The first thing I do every morning when I wake up is head for my computer. It holds the secrets to my day. I read my e-mails from several accounts, check my schedule on my Outlook calendar and even find out how much money I can spend that day from my bank’s Web site. I’d be lost without my computer.

However, I have one huge frustration - privacy invasion. In the last three months alone I have had the privacy of my personal computer invaded in so many ways I am starting to feel like it is public property instead of my own property.

My home page has been changed without my consent. My search engine was set for Internet Explorer and was changed to some search engine I never knew existed. Hidden programs have infiltrated my computer and set it to randomly open windows to casino ads and porn sites.

My e-mail is constantly bombarded with ads from companies that claim I have "opted" into their e-mail list. As if I would waste my time asking someone to send me e-mails that are deleted as fast as they are received. Can I have a little orange juice with that spam at 6:30 in the morning?

Since I have my own server, one of my e-mail addresses is not related to any of the big name e-mail sites like Yahoo, Hotmail or America Online. But those nasty little computer geeks have even invaded that part of my privacy by using my server to send out e-mail ads. They get tons of money from the dupes who actually buy into their money-making schemes, and I get to have my account flooded by all of the undeliverable e-mail. Isn’t that just peachy?

My biggest frustration comes from the pop-up messages I receive when connected to the Internet. A friend of mine explained the technical aspects of this phenomenon to me, but I don’t care about how it happens. All I care about is that it does happen. I get pop-ups about all kinds of stuff. I have received several pop-ups inviting me to learn how to enlarge my penis. Last time I checked, I didn’t even have a penis.

I even get pop-ups telling me how to not get pop-ups. Now that is frustration to the nth degree. If I could, I’d reach through the lines that connect me to those privacy thieves and pour my orange juice all over their geeky little heads. But alas, I have no such super powers.

Is it really necessary to feel victimized in your own home at your own computer? Luckily I know someone who helped restore my computer to its original state, but that doesn’t stop the spamming or the pop-ups and it doesn’t protect me from future invasion.

Each state has its own anti-spam laws to protect people from this type of privacy invasion. Illinois passed its first law in 1999. In California, outgoing Gov. Gray Davis recently signed a bill that made a tough stand on spamming with fines from $1,000 per e-mail and up to $1 million per mass-mailing incident. However, the truth of the matter is it is very hard to catch and prosecute these privacy thieves.

How about a do-not-call list for computers? As a matter of fact, the U.S. Senate passed legislation last week that would increase penalties for spammers on a national level and would start a do-not-spam list. Anyone have a pen handy?

Although spamming is only one of the many invasions of privacy on my computer and although this new legislation has been too long in coming, I have to admit I’m quite relieved to see help is on the way. Until then, I will try to go about my daily routine without allowing those privacy thieves to get me too frustrated.

However, I do not intend to share my OJ or my toast with them - unless they like OJ as shampoo.

About the Author: Stella Ramsaroop is a western world traveler, a life-long student, a wanna-be stargazer, and an Aquarius in all its forms (if you know what that means). Her articles emphasize the importance of the continued development and protection of gender equality in all aspects of a woman’s life.

Visit Stella’s Website at http://www.newsparade.com to read her current articles and to contribute your thoughts.

RSS is the answer to the Spam epidemic of the past. Spam, any mass distribution of material across the Internet, can cause systems to back up and crash with unwanted and unsolicited material. Some of this material may be offensive to the people who visit your website and drive away potential viewers or customers.

Spam clogs networks and takes the place of real news and interesting articles. To effectively fight Spam, utilize RSS technology to ensure your website is at the height of its game. This technology screens and sorts material so you only get what you specifically want.

RSS technology utilizes an editor or reader to sort through data. RSS feeds are often one line of text that details the title of the article and gives a brief explanation of the kind of information given in the article. RSS readers often distinguish between Spam and real content by recognizing mass distribution or carbon copies.

This function ensures you are not receiving Spam that has been mass emailed out, but are receiving legitimate news from legitimate services you subscribe to. RSS readers can be downloaded from sites, and often are associated with specific and well-known news services.

This technology has been supported by Microsoft, and is being touted as the new wave in information distribution over the Internet. RSS readers can be set to screen fro certain titles, certain content, certain origins, and certain carbon copies. You can tailor your RSS to your specific site, or leave your specifications broad to get a general idea of the news of the day.

