Why are you being stuffed with spam e-mail?

Every day open the email box you see a lot of unknown unknown letters of anyone. There are letters sent with advertising content, but there are also messages with no content at all. You wonder how these people know your email address when you show some of your email addresses.

That is what is called SPAM - spam . But how does SPAM know the email address of Internet users? How was SPAM sent? In this article we will help you find a better understanding of an Internet problem. It is SPAM.

What is SPAM?

Spam, a problem of the Internet.

SPAM really causes a lot of discomfort for Internet users, especially when it is sent in large numbers. Every day an email address may have to receive lots of SPAM emails even if using a good SPAM filter. However, SPAM is famous, but many people do not know what SPAM really is.

SPAM are emails that are not authorized by the recipient (Unsolicited email) that are sent in bulk to Internet users' mailboxes.

SPAM is sometimes seen as a commercial email without permission of the recipient (UCE - Unsocilited Commercial E-Mail).

However, not all SPAM cases are for commercial advertising purposes. Some cases send SPAM for unrighteous purposes or there are those who send SPAM only to express their political or religious views. The most dangerous form of SPAM sending is the sending of messages to trick users into disclosing direct bank account information, credit card numbers . - or this is a common occurrence of online fraud.

The origin of SPAM

SPAM is a disaster for email and newsgroups on the Internet. SPAM may interfere with the operation of public services. This is not to mention its impact on the email system. SPAM senders take away the resources of users and service providers without compensating anything. '

(Vint Cerf - Father of Internet ) One of SPAM's problems is also the reason why SPAM is 'to create SPAM or become SPAMMER is an easy thing'.

Anyone can become a SPAMMER For example, you have a unique item to sell immediately. But for people to know that item, you have to do it. You decide to first inform your friends by emailing 100 people in your address book. 'Wow!' You think 'So I don't lose a single coin and still can send out 100 promotional emails for my products. If someone knows to buy goods, they will make a big profit. Why don't I send emails to many others? Can I get more profits? ' You will then explore the application of solutions to send more emails to people you do not know more. So you have become SPAMMER.

That is the real problem of SPAM. It is too easy for anyone to send it while the cost is not worth it, sometimes it doesn't cost any money. And even though the ad sales rate is not high, SPAM still has a special attraction for marketing.

How to send SPAM?

To send SPAM, SPAMMER usually has to go through 2 basic steps: Collect email address and Send SPAM.

1. Collect email address

SPAM senders - or SPAMMER - there are many ways to collect email addresses. The most common are the following ways:

The first is through the newsgroups or chat rooms on the Internet, especially the web portal like AOL or Yahoo. With such services, users often still use real email addresses to register accounts. SPAMMER only needs to use a special software that can get email addresses of many people.

The second way is to exploit directly from the Web. There are already millions of websites on the Internet and SPAMMER only needs to use search software that can search for @ characters in web pages - as you know, this is a wildcard for email addresses. As a result, SPAMMER also easily has numerous email addresses in hand. Such software is often called SPAMBOT.

Alternatively, SPAMMER creates special websites specifically for collecting email addresses. For example, SPAMMER can create a website with the title 'Win $ 1 million !!! Just type your e-mail address here! ' (You won a $ 1 billion prize !!! Please leave your email address!). Many people have become victims of this scam. As a result, their inbox was filled with spam.

The story of spam filled with email inboxes is not only a matter of human origin, but also popular in Vietnam.

Or do you have websites that generate email lists? " Would you like to receive newsletters from our partners? " (Do you want to receive newsletters from our partners ?) If you answered 'Yes' Your email address will immediately be sold to SPAMMER.

Or SPAMMER can establish a website for user registration, which requires the provision of a valid email address as a core requirement of registration. Actually that's just a way to collect email addresses. In the past, there were many big websites selling the members' email addresses.

Perhaps the most common way is the method called ' dictionary attack '. This is a programming method for a computer that can create a lot of variations from an email address by changing the characters - for example, mike1@yahoo.com , mike2@yahoo.com , mike3@yahoo.com .

