Please...Stop the Spam!

It appears that lately, the amount of spam arriving to my e-mail inbox is growing exponentially. Not only am I summoned daily by ScotiaBank, CIBC, and important security alerts from PayPal (often three or four times in a row), but I'm now also being approached in French! I'm not sure what's caused the upsurge as of late, but I've heard the same complaints from many others. When will it end?

Typically, my e-mail spam filter picks up these messages, but these particular ones seem to be passing through quite easily. One tells me of refugees in Ghana that have a significant amount of gold they'd like me to help find a buyer for. Another contains the typical spiel: dad died and left me $4.5 million, yadda yadda yadda, I need to find a foreign investor to deposit the money in your bank in order to gain access to it. But I've noticed a considerable number of them now promising "easy money" with work from home projects. Playing on the weak economy? I'm not sure, but these spammers sure are stooping to new lows, and coming out in full force.

And this is just my office account. Don't even get me started on my personal Rogers e-mail account! There, I can learn about cheap meds (including yes, Viagra), designer watches at discount prices, how to get a degree online, and my personal fav: an e-mail with a subject line that reads "Internet scammers have stolen your money? We will help to get it back!" Sure you will.

The amount of e-mail spam is truly getting sickening. Some just contain gibberish, like one that included the following text: Nothing there that would stop a halfcrippled hun cutting off, with a razorfaced arrow, the bow instant so, standing at some centre to which shall van of that host, while the rear was protected a suitable bridegroom his daughter possessed of.

Seriously?

Never open an e-mail from someone you don't recognize, and never, ever, EVER click on a link or double-click to open a file contained in an e-mail that looks even remotely suspicious. Banks, credit card companies, and courier services will never send you e-mails asking for account changes or advising of a package unless you've requested it. In this case, it'll be sent directly to you from a real person, and will contain YOUR name in it, nor Dear Sir or Maam.

Spam is annoying, but it has the potential to be devastating if you don't delete instantly it and move on. If you're worried that it might be legitimate, pick up the phone and find out. It's not worth the trouble to take your chances.

Spam Doesn't Just Come in a Can

When I was growing up, SPAM was an odd-looking meat byproduct that was found in a can in your local grocery store. That kind of spam still exists today, but now something other than that sliceable hunk of food immediately comes to mind when you hear the word "spam": bogus e-mails that try to get you to release personal information, make promises of financial freedom, or ask you to "click here" to see a funny joke that really puts a virus on your PC."

What's even scarier is that e-mail spam is becoming more frequent and even more creative. Internet security company Secure Computing claims that, in the month of June, more than 85% of all e-mail sent was spam! Aside from wasted time sifting through this junk, spam can also cost consumers in PC repairs and virus removal services. Even worse, it can cost people thousands of dollars if they unknowingly release personal financial information to a spammer.

One of the most frequent types of spam, according to Secure Computing, has been phishing, where an e-mail contains a link to a Website that mimics a legitimate one (like a bank or online shopping site) and requests personal account information from the recipient. But some other interesting types have been popping up over the years, each playing on different reader's weaknesses. For example, fashion spam promises discount prices on brand name merchandise; while loan spam targets those in financial need by offering a solution that really just further perpetuates the problem by hijacking their PCs.

Penny Stock Spams are another relatively new category in the e-mail space. In this case, the spammers purchase a large amount of stock, then send out a massive e-mail campaign that hypes it up, only to sell it off before they're found out, and pocket the easy cash. Secure Computing notes that many use stock symbols close to legitimate ones, like HBSC and FIMA.

While the "win a BlackBerry" scheme has been going strong, I wouldn't be surprised to see that change to "win an iPhone" some time soon! You have to admit: people typically find it tough to resist the chance to win anything, so it's no shock that this scam is still going strong.

Finally, there's the false headline spam e-mails that pretend to send you to a site with juicy details about a real, or even fake, news story. Spammers ensure they cover all types and age groups by making these headlines range from timely war and natural disaster-related topics to the latest Hollywood starlet gossip.

While it's tough, the easiest way to combat this stuff is simply not to open an e-mail if you don't know who it's from; and especially don't open attachments. If it's a legitimate e-mail and important enough, the person will manage to get in touch with you somehow. It's much more sensible to hit that delete button than it is to risk damaging your PC or worse, your bank account. While times have changed, it still remains that the only kind of spam you should be opening comes in a can.