As this technology takes of, web sites are springing up that allow individuals to create their own RSS system that serves as a sort of home page with the news they are interest in reading. This technology offers an opportunity to further tailor your news offerings and saves you large quantities of time formerly spent sifting through Spam.

RSS feeds provide you an opportunity to tailor the time you spend on the Internet to your exact news needs. RSS editors can be used also to create your own RSS. An RSS format ensures your information will be treated seriously and will not be handled as Spam. Using an RSS editor is simple to learn, and will save a lot of time and energy.

RSS marketing can help you target specific RSS sites and to earn screen time on reputed web sites. With RSS marketing, your information is taken seriously and treated as news rather than Spam.

This marketing approach provides your product information to a large audience without the aggravation causing mass email approach that many companies try and fail with. RSS technology is a wave of the future, and offers you an opportunity to get the best news as well as earn a spot on websites that matter.

Gunnar Berglund has been a "internet- hardworker" for the last five years He publishes The meonit Gazette http://gazette.meonit.com and run http://www.meonit.com and http://www.visualxmleditor.com

Why is someone from India, Africa, or elsewhere writing you for information about your bank account with shady promises of depositing thousands of dollars within? (Many, many people have fallen for this real scam.) It’s costing us ALL money - more on this in a bit.

Listen - if all you want is to be rid of the daily chore of sorting through scams and filth to find emails from friends, family, and co-workers… you are definitely NOT asking for too much. There is a way to stop greedy Spammers from finding their way to your inbox. There is a way to stop Spam dead in its tracks.

All you need to do is educate yourself on the dangers of Spam - followed up by some real solutions to the problem.

Did You Know that Spammers Often Find Your Email Address Because Of Something YOU’VE Done?" Most people make it too easy for them without realizing it.

Computers have become an integral part of life for nearly everyone in the world. Ever since the induction of the internet, they have become very common place in most businesses and homes. Most people cannot even imagine their lives without their computers. They are used to run businesses, keep track of inventory, gather information, and to communicate with people from great distances.

Naturally one of the most popular reasons that people use the internet is to send emails to others. It is a free and easy way to talk to people that live far away. You can use emails to send letters, data files, and pictures. Everybody likes to get an email from their friends and family. However, emails have also become a popular tool that is used to advertise products and services.

As much as we like to receive emails from those that we enjoy hearing from, nobody likes to receive emails from people we’ve never heard of. These emails are called spam. We know how annoying it can be to receive spam in your email everyday and here are some tips to prevent them reaching your In Box: Email Filters - they can work very hard to keep your inbox from receiving spam, they can also prevent you getting a lot of your wanted emails as well. Visit and check www.spamarrest.com they have a very good method of identifying inbound mail between spam and real email. I am using their service myself and I happy with it. Avoid accidentally sending spam to your friends and family.

You should never open an unsolicited email that you receive in your inbox nor click on the "un-subscribe" link, it is a big mistake if you do that because you will be opt-in to their evil list. You have to understand that spammers are really just playing a numbers game. They simply send out like a million emails and hope that at least a third of them stick. It’s sad but it’s true. Good day everyone.

Jaime Peret is a publisher of free E-course, newsletter containing informative articles on Self Development, Diet & Nutrition, Health & Fitness, Motivation, Career Development, Relationship, Growth & Development, Online Marketing, and Promotions. Owner and administrator - Jalu-Publishing and Sydney Browser.

Unless the filters on your computer are really good, you’re getting at least an occasional SPAM message in your email Inbox. For most of us, we spend more time sorting through and deleting the SPAM than we care to. In fact, my husband told me tonight that of 30 messages he receives each day on our home computer 29 of them are SPAM.

Sometimes SPAM messages are easily identifiable by their subject lines. Sometimes the senders disguise the messages by using what appear to be either business-related subjects or subjects that imply a personal relationship has already been established. Either way, we know it’s risky to open these messages—-because of their content and because of potential viruses.

We’re in the business of doing business. To maintain solid relationships with our clients and peers, writing an accurate and descriptive subject line for each email we send is critical to making our readers’ lives easier and their work more efficient. Accurate subject lines not only reflect the content of the message; they also serve as a focus statement so the reader can begin gathering information right away.

I was reminded recently of the importance of the accurate subject line. I’d contacted a company regarding cell phone service and asked that a sales representative contact me. I received an email some days later from a sales rep that had in the subject line just this one word: “hello.” Normally I wouldn’t open this message. But for some reason I did and found that it was from the person I was eagerly awaiting a response.

