SPAM

Do you want to ‘Get Viagra for a great price’ or ‘Make Money Today’ or ‘Get any software almost for free’.
Have you received messages from people you don’t know saying ‘I love you’ or ‘Congratulations you have won’, ‘Read this immediately’ or even ‘Forward this to 10 other people or...’

If these are e-mail messages you didn’t ask for, from people you don’t know, then they are ‘spam’. We all get loads of spam and it is a real pain in the neck. And for the moment at least, it is something that we have to learn to deal with. Spam can be really nasty - it may contain a virus or a trojan, or it may try to trick us to give up our passwords or user names , or threaten us to do something we don’t want to do.

Chain e-mail runs on the same principle as chain letters and can range from promises of money to hoax virus alerts. The idea is that when you receive a chain e-mail, you are encouraged to forward it on to a number of people on your contact list, so you are forming a part of the chain with respect to the journey of the e-mail. Chain e-mails can be annoying or offensive. However sometimes chain e-mails threaten people and can be frightening to the recipient. These kinds of chain e-mail could be a criminal offense, so do not forward them - it could get traced back to you.

What can I do about spam?

Never open attachments from people you don’t know. Sometimes viruses might be sent unknowingly in attachments from your friends and family – check with the person who sent it if you are unsure about an attachment they sent.

Don’t click on any links in spam. You do not know where you will end up, and it will make you vulnerable to receive viruses. Don’t forward spam on to your friends, no matter how threatening it is or what you have been promised. Never reply to spam. Even if it says ‘unsubscribe’ or ‘Be removed from the list’ do not reply, as it may just confirm your e-mail address to the sender and may mean you get even more spam!

Choose an e-mail address that is difficult to guess, for example a series of numbers and letters. It is best not to have any identifying information in your e-mail address, such as full name, age, or location. Only give out your personal e-mail address to family and friends.

Consider setting up a separate e-mail account to use for entering on-line surveys or give-aways.

Don’t put your primary e-mail address anywhere on the Internet, in a profile, on a social networking site, or on a personal website. Consider using that alternate e-mail account you created for surveys!

Spam filters or junk mail filters can offer some protection by diverting suspected spam into a junk mail folder; check with your e-mail provider about how to do this.

 

SpIM

Spim is a term that refers to unwanted and unsolicited junk messages sent via an instant messenger client, such as AOL's AIM, MSN Messenger, or Yahoo! Instant Messenger. It is short for "SPAM via Instant Messenger."

Most spim comes in the form of annoying chat windows from unknown people who then send you text messages about their products or services. Some may ask you to visit a website; this is particularly dangerous because the website may contain malware that downloads, installs, and hijacks your computer without your knowledge or approval.

Finally, some spim attacks try to send you files to download. They may disguise a bad, malware ridden program as a picture or music file in the hope that you will accept their download request and infect your computer with whatever nasty bug they've designed.

What can I do about spim?

Never accept or open attachments from people you don’t know. Some scammers have automated programs (called bots) that send spim to all logged on instant messenger sessions on the hope that someone will accept their download request and infect themselves.

Turn off the automatic download features in your instant messenger client. Turning off this feature will ensure that you don't get files and downloads unless you approve them before they download.

Send all downloads to the same folder on your hard drive and then use your anti-virus software to scan that folder each time a new file is added. This will help ensure that even files from friends and family are virus and threat free before you install or open them on your computer.

 

SpIT

Spit is a term that refers to unwanted and unsolicited junk messages sent via internet telephony (or Voice Over IP - VoIP) protocols. While you may not use an Internet based phone in your room, if the person you are talking to on the other end of the line is, your conversations may be at risk. Spit is a growing threat to users of VoIP phones. People that send spit often do it as a way of inserting audio advertising into the phone conversation. For example, you might be talking to a friend and then all of the sudden an advertisement for an online dating service starts to play over the top of your conversation. This is spit.

More and more, however, hackers and scammers are using spit as a way to do more malicious things to users of VoIP. Some use it as a way to get entry into a poorly secured computer. This typically happens when someone uses what is called a "soft-phone." A soft-phones is basically software that turns the microphone and speakers on your PC into a phone. Because it runs on the PC itself, it can make your computer vulnerable to hacks and other attacks.

Scammers and on-line criminals are also using spit as a way to insert malicious software (like trojans) that will record your conversations and send them back out over the Internet to the scammers to use in whatever way they like.

If you use VoIP phones (either hard or soft) we strongly encourage the use of a firewall and anti-virus software to protect you, your computer, and your conversations.

 

Web Resources

OnGuard On-Line Security Information Website (U.S. Federal Trade Commission)