Peoples Republic of South Devon

A ‘celebration’ of 30 years of spam email

May 9th, 2008

The weekly technology column from those good people at Plymouth’s Orange Crate

On May 3 1978 an employee of DEC, a since defunct computer manufacturer, was responsible for the first recognized spam mail. Sent to 400 recipients via the Arpanet (the internet’s forerunner), its purpose was to advertise the company’s new range of products by inviting the recipients to attend two presentations. Response was swift and an uproar followed – it may have been a harmless marketing ploy but people were obviously feeling uncomfortable about this potential intrusion into their private worlds.

Despite this early foray, it took many years for spam mail to become the mainstream thorn in the side of the internet that it is today. In the early ’90s a number of companies started taking the initiative by gathering lists of emails and sending thousands of advertising and promotional messages at a time. The online world began to realise that this could easily turn into a downward spiral, and they were right in more ways than one.

In the most obvious sense, the sheer amount of spam mail is constantly on the rise – an estimated 100 billion spam messages are currently sent every day, and trawling through junk mail every morning has become an unwanted international pass-time. Although the majority of spam today is still concerned with selling you a product – whether it be a Viagra substitute or debt consolidation – a worrying 9 per cent is estimated to be directly linked to internet scamming.

These scammers actively engage in fraudulent activity to achieve a number of nefarious goals. From gaining personal details such as log-in particulars and credit card details, to downloading various spyware, malware, trojans, and viruses onto unsuspecting PCs, their activities can result in anything up to a serious amount of damage. So how do you spot these potential time bombs amongst your regular email?

Well, thankfully, much of the spam mail itself isn’t always that intelligent. Having often been created by a computer program itself, there are a number of tell-tale signs that the human eye will pick up on with a bit of training. For instance, I received a message addressed to ‘Account Holder’ from the ‘CEO’ of ‘Llyods Bank’ (no seriously, that’s not a typo…) telling me that I had to lick on the link below and change my on line banking details due to security changes. Now, even if I did have an account at the bank they were trying to rip off, I hope I would’ve seen through this particular scam.

But seriously, watch out for bad spelling, unrealistic signatures (how often to get an email from a CEO?), and lack of personalisation – all clear signs before you even read the content. In addition to this, a lot of spam is sent through hijacked servers and sites, so check who your mail comes from and whether the associated website is even vaguely linked to what the message is offering. And if the email address is something along the lines of quwiortetrrewyyr@yahoo.com, then it’s fake.

We’ve all had experience of spam email in the past, and to a certain degree are aware of its varying forms. But the best rule to follow is most certainly ‘If in doubt, don’t open it, don’t read it, and most definitely don’t click on the link….’. Let’s face it, if you weren’t expecting the email, or it’s not from someone you recognise, then it’s probably not something you’re interested in. Trust me – you can’t win the Portuguese lottery if you didn’t even enter.

Entry Filed under: technology