All readers, you and me included, approach each email we read with the same question in mind: "What’s this about?" We want that question answered immediately. When the writer of the email or document fails to anticipate our question and postpones the answer, most of us become impatient. Our time is precious and each moment valuable. We don’t want to waste it searching for the answer to that question. Nor do we want to run the risk of opening an email that will infect our computers.

When we give an accurate subject line, we begin to answer the question “What’s this about?” Our readers appreciate knowing how to focus their reading and also feel more confident opening emails presented this way.

Help yourself and your readers by being very descriptive in your email subject lines. This is particularly important if you don’t have a previous relationship established with the reader. Even if you do, you have probably already experienced how clever and deceptive SPAMers can be.

For an idea of how you can begin to tailor your subject lines to meet your readers’ needs,

Instead of a subject line that just says "Report"

Try: "Report on (title of report) dated (insert date) for (client)"

Instead of a subject line that says "Hello"

Try: (Your company name)… (specific reason for writing)

Instead of: "Following up"

Try: Our meeting at X company on …

In other words, be as descriptive as possible, making as many connections as you can to previous contact or work you’ve done with the reader. If the sales person that contacted me had put in the subject line: “your request for XYZ Company phone service upgrades” I’d not have had ANY questions whatsoever about opening his email.

We can’t afford to be cavalier, coy, or questionable in our emails. Giving our readers an accurate, descriptive, and informative subject line helps our readers feel more confident in opening our messages, more receptive to our content, and more willing to respond when we answer the question “What’s this about.”

About the Author:

Dr. Tracy Peterson Turner works with organizations that want to turn their managers into leaders and with leaders who want to get their messages heard. She is an expert in both written and verbal communication and conducts presentations and workshops to help individuals and corporations meet their communication goals.

Visit Tracy on the web at http://www.Mgr-Impact.com. Email her at Tracy@Mgr-Impact.com

English, German, Italian - It’s All SPAM To Me

Has anyone else noticed the sudden blast of unsolicited e-mail (spam) loaded with url’s for the unsuspecting and curious Internet surfer to click on?

What’s even better, the bulk of this SPAM is in a foreign language. I was at a neighborhood party this weekend and you can’t imagine the number of people who asked me for assistance with this. They have no idea what to do.

The sad fact is there are a lot of Stupid People who have nothing better to do and can’t seem to find a better way of making a buck than Annoying Me and everyone else subject to their stupidity with spam. I guess that’s a little harsh. Not really.

How Does The Average Person Deal With This

I wrote in a previous article how bad a feel for the average person having to deal with such things. It is increasingly becoming a nightmare for all to deal with. For the technical among us, it’s not as bad given that we deal with such things on a technical level almost everyday.

Given this current flood of SPAM I thought I would post an article I wrote quite some time ago. It’s a short article, and may be old news for some, but I can tell you that many people still don’t follow the basic’s when dealing with SPAM.

How You May Be Helping Spammers

I can’t imagine that anyone with an e-mail address has not received unsolicited e-mail or spam in one form or another. What do you do when you receive these types of e-mails. Do you delete them right away, respond to them informing the sender you do not wish to receive them, or forward them to a friend whom you think might be interested in the information?

When the Internet as we know it was very young and most unsolicited e-mails where either by accident or the result of opt-in subscriptions, you could respond with the word "unsubscribe" in the reply subject and your name was taken off the list. That quickly changed once people found out how powerful a marketing tool e-mail was. Now, most of the time you respond to unsolicited e-mails you are letting the sender know that your e-mail address is active or alive. Instead of being taken off the list you are targeted more aggressively. The sender of the e-mail may also sell your e-mail address to other e-marketers, substantially increasing the number of unsolicited e-mails your receive.

WHow Do Spammers Get My E-mail Address

Well, there are quite a few ways, but one of the ways spammers get hold of your e-mail address is literally by guessing. For instance, say your e-mail address is part of the domain "-notrealdomain-.com", and your e-mail address is "me@-notrealdomain-.com", the spammers have programs that will generate thousands of combinations of names / domains i.e. "me@-notrealdomain-.com", "you@-notrealdomain-.com", "them@-notrealdomain-.com" hoping that somewhere along the line the target e-mail address exists. It’s really not difficult to do, since a computer can do this over and over again. If you receive one of these e-mails and reply to it, you have just informed the sender that they did indeed find a live address. It’s all downhill from there.

