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Spam Mutates
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In 2005 more than half of the 15,000 complaints filed each month to Larkin's group related to phishing, the use of e-mail disguised to look as if it comes from a bank or other financial institution in an attempt to trick the recipients into disclosing personal information, thereby exposing them to identity theft.
A new variant of phishing, called spear phishing , involves fraudulent messages that appear to come from an individual, company, affinity group, or organization the recipient might have dealings with. The idea is that people are more likely to respond to an e-mail from the alumni association of their alma mater, for example, than to an e-mail from eBay asking them to update their billing information.
And so the spam war goes: Even as advances are made on one front, wily new tactics open up another.
Brian Sullivan, America Online's senior technical director of mail operations, is resigned to the likelihood of long-term combat. "We'll just keep our guard up so the next place it pops up, we'll be there to knock it down again."
Spammer: It's No Longer Easy Money
Mike is a small-time spammer with big-time problems. Sending junk e-mail, he says, isn't paying the bills the way it used to because of better spam filters. In addition, arrest is a constant threat as authorities get more aggressive in enforcing antispam laws.
So Mike is trying to change with the times: Today he says he makes $500 a week in the spam trade by selling lists of IP addresses of compromised computers, sometimes called zombie PCs, which the list buyers use to send spam. The money isn't as good as it was when he did the mailings himself, but Mike believes that this way, he's less likely to get caught.
PC Worldfound Mike through a Web site where spammers meet and share tips. He agreed to an interview on the condition that his real name be withheld.
Q:Do you think what you do is wrong?
A:I don't care what people think.
Q:Why don't you send bulk e-mail legally? The CAN-SPAM [Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing] Act allows you to.
A:Playing by the rules is bad for business. The only way spammers can sneak by an ISP's antispam filter these days is by tricking them, and the techniques to trick antispam filters are illegal, according to CAN-SPAM. So if you want to be sure you don't end up in a court, don't let them find you.
