Are We Getting Used to Spam Already?

As we’ve previously reported in past editions of this newsletter, spam continues to explode in volume. What is even more surprising about the whole situation is that spam has become a little like living in the Pacific Northwest. The more you have rain, the less you mind it. Well, that is what Pew Internet and American Life Project report suggests.

Does this mean people are really getting used to spam?

The organization’s nationwide survey reveals that 67% of the 1,421 Internet users-respondents say they are bothered by spam, as compared to 77% a year ago (read full Special Feature story below entitled “Users Are Getting Used to Spam, Survey Says”). And while people have become more tolerant of spam, 22% of survey respondents say spam has made them less trusting of email, compared to 29% last year.

"These findings suggest that at least for now, the worst-case scenario--that spam will seriously degrade or even destroy email--is not happening and that users are settling into a level of discomfort with spam that is tolerable to them," the report says.

Also worth noting is that a stable 6% of email users still buy products advertised through spam.

So, is this good or bad? Is this suggesting that Internet users are becoming “inured to the annoyance” as Sarah Gilbert puts it?

Reacting to the survey results, Alyce Lomax, who writes for Motley Fool, says thus: “Maybe a little relief is in order for consumers this time around, of course, when you consider what was going on this time last year: The Internet was feeling like a fairly dangerous (or at the very least, irritating) place, with threats like the Bagle virus helping speed momentum for people to take action, such as switching to the Firefox browser.”

Lomax also added that a number of factors must have helped, like aggressive spam filtering. Or it could be a huge change of behavior among Internet users. Or the CAN-SPAM Act is working after all!

Despite this "sunnier" picture of the spam situation, "it's not yet time for the big-name ISPs and email providers to get comfy," writes Lomax. After all, 67% disgruntled customers is still an overwhelming majority, although a little less than last year. "Spam continues to be a big, bulky pain, and when it comes to scams like phishing, it's downright dangerous," writes Lomax.

And we couldn't agree more. We, at Bigfoot Anti-Spam Solution, continue to pursue our fight against spam and better our services to make our users' Internet experience more livable.

Contents

Special Feature     Users Are Getting Used to Spam, Survey Says

United States of America     US Spammer Sentenced to Nine Years in Prison     Florida Files First Spam Lawsuit     Bogus Microsoft Security Updates Circulate on the Net

Europe     Anti-Spam Alliance Formed in Germany

Asia - Pacific     Brazilian Police Nabs Phishing Kingpin     Japanese Companies Form Anti-Spam Group

International News     Phishing Attacks Up by only 2%    Canadians Getting Less Spam in 2004

Opinion    Leverage the Power of Your Bigfoot WebMail

Letters To The Editor

Special Feature

Users Are Getting Used to Spam, Survey Says

"A year after the CAN-SPAM Act became law, email users say they are receiving slightly more spam than before, but they are minding it less," says a survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project between January 13 and February 9, 2005.

According to the organization's nationwide phone survey, 67% of 1,421 respondents say they are beleaguered by spam, as compared to 77% a year ago. Although the figure shows its 10% lower than last year's, the fact remains that more than half of Internet users still consider spam to be a big problem. However, it must be noted that the adverse effects of spam on email habits and the overall Internet experience of users have declined.

"Users also report that their greatest spam irritant, pornographic email, has declined," the report says. "On the other hand, 35% of email users now report they have received unsolicited email requesting personal financial information, a spamming technique known as phishing."

The survey's margin of error is plus or minus three points. Below are the statistical highlights:

• 52% of internet users consider spam a big problem. • 28% of users with a personal email account say they are getting more spam than a year ago, while 22% say they are getting less. • 21% of users with a work email account say they are getting more spam than a year ago, while 16% say they are getting less. • 53% of email users say spam has made them less trusting of email, compared to 62% a year ago. • 22% of email users say that spam has reduced their overall use of email, compared to 29% a year ago. • 67% of email users say spam has made being online unpleasant or annoying, compared to 77% a year ago. • 63% of email users say they have received porn spam, compared to 71% who said that a year ago. • 35% of email users say they have received unsolicited email requesting personal financial information.

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US Spammer Sentenced to Nine Years in Prison

A Virginia ciruit judge has sentenced Jeremy Jaynes, a convicted spammer, to 9 years in jail. This is the first custodial sentence handed down to a spammer in the United States, Channel Register reports.

Jaynes was found guilty of sending out at least 10 million emails a day using 16 broadband lines, grossing between $400,000 and $700,000 a month on expenses of around $50,000.