Spoofing E-mail Addresses

Another interesting tactic is to send someone an e-mail and make it appear as if it came from your address. Have you ever received an e-mail from someone you don’t know and don’t have in you contact list asking you to stop sending them unsolicited e-mails? Many people experience this problem. Basically, the spammer made the recipient of the spam think you sent it to them. This is called e-mail spoofing and is relatively easy to do. The spammers use mail servers that allow something called "mail relay." This allows them to send e-mails from any source address (even yours) to any target address.

Conclusion

A few things to keep in mind when dealing with unsolicited e-mails and spam:

If you are starting to receive SPAM in alternate languages, check your e-mail client for the ability to filter / block SPAM by specifying language types.

If you only speak English, and don’t expect to receive e-mail in German, then block it;

If your SPAM filter downloads data from your vendor for known SPAM sites make sure to perform and schedule the download to happen frequently;

If you receive e-mail or spam from someone you don’t know, do not respond to it, just delete it;

If someone informs you that they are receiving spam from your e-mail address, inform them that it was not sent by you and most likely came from a spammer who spoofed your address. Tell them to just delete it;

Never give out your e-mail address unless you are sure the site or organization will be responsible for it’s privacy;

If you are going to sign up for something like a news article or other information, read their privacy statement, agreement, and disclaimer before doing so; And

Review the entire privacy statement to make sure there are no check boxes or radio buttons on by default. You never know what you are agreeing to.

These are just a few of the things you can do to help prevent SPAM from becoming a huge burden. You will most likely not be able to prevent all SPAM from getting to your inbox, but you sure can decrease the number.

You may reprint or publish this article free of charge as long as the bylines are included.

Original URL (The Web version of the article)

What SPAM Means: "Stupid People Annoying Me"

About The Author
Darren Miller is an Information Security Consultant with over sixteen years experience. He has written many technology & security articles, some of which have been published in nationally circulated magazines & periodicals. Darren is a staff writer for http://www.defendingthenet.com and several other e-zines. If you would like to contact Darren you can e-mail him at Darren.Miller@ParaLogic.Net

Effectively stopping spam over the long-term requires much more than blocking individual IP addresses and creating rules based on keywords that spammers typically use. The increasing sophistication of spam tools coupled with the increasing number of spammers in the wild has created a hyper-evolution in the variety and volume of spam. The old ways of blocking the bad guys just don’t work anymore.

Examining spam and spam-blocking technology can illuminate how this evolution is taking place and what can be done to combat spam and reclaim e-mail as the efficient, effective communication tool it was intended to be.

One method used to combat spam is whitelisting. Whitelists are databases of trusted email sources. The list may contain specific email addresses, IP addresses or trusted domains. Emails received from a whitelisted source are allowed to pass through the system to the user’s email box. The list is built when users and email administrators manually add trusted sources to the whitelist. Once built, the catch-rate for spam can be close to 100%, however, whitelists produce an inordinate number of false positives.

It is virtually impossible to produce an exhaustive list of all possible legitimate email senders because legitimate email can come from any number of sources. To get around this difficulty, some organizations have instituted a challenge-response methodology. When an unknown sender sends an email to a user’s account, the system automatically sends a challenge back to the sender. Some challenge-response systems require the sender to read and decipher an image containing letters and numbers. The image is designed to be unreadable by a machine, but easily recognizable by a human. Spammers would not spend the time required to go through a large number of challenge-response emails, so they drop the address and move on to those users who don’t use such a system.

Whitelists are only partially successful and impractical for many users. For example, problems can arise when users register for online newsletters, order products online or register for online services. If the user does not remember to add the new email source to their whitelist, or if the domain or IP address is entered incorrectly, the communication will fail. Additionally, whitelists impose barriers to legitimate email communication and are viewed by some as just plain rude.

Whitelists are not widely used by email users and administrators as a primary tool to fight spam because of the high number of false positives, and the difficulties in creating a comprehensive list of email sources. Because whitelists are not widely used, spammers typically do not develop countermeasures. As with other spam fighting techniques, whitelists are most effective when used in conjunction with other anti-spam tools.

