Awwww...Her first spam email.

This is a message sent to my department's support email address: (names and addresses and phone numbers and email addresses and domains and some references to religious or other theological deities have been changed or removed to protect the innnocent)

From: Schmenny, PENNY [mailto:PENNY.schmenny@flork.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2006 8:27 AM
To: ITS
Subject: FW: Pha9Framacy news

Here is a message I received that I don’t know who the person is sending it to me or why it’s being sent to me.
How do I stop this type of e-mail from coming to me?

Penny Schmenny
FLORK/A Schmohnson Schmontrols Schmompany
Phone - 999-999-xxxx
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jaime Cagley [mailto:cagl@avitsdts.com]
Sent: Sunday, March 12, 2006 3:21 PM
To: schmenny, PENNY Subject: Re: Pha9Framacy news

Hi,
Do you want to n O k V o E a R j P b A g Y for your e M i e x d m
i w a x c u t s i l o e n o s?

Nothing like you need it, g S f a w v j e over b 5 n 0 f % with
http://ceho43.ansapace.com

I understand that not everyone is as familiar with PC use as some others, but SPAM? It's been a staple annoyance of almost everyone with an email addresses since 1995 (even earlier). Even if she doesn't have a computer, I'm sure she's had a job that involved email in some capacity within the past 10 years. How can she not know what spam is? I think somewhere deep inside I revere this lady. I'm jealous of the fact that, somehow, she has managed to remain oblivoius to one of the most ubiquitous players of this computer age.

I tried explaining to her that there are a number of reasons she has recieved this email. Most likely a virus that has spread across the nation has picked up her email address from the contacts list of both the sender and her (the recipient). In order to avoid detection the virus source (probably an automated system...robot) has replicated a DNS name of another domain it has previously infested. Then an email is sent from the false address. The fake avitsdts.com domain only needs to exist for a split-second. Just long enough for the email to be sent. It is then recognized by the top level DNS and is given a swift kick in the nuts, but the message made it out "under the wire". The real avitsdts.com domain remains intact and the administrators are probably none the wiser. At least thats one option.

She didn't really care what caused it. She just wanted it to stop. I explained to her that that was a tall order given the nature of this particular situation. Our system is capable of blocking all email sent from the avisdts.com domain, but other spam will be sent from other domains, we can block them also. The spam blocking can go on until every public domain on the Internet is banned from sending anything to our company. Then what do we have? Fortress FLORK.COM. That just ain't good for business. I gave her a few pointers to help avoid spam, but since this is her work email address we're talking about, I gave her the option of getting a new address or deal with the small amount of spam she is recieving. She's still mulling it over.
Here are some tips to help avoid spam and keep your computer safe:

1. Practice safe Internet. For instance, if a pop-up window or banner ad is blinking "CLICK HERE", or is telling you you've won something, ignore it and move on to whatever it was you were doing in the first place.
2. Become familiar with your Operating System. No, you don't need to take night classes. However, before clicking "ok" to every error or notification window, stop to read it. Become familiar with the appearance and verbage. This will help you differentiate between the real pop-ups from your OS and the fake internet pop-ups designed to look like error messages from your OS. The more you know about your own computer the less likely you are to unwittingly download a virus.
3. Have a junk email address. Much of the spam you recieve is due to giving out your email address when you purchase something or sign up for a service on the Internet. That information is sold to 3rd party advertising companies. It's not necessarily a bad thing...the revenue from that sale of your email address helps keep the service free or lowers the cost of the item you are purchasing online. You just need to be able to work the system. Open a new email account. Keep this new one as your personal email address (friends and family) and your current one can become your junk email address. There are so many free email services (google, yahoo, netscape, hotmail, mail.com, etc.). Signup is free and easy. Use your current (already infested) email address during the signup process. Once your new email address is setup...DON'T give it to any online services. Keep it only for freinds and family. This will not eliminate SPAM, but will greatly reduce it.
4. Keep security software installed and up-to-date. Many PCs come with trial version security software that never gets activated either because the owners don't care or are not aware that it exists. Activate it! Most anti-virus software can scan your email for junk and malicious code (malicious = something you don't want). Use up the trial version. Then, if you like it and it ain't too expensive, buy the full version. If you find something cheaper, install that (uninstall the trial software first, though). Any security software is better than nothing. Most of this software only requires a few minutes to setup. After that, if everything is setup correctly, it will stay in the background until something "blows up" (i.e. you downloaded a virus or your son/husband/you have been looking at dirty, dirty, filthy porn again).

I hope this helps. Please keep in mind that the Internet is a very dangerous place. There is no way to completely eliminate threats against spam, viruses, ID theft and all that other shit you hear about on the news. But, a little heads-up info can go a long way. Keep alert and you won't get fucked. Creators of these viruses and the cheap, second-rate advertising groups that send this SPAM are are the loest of the low on the scale of internet filth. They should be brought out back and shot.