You have probably
been told time and again that if an unsolicited e-mail
reaches your mailbox, you should never open it. If you
do, you will alert those who sent it to the fact that
you might possibly, one day - even if it's years from
now, be interested in their product or service. This alert
only produces more Spam that is sent to your e-mail address
both from the original sender and from various other Spammers
that purchase your address from the original sender.
So, if you're not opening the Spams that manage to make
it through all of the anti-Spam measures you have taken
to protect your inbox, how come you are still getting
them? In fact, they may be coming more frequently than
ever before. It turns out that Spammers have developed
some newer and sneakier methods of gaining access to your
inbox.
More than 50 percent of the Spams that you receive are
imbedded with "bugs." They're not viruses. They're
not fleas. They are written in basic, HTML code. Sometimes
they are attached to the e-mail as a visible link, and
sometimes they are so small and without color that it
would be almost impossible to detect them. What's the
big deal? You've known all along that Spammers could tell
if you opened the e-mail or not. This may be true, but
these new HTML bugs can tell whether or not you have even
previewed the message. That's right - if you even open
your inbox, you have alerted a Spam distributor that your
e-mail account is in use.
What good does that do the people that are sending out
unsolicited e-mails? In the long run, it is going to save
them time and money. Many Internet users have chosen to
set up dormant Web-based e-mail accounts so they can route
Spam to an account that they do not use. Thus, Spammers
spent many hours and lots of money on advertising that
virtually went nowhere. Spammers have caught on to this
trend, and they are fighting back by using their HTML
bugs to track which accounts are active and which are
dormant. If they can weed out all of the dormant accounts,
they can spend more time and money attacking those that
are not.
While this news may sound discouraging, there is still
a glimmer of hope. Most e-mail applications are equipped
with more than one anti-Spam feature. The best way to
combat these HTML bugs is to use all of the anti-Spam
features that your e-mail application allows. As the saying
goes, the best defense is a good offense!