The Solution

When used individually, each anti-spam technique has been systematically overcome by spammers. Grandiose plans to rid the world of spam, such as charging a penny for each e-mail received or forcing servers to solve mathematical problems before delivering e-mail, have been proposed with few results. These schemes are not realistic and would require a large percentage of the population to adopt the same anti-spam method in order to be effective. You can learn more about the fight against spam by visiting our website at www.ciphertrust.com and downloading our whitepapers.

Dr. Paul Judge is a noted scholar and entrepreneur. He is Chief Technology Officer at CipherTrust, the industry’s largest provider of enterprise email security. The company’s flagship product, IronMail provides a best of breed enterprise anti spam solution designed to stop spam, phishing attacks and other email-based threats. Learn more by visiting http://www.ciphertrust.com/products/spam_and_fraud_protection today.

Email is the quintessential business communication tool, so when it doesn’t work like it’s supposed to, business suffers. Anti spam software is designed to protect your inbox from unwanted messages, but unless your system is properly trained even the best software misses the mark and flags legitimate messages as spam. These messages are referred to as “false positives.”

While consumer and ISP anti spam products focus on blocking messages and even consider some false positives acceptable, businesses require anti spam solutions that treat their messages as very valuable. Failing to receive critical messages in a timely fashion can do irreparable damage to customer and partner relationships and cause important orders to be missed, so eliminating false positives while maintaining high anti spam accuracy is paramount to any enterprise anti spam solution.

What causes false positives?

Different anti spam solutions utilize different methods of detecting and blocking spam. Anti spam software typically uses content filtering or Bayesian Logic, an advanced content filtering method, to score each email, looking for certain tell-tale signs of spammer habits such as frequently used terms like “Viagra” or “click here.” Other anti spam solutions reference blacklists and whitelists to determine whether the sender has shown spammer tendencies in the past. A false positive can occur when a legitimate sender raises enough red flags, either by using too many “spam terms” or sending from an IP address that has been used by spammers in the past.

Minimizing False Positives

Although it takes a person only a moment to process a message and identify it as spam, it is difficult to automate that human process because no single message characteristic consistently identifies spam. In fact, there are hundreds of different message characteristics that may indicate an email is spam, and an effective anti spam solution must be capable of employing multiple spam detection techniques to effectively cover all bases.

A comprehensive anti spam approach involves examining both message content and sender history in tandem. By using a reputation system to evaluate senders based on their past behavior, a more accurate picture of their intentions and legitimacy can be discerned, and a solution’s false positive rate can be further lowered. Has the sender engaged in spamming, virus distribution or phishing attacks in the past? If not, the likelihood of their message getting past the email gateway just went up, and the chances of a false positive declined accordingly. If they have, an effective reputation system knows and flags the message.

Self-Optimization

In order to be most effective, anti spam solutions must learn based on a recipient’s preferences. While most of us prefer not to receive emails containing the term Viagra, some medical organizations might need to receive these emails in order to process patient data. In order to best learn your organizational preferences, anti spam solutions should put filtered emails into a quarantine that allows users to review and make decisions as to whether a particular message is spam. Making this quarantine available to the end-user lowers the administration costs and increases the accuracy of the anti spam system.

Each time a user makes a decision about whether a particular email is or is not spam, the system becomes more personalized and intelligent about filtering email for that individual in the future. Over time, users find that they rarely need to review their quarantines anymore because the system has learned how to identify messages that are important to that user.

Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater

In conclusion, it is imperative that false positives be kept to an absolute minimum for business users. Although consumers may have more patience with incorrectly blocked email, businesses cannot afford these types of problems. An effective, accurate anti spam solution aggregates multiple spam detection technologies, combining the benefits of each individual technique to stop spam while minimizing false positives. It also puts suspected spam into a quarantine that is available to end-users, and learns how to better identify spam in the future.

Dr. Paul Judge is a noted scholar and entrepreneur. He is Chief Technology Officer at CipherTrust, the industry’s largest provider of enterprise email security. The company’s flagship product, IronMail provides a best of breed enterprise anti spam solution designed to stop spam, phishing attacks and other email-based threats. Learn more by visiting http://www.ciphertrust.com/products/spam_and_fraud_protection/ today.

Will other spammers take heed? Don’t count on it.