Jaynes was indicted by a Loudon County Grand Jury in December 2003 and convicted late last year. His sister was sentenced to a small fine and an accomplice was acquitted. Currently, he is free on bond until a decision will be made on the appeal.

Florida Files First Spam Lawsuit

The Florida Attorney General's Office has filed its first claims under the state's anti-spam law against two men involved in fraudulent online businesses via email, says a ZDNet news report. The office of Attorney General Charlie Crist has filed civil claims against Scott Filary and Donald Townsend.

Filary and Townsend are accused of being involved in an operation that generated over 65,000 deceptive emails since 2003. According to the state, the email campaigns advertised more than 75 websites that engaged in fraudulent or illegal business activities, such as pharmaceuticals, cigarettes and services for illegal downloading of copyrighted movies.

The defendants face up to $24 million in fines.

In tracking down the spammers, the attorney general acknowledged Microsoft's aid. Dummy accounts set up at Microsoft's Hotmail web-based email service were used to help track the individuals' spam campaigns, the report says.

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Anti-Spam Alliance Formed in Germany

Various German trade organizations including The Association of Consumer Protection Agencies (VZBZ), The Agency for the Prevention of Unfair Competition (WBZ) and The Association of the German Internet Sector (Eco) announced a new alliance to fight spam in Germany.

According to the Channel Register report, the Association of German Internet Sector, representing around 300 members, will provide technical expertise to trace the origin of spam or track the spam sender.

The consumer protection agency and the competition agency can press charges against these senders of spam based on the evidence produced. Companies offering products using spammers can expect fines too.

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Brazilian Police Nabs Phishing Kingpin

Brazilian police arrested suspected kingpin, Valdir Paulo de Almeida, allegedly the mastermind of a scam that raid accounts using a Trojan horse sent by email to thousands of email users, Channel Register reports.

Almeida is said to have stolen around $37 million from online banking accounts.

Investigators say that Paulo de Almeida headed one of Brazil's biggest gangs of online fraudsters. “They moved between 50 and 100 million reals ($18 million and $37 million) over the last two years... [and] sent over three million emails with Trojan horses per day,” the report says.

According to anti-virus firm Sophos, the appearance of Trojan horses (Troj/Banker-AR Trojan horse and Troj/Banker-K) were written to target customers of Brazil's online banking websites.

Japanese Companies Form Anti-Spam Group

Around 30 companies in Japan, including leaders in the computer and mobile phone industries announced that they will be forming a body to fight spam, Agence France Presse reports. The firms will be setting up the Japan Email Anti-Abuse Group to fight spam at the technical level.

“Japan has been lagging behind the US in research and implementation of sender authorization and other technologies that stop spam at the source,” an official statement from the group said.

The organizations in the project will include computer makers NEC and IBM Japan, major Internet service providers such as Yahoo Japan, Nifty and Softbank BB, and Japan's four largest mobile phone service providers.

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Phishing Attacks Up by only 2%

Anti-Phishing Working Group, an online fraud watchdog, recently announced that the number of phishing emails it tracked between January and February 2005 grew by only 2%. Acording to ZDNet, that’s a more marked lessening of the threat, given that since July last year the average growth rate has been 26%.

However, experts say that the other side of the coin shows that during the January-February period phishing attacks were dramatically more complex. It could be that attackers are building more sophisticated traps and using advanced technology to perpetrate online fraud.

The report says that “phishing fraud schemes – including offshoots such as pharming, cross-site scripting and DNS poisoning – are getting smarter.”

Canadians Getting Less Spam in 2004

Ipsos Reid, a Canadian research firm, reports that online Canadians received an average of 177 emails per week in 2004, 87 (49%) of which were spam, which translated into 4,524 spam mails annually.

The report also says the dramatic drop in emails is attributed to a 35% reduction in the amount of spam received by Canadian Internet users.

In 2003, online Canadians received weekly average of 197 emails of which 134 (68%) were spam.

Although the number of spam messages was still high, 2004 marked the first year that spam volume actually fell. Prior to 2004, spam volumes had been doubling every year with an average of 30 spam messages per week in 2001, and 64 in 2002.

Ipsos Reid cites several reasons for the drop in spam volumes.

* New laws such as Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and the U.S.’s CAN-SPAM Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) have elevated awareness of the problems associated with spam and have forced marketers to re-evaluate their practices and adhere to tougher guidelines.

* Canadians are increasingly installing spam filters, as 77% of online Canadians report that they are using spam-filtering software, up from 41% just two years ago.

