users' modems were sending out massive amounts of spam.
This continued until hardware manufacturers learned to equip their equipment with anti-spam features and spam filters became more effective. However, spam has also evolved: not only the methods of sending have improved, but also the techniques that help attackers bypass spam filters. The confrontation between spammers and those who protect Internet channels from complete clogging continues.
Have you received promotional emails? Yes? Then you know what spam is. Almost everyone in the world today allocates a huge amount of funds to combat spam. Developers create a variety of programs and scripts that allow them to detect advertising messages and block them, as well as their senders.
Despite this, similar letters continue to arrive. Some of them are actually detected and automatically transferred to the Spam folder (every mail provider now has one); the rest may indeed come to the “Inbox” section.
We will tell you more about email, why it is sent and how to deal with it in this article.
What is spam?
In general, the word “spam” comes from the name of spicy minced meat (pork and beef), the name of which was used in a comedy series in 1971. According to the scriptwriter's idea, in one cafe, visitors were so aggressively advertised this product that they literally did not stop using the word “SPAM”. The meaning lay precisely in the constant, excessive and at the same time aggressive repetition of the specified word.
Today, “spam” is the name given to automated mass mailings of advertising correspondence. Unlike simple advertising, such mailings have no effect - they are sent to a huge number of people without a specific purpose: simply hoping that some small part of the recipients will be interested in the offer.
In the era of electronic technology, we all know what spam is. In email, SMS, on social networks and even in regular mailboxes, we can find a lot of messages that are sent on behalf of certain companies offering their services.
Spam can be very intrusive and sometimes even dangerous for the recipient. We'll talk about this in more detail below. In the meantime, let’s be more specific about those who benefit from such mailings.
Who is sending spam?
As already noted, we receive a lot of untargeted advertising offers. All these letters (spam) most often act in the interests of the companies that advertise them (suppliers that are described in the offer). In some cases, spam mailing can be carried out with the aim of achieving the opposite effect - to scare away the consumer in order to annoy a competitor.
Of course, if you find a letter in your mailbox advertising a shoe store, this does not mean that the store itself is sending such mailings. Most likely, the messages were sent from special server intended for such purposes. And the store owner could simply order such a newsletter.
Another situation is when they try to send you spam with a request or containing some obviously fraudulent offer. For example, these are the well-known “chain letters” stating that some distant rich relative left millions of dollars as an inheritance, and you are required to pay a commission of $200-300. Letters of this nature are most likely sent by simply a group of people who have access to the necessary means (for example, this could be a spam program, a server and a mailing list).
What are they advertising?
If we talk about what is advertised in spam emails, then there are a huge number of options. The newsletter can promote a specific company, product or service, online store or service. In this case, of course, spammers try to act secretly so as not to harm the service provider. For example, legitimate companies will not spam because it is illegal. For this, they can use a lay-out site or a front store.
In other cases, spam may contain links to various sites containing viruses; programs that can harm your computer, pornographic materials, various requests from fake people. Such mailings are carried out precisely by groups of people who simply earn money through illegal means. It could even be hackers - specialists with special knowledge in this area.
Is it profitable?
According to unofficial research, spammers earn millions of dollars annually from their activities. They advertise adult sites, pharmaceutical stores, and send viruses and various fraudulent messages to millions of people. Imagine that, despite the fact that many are aware of what email spam is and how harmful it can be for the recipient, people continue to believe what is written and send money, buy access to websites, tablets and even install programs.
If you give a specific answer, then yes - spam is very profitable. Otherwise they wouldn't be doing it. It’s just that the other side of the coin is the question of how difficult it is to carry out mailing in terms of monetary costs. After all, even a layman understands that a spam program (or some special script) and the servers from which the mailing will be carried out, as well as a lot of other technical nuances, are additional costs that need to be recouped from the profits from the messages sent out. Therefore, it is impossible to say that spamming is a simple activity. A lot of people do this, but only a small part manages to earn really big money here.
Spam in email
In e-mail, spam probably appeared first of all. It was, of course, a particularly effective tool at the very beginning of the development of Internet technologies. Back then, people still didn’t know what spam was, what to do with incoming letters, that no inheritance actually existed, and that money sent using the specified details could be forgotten.
Later, of course, postal services became concerned with the problem of spam. They were forced to introduce the first spammer blocking mechanisms, which were later successfully solved. For the past few years, this is how the anti-spam industry has worked: those who send mailings come up with something new; and the task of mail services is to create a filter that will prevent letters from reaching users.
All modern Internet companies, including Yandex, are struggling with the phenomenon discussed in this article. Spam has become their main enemy, so the search engine development team has been constantly improving methods for selecting advertising letters for several years now. They have had mixed success so far, as unwanted mail continues to arrive.
Spam in other services
In addition to mail, there are a lot of other services where spammers trade. Essentially, these are various forums, blogs, regular websites, message boards, social networks, abandoned resources that are no longer being worked on. This indicates that, despite the fight against this phenomenon, no one knows how to remove spam.
Is it possible to learn from the experience of the most technologically advanced players in the IT market - the largest social networks(Facebook, Twitter), where spam is constantly detected and removed. And then - even there you can find a huge amount of hidden (and not so hidden) spam.
How to fight?
The question just arises: how to deal with such a negative phenomenon? Is it possible to make browser spam stop annoying ordinary users, who, for the most part, are not interested in the products offered?
It is necessary to fight intrusive messages, but it is still impossible to eradicate the concept of spam. The most effective tools are simply automatic and manual control over what users send to each other, as well as some restrictions that can be used to reduce the increase in the number of spam messages.
For example, Gmail has filters that reject messages containing links that are sent in large volumes to different people. Such accounts will be blocked very quickly, and spam letters will not reach their recipients.
The problem with this technique is the many variations in forms of spam. Roughly speaking, it can be sent not only in the form of links and not from one account. In fact, attackers can create multiple accounts on different IP addresses in order to hide their real intentions. Postal Service it will be more difficult to detect such activity.
What measures are being taken?
In addition to simply creating filters, mail services are conducting many innovative developments that make it possible to recognize spam in one form or another. With their help, users will not have to think about how to remove spam, and this will make working with mail much more convenient.
However, no one knows how such solutions work and why they still miss intrusive advertising messages. It’s just that in the technology news section, large email providers sometimes publish information about testing new security mechanisms; and over time, you can see how the number of spam messages actually decreases. The working methods of such mechanisms remain a secret.
You have received spam. What to do?
If you see an unsolicited email in your inbox that is clearly advertising (or fraudulent) in nature, don't panic. All you need to do is click the “Mark as spam” button (if your email provider has one) in order to inform the service about the advertising nature of the message. If you don’t have a “This is spam” button, simply delete the email.
Do not under any circumstances follow the links provided there or download the attached files! Don't forget what email spam is! It could be a program that can steal your data or infect your computer.
Responsibility for mailing
If suddenly you would like to try sending spam yourself, we hasten to warn you that this is a criminal activity, including in our country. Therefore, we do not recommend trying it.