Jeremy Jaynes was on top of the world. By age 28, he owned a million-dollar home, a high-class restaurant, a chain of gyms and countless other toys. Yet those were only the spoils of his main line of business, which was swindling innocent people out of their money through email scams. From an unassuming house serving as his company’s headquarters in Raleigh, NC, Jaynes sent an estimated ten million messages a day pitching products most recipients didn’t want, amassing an estimated $24 million fortune in the process. Using aliases such as Jeremy James and Gaven Stubberfield, Jaynes spammed his way up to the #8 position on Spamhaus’ Register Of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO) and grossed as much as $750,000 a month, allowing him to live like a king.

However, Jaynes ran head-on into an information superhighway road block when a Virginia judge sentenced him to nine years in prison for his November 2004 conviction on felony charges of using false IP addresses to send mass email advertisements (some just call it spamming). The conviction was a landmark decision, as Jaynes became the first person in the United States convicted of felony spam charges. Though his operation was based in North Carolina, Jaynes was tried in Virginia because it is home to a large number of the routers that control much of North America’s Internet traffic (it’s also the home of AOL and a government building or two).

He should’ve Used the Privacy Software

During the trial, prosecutors focused on three of Jaynes’ most egregious scams: software that promised to protect users’ private information; a service for choosing penny stocks to invest in; and a work-from-home "FedEx refund processor" opportunity that promised $75-an-hour work but did little more than give buyers access to a website of delinquent FedEx accounts. Sound familiar? Anyone with an e-mail address has received countless messages originating from Jaynes’ operation. (If you’re still waiting on your privacy software to show up, it’s probably safe to stop checking the mailbox.)

Jaynes got lists of millions of email addresses through a stolen database of America Online customers. He also illegally obtained e-mail addresses of eBay users. While the prosecutors still don’t know how Jaynes got access to the lists, the Associated Press reported that the AOL names matched a list of 92 million addresses that an AOL software engineer has been charged with stealing.

When Jaynes’ operation was raided, investigators found that the house from which he ran his operation was wired with 16 T-1 lines (a large office building can get by on a single T-1 line for all its users). Investigators also entered into evidence to-do lists handwritten by Jaynes. Take a look at Jeremy Jayne’s meticulously detailed lists at:

* www.ciphertrust.com/images/jaynes_notes1.JPG
* www.ciphertrust.com/images/jaynes_notes2.JPG
* www.ciphertrust.com/images/jaynes_notes3.JPG

Good Work if You Can Get (Away With) It

The economics of spamming makes Jaynes’ decision to build a career of it understandable, though not noble. Spammers work on the law of averages, which would seem like an odd strategy considering that the average response rate for a spam message is just one-tenth of one percent. However, once you do the math even this miniscule response rate can make one very wealthy very quickly. If a spammer sends one million messages pushing a product width a $40 profit, a response rate of 0.1 percent works out to 1000 customers, or $40,000 per million messages sent. Since each message costs only fractions of a penny to send, and Jaynes was sending literally billions of messages a year, it’s easy to see how he pulled in $400,000 to $750,000 a month, while spending perhaps $50,000 on bandwidth and other overhead.

The fact that spamming can be such a profitable undertaking means that the profession is not likely to go anywhere in the near future. Spammers have financial motivation to come up with innovative ways to avoid detection, and they have begun to join forces. While the landmark decision handed down in the Jaynes trial may serve as a deterrent to some would-be spammers, it is unlikely that the threat of prosecution will keep future spammers from refining their trade. For now and the foreseeable future, the answer still lies in technology, not law enforcement.

Dr. Paul Judge is a noted scholar and entrepreneur. He is Chief Technology Officer at CipherTrust, the industry’s largest provider of enterprise email security. The company’s flagship product, IronMail provides a best of breed enterprise anti spam solution designed to stop spam, phishing attacks and other email-based threats. Learn more by visiting http://www.ciphertrust.com/products/spam_and_fraud_protection/ today.

Microsoft scores one for the good guys

Scott Richter, the self-proclaimed “Spam King,” just can’t seem to get enough attention. Admittedly responsible for sending literally billions of Unsolicited Commercial Email messages (UCE), Richter made headlines again recently when his spam-fed cash cow, OptInRealBig.com, filed for bankruptcy protection in U.S. federal court in his home state of Colorado. According to Richter’s father (who is also his attorney), “It’s the legal fees that are battering the company. OptIn is profitable but for these lawsuits.”