* ISPs and organizations have made significant progress in fighting spam through filters.

* Canadians are becoming less willing to open spam, as only 36% open any spam on a given week compared to 40% in 2002, which contributes to the decreasing effectiveness of spam.

“Canadians are starting to regain control of their email inboxes,” says Steve Mossop, Senior Vice-President of Ipsos-Reid. “At this point in time last year, Canadians were frustrated with email overload and clutter, and were starting to turn off their mailboxes and become increasingly skeptical towards email. This year, people are feeling more positive about email as a communications tool, and are receptive to legitimate permission-based email marketing.”

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Opinion

Opinions From Inspector Mails Inspector Mails is the AI entity for Bigfoot's Anti-Spam Solution. He will be giving regular updates and opinions on current anti-spam trends.

Leverage the Power of Your Bigfoot WebMail

When we said in a previous edition of Anti-Spam Monthly Review that the best way to strike back at spammers is to “avoid using email like the plague” (Tom Springs’ Tips to Fight Spam in 2005, February 2005 Edition), we admit we made a lapse in judgment in agreeing to Mr. Springs’ supposedly spam-busting suggestion.

He could be right though; but after ruminating on the article, we decided spam shouldn’t deter us from using emails as much as we want or need to. Email wasn’t created for spammers, in the first place. What needs to be changed, however, is the way we use the email system and the way we conduct ourselves on the Internet. There’s really no harm in exercising a little bit of caution here.

What we’re suggesting is a more systematic and more organized inbox. That can be the best strategy we can muster to keep our heads above the flood of spam at this point, until the anti-spam industry sees the light and finally get its act together. And we’re being hopeful about it.

Bigfoot WebMail is equipped with power-packed features that will help you organize your inbox in a breeze. Now, it’s time to leverage the power of your WebMail for stress-free email management and keep spam or junk mails at bay.

Bigfoot WebMail’s mail management gives you several options to choose from to make your online emailing a lot easier. Mail management includes access to the following services that will help you deal with unwanted mails from your end:

> Mail Storage Period: This unique feature lets you specify the length of time your mails will be stored in your mailbox. Once the specified time has elapsed, the mails will be deleted automatically. This option is available to all folders, including user-created folders.

> Mail Filter: This allows you to set up special regulations for your email delivery. You can choose to receive a certain email, and where you would like that email to go. If a specific incoming email does not trigger a filtering option, it will be sent to your inbox by default.

> Blacklist: This feature allows you to list and block off addresses or domains from which you don't want to receive mail. Incoming mail from addresses on the list will be deleted automatically.

> White List: You can set the addresses or domains that you want to receive emails from.

> Friends Box: With Friends Box, the mails of contacts you have sent an email or replied to are automatically delivered in your Friends Box folder. The use of the Friends Box feature, however, is optional.

If you don’t have a Bigfoot WebMail account yet, you may sign up now at http://webmail.bigfoot.com.

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Letters To The Editor

Is My Email Address Blocked? It is most encouraging to receive your Anti-Spam Monthly Reviews. After all the security problems I have been having, I am extremely happy to see someone doing such great work. I still get hundreds of spam or junk emails, and I tried to send them to the abuse address given some time ago. The first few seemed to generate no problems. However, the rest remain undelivered for whatever reason. Is it possible that my address could have been blocked because of the volume of spam sent to them? Regards, Carole (email address withheld upon sender's request)

Thank you for your trust and vote of confidence. We, at Bigfoot Anti-Spam Solution, are always on our toes to give you, our dear subscribers, excellent service. We would also like to commend you for taking part in our fight against spam. It’s heartening to know that we in the anti-spam industry are one and on the same page with our users. In relation to your query, the reason your mails weren’t delivered to the abuse address was that sometime in March the abuse address reached its storage quota. However, we are pleased to inform you that this has been fixed already. We’ve also checked that your mail server is not in the ORDB/spamhaus?dsbl blacklist and that means, your mails are not blocked. If you encounter the same problems or other problems regarding our services for that matter, please don’t hesitate to contact us at http://contactus.bigfoot.net/index.htm or log in your queries at http://ef.bigfoot.net/ef/en/feedback.do.

We appreciate all of the comments and responses we have received about the newsletter. We will be addressing your concerns in the next issue. You may send your comments to antispam.review@bigfoot.com. Since we print some of the comments we receive, please advise us if you want your complete name and email address withheld. You may provide us with a first name, city and state, as an alternative.

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