Spam anyone?
By;
George Horton
Many people in the computer industry are saying that unsolicited bulk email or spam is threatening the usability of the internet and its services worldwide. It is estimated that more than 50% of all emails worldwide are considered spam.
According to a recent report from the independent research company Nucleus Research, spam is costing businesses as much as $874us per employee per year in lost productivity, since an average employee receives 13 spam mails per day.
I guess they think that people actually read them. Most people create rules for each spam sender that automatically send the email to the deleted items folder, or not even download it from their mail server. So even if you received 20 spam emails per day, by creating rules for each one they are automatically taken care of. I personally think that spam is as much a part of the web as commercials are to TV. And let’s not even talk about offensive content.
You may have noticed that much of magazine or newspaper content today is ads. Is this spam? Even though we didn’t ask for the ads we have an understanding that the ads will be included with the content of the media. Spam may be no different than advertising of any kind.
Radio & Television have been interrupting shows to sell us something since the first broadcast, so commercials may not be any different than spam. , (some commercials now don’t let you know that they even are commercials until just before they end).
A friend did an experiment recently. She bought some fashion & home type magazines. She ripped out every page with ads on both sides and made a pile. This ads pile was thicker then what was left of the magazine that still had ads in it. Why are we paying for things that use more space to sell stuff to us than inform or interest us which is why we buy the media in the first place? At least spam is free.
So advertising, whether on TV, Radio, Print or the Web is still advertising, or is it Spam. Par for the course when living in a free market society. My advice is; get a good email program and learn how to deal with unsolicited email. It is a personal problem soon fixed with the right tools and training.
Whyz Tip; Phishing, (pronounced fishing), is a new scam on the web. Recent changes to domain registry rules, allow the transfer of domains from one registrar to another. This has launched new campaigns by companies to grab domains from unsuspecting consumers. Here is how it works. You receive an official looking letter with the header “Domain Name Expiration Notice” in the mail warning you that your domain is about to expire if you don’t send them a payment right away. They use panic language, for example, “Failure to renew your domain name may result in a loss of your online identity”. Forget about trying to read the very fine print on the back. Many people have been caught in this scam and have found their domain names transferred to other servers and in some cases forwarded to other websites. My uncle used to say “measure twice, cut once” this is good advice in any situation. Make sure you check with your webmaster or web hosting service provider if you are not sure what to do.
Surf safe
George Horton
www.kcnb.ca