At the time of its bankruptcy filing, OptInRealBig.com claimed assets of less than $10 million and liabilities of over $50 million. Richter claimed his company made $15 million a year sending more than 15 million email messages per day. However, in 2003, OptInRealBig was dealt a powerful 1-2 punch from Microsoft and Eliot Spitzer, the Attorney General of New York; both sued Richter under local state anti spam laws. Although the New York case was settled out of court last year, Richter has had no such luck dealing with Microsoft, whose claims top $19 million.

A Case of Global Amnesia?

Richter’s company and others like it market products ranging from diet pills to pornography. He’s also been accused of using spam to extract personal information from unsuspecting recipients. For instance, one alleged scheme hatched by Richter and his associates promised recipients a copy of a "Girls Gone Wild" DVD if the recipient registered on a website. The registration information was then used to bombard the recipient with more and more spam.

Richter contends that his methods are all legal, and that he’s just a regular guy trying to do right by the world; he’s even gone so far as to claim that he’s a “victim” of overzealous anti spam companies and prosecutors. “We don’t spam,” explained Richter in an August 2004 PC World interview. “The biggest problem is when people get an email that they think they didn’t sign up for or don’t remember signing up for, and they call it spam.”

To hear Richter tell it, tens of millions of people simply forgot that they had previously asked to receive his messages. According to the state of New York, however, he falsified header information and used deceptive routing and domain purchase practices in order to get his messages through. The lawsuit also accused Richter of using a network of approximately 500 “zombie” computers to send his messages. When asked how so many users could have subscribed and not remember doing so, Richter claimed the signups must have been via anonymous "partners of our partners" web sites, the names of which slipped his mind.

Not Just an Online Threat

Evidently not satisfied with stealing bandwidth, Richter also shows a penchant for heavy equipment. In an unrelated 2003 case, he was put on probation after pleading guilty to a felony charge of receiving stolen items worth more than $10,000. According to court records, an informant’s tip regarding a stolen Bobcat loader led undercover officers to Richter. Over the course of 13 months, the officers proceeded to strike deals with him for a Honda generator, hundreds of cases of cigarettes, three laptop computers and other items, all offered at suspiciously low prices and purchased in some of Denver’s seediest neighborhoods. In addition to probation, Richter was also ordered to pay $38,000 in restitution for the stolen goods.

Despite his guilty plea, Richter maintains his innocence, saying he pleaded guilty to the felony charges because it was "easier to be done with it," and he had "too much stuff going on in my life."

What’s Next for Scott Richter?

The 5-year-old OptInRealBig.com, which employed 25 people last year and had 350 clients, will continue to operate under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. While the bankruptcy filing shows the power of legislation and legal action from parties with a vested interest in stopping spam, Richter is not likely to fade quietly into the sunset. Under Chapter 11 bankruptcy laws, the company must follow a court-supervised “debt rehabilitation” plan to pay off creditors, but is not required to modify its business practices. None of OptInRealBig’s assets will be liquidated, meaning the company’s stable of spam cannons will remain active. The bottom line: Scott Richter will not be required to stop sending UCE in the immediate future, pending ongoing litigation intended to determine exactly what spam is in legal terms. In the meantime, the best defense against spam is a comprehensive gateway solution that will guard against all manner of email threats, especially spammers like Scott Richter.

Dr. Paul Judge is a noted scholar and entrepreneur. He is Chief Technology Officer at CipherTrust, the industry’s largest provider of enterprise email security. The company’s flagship product, IronMail provides a best of breed enterprise anti spam solution designed to stop spam, phishing attacks and other email-based threats. Learn more by visiting http://www.ciphertrust.com/products/spam_and_fraud_protection/ today.

Block Spam and Other Email Threats From Entering Your Gateway Spam, commonly defined as unsolicited commercial email, is a powerful advertising channel for many products and services. As a result, spamming has become a profitable business, driven by the low cost of sending email compared to other direct marketing techniques. The high return on investment for spammers has resulted in an overwhelming volume of unwanted messages in personal and business email boxes. Consider this: Conducting a direct mail campaign costs an average of $1.39 per person, meaning that a response rate of 1 in 14 is necessary just to break even on a product with a $20 gross profit. Selling the same item via unsolicited spam email costs only $0.0004 per person, meaning that a response rate of 1 in 50,000 gets the seller back to break-even; anything above that is gravy. With profit margins like these, it’s easy to see why spammers will try anything to get past anti spam technology to deliver their messages to your inbox.

