Spam is the electronic equivalent of junk mail. Spam runs the gamut from relatively innocuous to potentially dangerous. Whether it's an ad for a new computer or an urge to vote a certain way, if you didn't ask for it, it's spam.
Not necessarily, though it may be. Please read about "phishing" below.
Very. At its best, the number of resources spam consumes is disproportionate to its usefulness to the organization. At its worst, spam may cause people to be cheated or their identity to be stolen. By resources, I do not mean just the space on the server or the network time that spam uses. Spam also takes up your personal time and legitimate (and important) messages can be lost among the spam messages. Spam is also a big problem due to the number of victims affected by it. Some sources estimate that 5-15% of corporate emails are spam.
People send spam in order to sell a product or a service, advocate a point of view, increase traffic to a website, sell a money-making scheme or sexually-oriented material, or promote a scam. Unlike the paper-and-ink version of junk mail, however, there is little or no cost (in time or money) to sending out electronic junk mail, so economics are unlikely to cause the technique to be abandoned.
Some years ago an industry leader was asked how to be completely safe from viruses. The answer was "Unplug your computer and put it in the closet." This is also true of spam. The current state of technology does not present an impregnable door lock and it does not present a method that is capable of completely blocking all spam. Even the somewhat cumbersome "friends" method (whereby only those people who are listed as friends can send email to your email address) cannot completely block all avenues of unsolicited email, since a spammer can "spoof" an email address belonging to someone on your friends list. The goal is to reduce the incidence of spam via safe surfing and wise emailing.
There are many ways for spam artists to get email addresses. Some companies with which you have dealt sell their mailing lists to other companies. Many "free" products and services ask you to register using your email address and sell those email addresses to make up for the cost of the "free" product or service you got. Spammers can also use "bots" or "robots" to harvest the Internet for email addresses. Such bots can find email addresses on web sites, forums, etc.
Normally you cannot. While more experienced users can look at the email "headers" to find the origin of the message, this may be a moot point. Frequently the spammer will set up a one-time email account purely to initiate the spam bulk email sending. When the email sending is finished, the account is closed; this technique may be repeated many times in the course of a spam campaign. At other times, the spammer will "spoof" their email address and/or origin, making it difficult or impossible to trace the source of the Spam, so finding the original sender will very often prove fruitless. One of the latest techniques is to "spoof" the recipient of the spam mail, sending a message purportedly both from and to the same person. While our Barracuda Spam Firewall catches (and blocks) the original spam message, it sends a message telling the purported "sender" of the spam mail letting them know "their" message has been blocked, prompting concerns about lost messages or viruses on the computer.
Technology Services has installed and tested a new anti-virus/anti-spam
gateway from Barracuda Networks to replace the current systems. Since testing
began in May 2005, Technology Services has gradually routed all mailboxes
through the new gateway. Initial participating users have reported a tremendous
reduction in un-solicited e-mail and delivery times of less than 5 seconds.
In addition to the increased effectiveness and efficiency, the new system
introduces a feature for A&M-Commerce called the quarantine inbox and
preferences manager. The quarantine inbox is a virtual location where the user
can manage their quarantined messages and customize their delivery options. If a
user has any messages in their quarantine, he/she will receive a spam quarantine
summary each afternoon with a link to their inbox and preferences manager.
For maximum efficacy, the Spam Firewall must be "taught". When spam is "caught" by the firewall and placed in your Quarantine, you receive a message from the Barracuda Spam Firewall letting you know the message has been sent to the quarantine and offering you several options. From the email received from the Firewall, the user can usually choose to perform several actions on the message(s). Most important to your long-term reduction of spam, is the link towards the bottom of the email allowing you to change/set your preferences. Within the Quarantine Inbox, you can "teach" the system by marking messages as spam or not spam (see below).
In order to mark one or more messages individually as spam, click the box to the left of the message line of each desired message and click the "Classify as Spam' button (red lettering). You may also select ALL messages in the quarantine inbox by clicking the box to the left of Time Received From. While this is a bit more work, there are a few advantages to taking the time to perform these steps: 1) By classifying messages as spam, you give the Barracuda software more information about what YOU consider spam; 2) By classifying messages as spam, you "teach" Barracuda so that it will be able to capture future messages of the same ilk; 3) By performing this step at intervals, you help keep the "rules" by which the Barracuda software identifies spam more current. All this results in fewer junk mail messages making it to your email Inbox.
Barracuda Spam Firewall also offers a plug-in for Outlook that can add a further layer to help reduce spam. There is a link on the Barracuda Spam Firewall page (http://smtpwalli.tamu-commerce.edu:8000) that allows you to download the plug-in for later installation.
How can I block (or allow) a sender via my Barracuda Preferences?
If you click the Preferences tab, you can manually enter email addresses to
block or, alternatively, email addresses to whitelist (always let through
without checking against spam symptoms). While blocking a sender will stop that
email address from sending you messages, it is the nature of spam artists to
change their email addresses very quickly. Since "spamming" is frequently listed
in the terms of agreement as just cause for removal of an email account by
the email host/provider, spam artists often open an email account to send out a
batch of spam then close the account and move on to another or "borrow" an email
account belonging to someone else ("spoofing") to send emails. Often the
spammer has already closed the account or moved on to "spoof" another
before you receive the junk email.
How can I use Junk Mail Filters to reduce spam volume? Do I need to?
Your email program's junk mail filters offer an additional layer that can be helpful in controlling spam. Below are some instructions for using mail filters in common email clients:
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Spammers are accomplished at evading anti-spam measures. While you may receive more than one message with the same contents and the same subject line, chances are those messages come from a different email address. It is the nature of spam artists to change email addresses frequently and/or to hide their identity. Home security experts say that it's impossible to keep a determined thief out of your home and that the trick is to slow him/her down enough to make them think it's too much trouble and encourage them to move on to another house. The same could be said for spam. Listed below are some tips for reducing spam volume.
Phishing is a relatively new email-based scam that attempts to gain personal and bank information using both social engineering and technical subterfuge. Social engineering is a practice of obtaining confidential or security information by manipulating legitimate users. Phishing emails usually use legitimate-appearing email addresses, corporate logos, and such to trick consumers into visiting counterfeit websites that then try to trick them into divulging financial data such as credit card numbers, account usernames, passwords, and social security numbers, etc. These schemes often hijack legitimate business or e-business names such as PayPal or bank names in order to convince recipients to respond. Phishing emails may also contain malware that can be placed on the person's computer to harvest the information directly and/or direct users to fraudulent websites. Please see the Malware FAQ for more information about avoiding viruses, spyware, and other malware.
Barracuda has several articles that may be of help. You can find their page here: http://spam.abuse.net/userhelp/