There is a dictionary attack like this: ' Dictionary attack uses a software to create a connection to an e-mail server to send to millions of any email address. Many of those addresses are just variations of an email address - for example jdoe1abc@hotmail.com and jdoe2def@hotmail.com. The software will check which email address is 'alive', the address will 'catch the eye of SPAMMER' .

The last and easiest way is to buy a CD containing hundreds of thousands of email addresses from other SPAMMER.

And then once SPAMMER has a number of relative email addresses, they will talk to other SPAMMER and will get more email addresses. They started sending SPAM.

Send SPAM

SPAMMER also has a lot of different ways to send thousands of millions of spam emails - legally available and illegal.

Firstly, SPAMMER has to invest money to equip themselves with many computer systems, modems and Internet connection to send SPAM. This is a completely legal but high cost way. However, the results will probably be tens of thousands of dollars in profits.

The second way is much cheaper but illegal and is also the most dangerous way for users. That's how to send SPAM through open proxy servers (open proxy servers). Talking about this method of SPAM is also about how SPAMMER secretly hacked into other people's computer systems to build something called a botnet.

Zombie PC

First, SPAMMER will use the technology and tricks necessary to secretly install a software onto the user's system. It is a software that allows SPAMMER to take control of a remote victim's computer system - or in other words, SPAMMER has kidnapped the computer. That computer has become something called 'Zombie'. When there are many zombies, SPAMMER will build a network of Zombies - or this is the botnet system. Here the second method is similar to the first, except that SPAMMER does not have to buy computer systems that go "kidnapping" other people's computers.

The second method of sending SPAM also illustrates why SPAMMER today is a threat to everyone using the Internet and why SPAM is also considered as malicious as other malicious software such as virus, computer worm or trojan.

You should know that in order to successfully break into and kidnap a user's computer system, SPAMMER must use attack techniques to exploit security flaws no matter what hackers or other types of frauds do not cost anything. phisher. The software helps SPAMMER to attack and kidnap remote users' computers, which are also viruses, worms, or trojans. In other words, now there seems to be no more names between hackers and SPAMMER, SPAM has become a tool for distributing viruses, worms, trojans and vice versa, these malware are tools to send SPAM.

You imagine it with a huge amount of SPAM sent around the world every day, what if your computer system becomes a Zombie? Your PC will constantly have to send SPAM emails, your Internet connection and PC will be much slower as all resources are used by SPAMMER. On the other hand, you can sometimes become a victim of legal protection. Because they can easily discover that your PC has been used in illegal SPAM attacks, it is very difficult to detect SPAMMER. You become a reluctant victim.

You often watch a SPAM KING - the king in sending SPAM - say something: ' I took control of a total of 190 email servers - 110 in Southfield, 50 in Dallas and 30 in Canada, China, Russia and India. Each computer can send 650,000 emails per hour, equivalent to more than 1 billion emails a day . '

There are also companies established to specialize in accepting contracts to send SPAM at low prices. But the company claims it is not SPAMMER entirely because its customers accept emails sent by them. Email addresses like these are usually collected by way of collecting the third email address as mentioned above.

Against SPAM

Warning spam with Spam Alarm tool.

The best technology to fight SPAM now is to use SPAM filtering software. You can find a lot of SPAM filtering software on the Internet, it is best to visit websites like pcworld.com or download.com to download these software.

However, as you know SPAMMER sometimes has control over your system to send SPAM, so SPAM filtering software is not everything. You also need to regularly install operating system security updates to patch security flaws to avoid exploiting SPAMMER, you need a software to remove malware, and best You should need to add a personal firewall software.

But no matter what tool it is, it can't be as human. SPAM has been seen as a social problem related to people, so only humans can resist it. Be really careful when using the Internet and equip yourself with the necessary knowledge about security and safe use of the Internet. You can avoid SPAM and other threats on the Internet.

Trang Dung