Types of Spam Threats
The recent onset of fraudulent spam variants such as phishing and spoofing pose an even greater risk than the spam volume clogging email servers. Spammers use techniques such as phishing and spoofing to fool users into opening messages that, at first glance, appear innocuous.

Phishing
Phishing is a specific type of spam message that solicits personal information from the recipient. Phishers use social engineering techniques to fool end users into believing that the message originated from a trusted sender, making these attacks especially dangerous because they often con victims into divulging social security numbers, bank account information or credit card numbers. In one six-month period from November 2003 to May 2004, phishing attacks increased in frequency by 4000%, and the trend continues upward.

An example of phishing is an email that appears to come from a bank requesting that users log into their account to update or correct personal information. When the users follow a link embedded in the email, they are redirected to a site that looks and behaves like the expected bank website. However, unbeknownst to the soon-to-be identity theft victims, the site is actually controlled by the scam artists who sent the email; any and all information entered by the victim can now be used in a variety of ways, none of them good.

Spoofing
Spoofing is a deceptive form of spam that hides the domain of the spammer or the spam’s origination point. Spammers often hijack the domains of well-known businesses or government entities to make spam filters think the communication is coming from a legitimate source.

Today’s spammers are more crafty than ever before and have begun blending elements of both phishing and spoofing into their messages, further spinning their web of deception. The toxic combination of spoofing and phishing presents a major threat that can trick most anyone into providing personal information to a stranger.

Toothless Legislation
On January 1, 2004, President Bush signed into law the “Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003,” or “CAN-SPAM” Act. While well intentioned, CAN-SPAM has done little or nothing to curb the flow of unwanted email. In fact, an estimated 97% of all spam email sent in 2004 violated the Act, and the United States still dwarfs other nations in terms of the origin of spam, with CipherTrust research revealing that an astonishing 56.77% of all spam comes from U.S.-based IP addresses. While CAN-SPAM was designed to decrease the overall volume of spam, the exact opposite has happened: in 2004, spam accounted for approximately 77% of all email traffic, and phishing attacks continue to increase exponentially, with studies showing an increase of 4000% from November 2003 to May 2004.

Anti Spam Software for the Desktop
The dramatic increase in spam volume has prompted a corresponding surge in stand-alone anti spam software solutions for the desktop, all with varying levels of effectiveness. Some anti spam software uses text filtering to screen incoming messages for known characteristics of spam, while other solutions rely solely on reputation systems that monitor and categorize email senders by IP address according to their sending behavior. Still other anti spam software uses “challenge/response filters” to block unapproved mail until the sender responds (manually) to a challenge email sent to their email account to verify his or her identity.

With so many different methods of filtering spam, no single software-based desktop anti spam solution is capable of effectively stopping spam before it reaches the inbox. The only way to successfully fight spam is to create an anti spam “cocktail” including reputation services, text filters, constant updates and a host of other best-of-breed spam blocking methods. Just as importantly, an effective anti spam solution should reside at the email gateway, not at the desktop. Without protection at the gateway, mail servers waste massive amounts of bandwidth and storage space processing every message, wanted or not, and end users face the unenviable task of deciding what to do with the countless spam messages that successfully reach them.

Take a Consolidated Approach to Anti Spam
Although it takes a person only a moment to process a message and identify it as spam, it is difficult to automate that human process because no single message characteristic consistently identifies spam. In fact, there are hundreds of different message characteristics that may indicate an email is spam, and an effective anti spam solution must be capable of employing multiple spam detection techniques.

In addition to effectively identifying spam, businesses must be assured that legitimate mail is not blocked in error. Even one false positive, or incorrectly blocked email, can have a significant impact on businesses today. Accurate spam blocking requires a combination of tools to examine various message criteria combined with real-time research and intelligence data.

By aggregating multiple spam detection technologies like text filtering, reputation services, traffic analysis and other best-of-breed techniques, and placing the solution at the email gateway in a hardened appliance, enterprises can retake control of the inbox.

Dr. Paul Judge is a noted scholar and entrepreneur. He is Chief Technology Officer at CipherTrust, the industry’s largest provider of enterprise email security. The company’s flagship product, IronMail provides a best of breed enterprise anti spam solution designed to stop spam, phishing attacks and other email-based threats. Learn more by visiting http://www.ciphertrust.com/products/spam_and_fraud_protection/ today.