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Spam: a
threat to the Information Society
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Background paper |
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Although there is no agreed definition of spam,
the term is commonly used to describe unsolicited electronic communications over
e-mail, mobile (SMS, MMS) and instant messaging
services, with the objective of marketing commercial products or services. The
content of these messages can range from advertisement for low-cost plane
tickets to pornographic material.
While this description covers most kinds of spam, a rising phenomenon is the
use of spam to support fraudulent and criminal
activities , including attempts to capture financial information (e.g.
account numbers and passwords) by masquerading messages as originating from
trusted companies ("brand-spoofing" or "phishing").
Spammers have proven to be creative in avoiding detection, including
falsification of origin of e-mail and randomization of content to bypass spam
filters.
The cost of spam is not supported by the senders
but by individual recipients and the Internet system in general.
The scale of the problem has grown to such an extent that anti-spam laws are
rapidly being enacted in a number of countries, although approaches and remedies
vary between countries. At the same time, there is increasing recognition that
countering spam is an issue requiring international coordination and
cooperation.
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The cost
of spam
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The marginal cost for a spammer to send an additional message is negligible.
This means that even if the response rate is very low, this activity can still
be economically viable. Conversely, spam is costly for the recipients, and may
also include loss of storage space, increased consumption of bandwidth, wasted
time and misused resources. Beside these, there are other costs that are
intangible - but still have a negative impact on users - such as the decline of
user trust in Internet and e-mail, the risk of incurring possible frauds, and receiving viruses or disturbing material.
What collective impact is the menace of spam having on the efficiency of
corporate activity?
See: "A
spammer in the works", MessageLabs, 2003
Spam is a parasite, as the act of sending a message costs the sender less
than it costs all other parties impacted by the sending of the message.
See: "The
Economics of Spam", S. Cobb, ePrivacyGroup
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Mobile
spam and 'spim'
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Spam is not only affecting e-mails, but it is also increasingly
affecting our mobile networks with SMS and MMS, and instant messaging services (so-called "spim").
In the future spam could invade VoIP conversations as
well. |
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The GSM Association lists spam as
one of the four top threats to the future of the mobile industry, and in Europe
it has been estimated that 65 per cent of mobile users receive around five spam
messages per week.
See: "UK
Watchdog bites mobile spam scammers", The Register, February 2004
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Mobile spam is a concern in particular in countries where mobile Internet is
commonly used, as is the case in Japan. NTT DoCoMo, the largest Japanese mobile
operator, has since 2001 been trying to undertake countermeasures to limit this
phenomenon.
See: How to
prevent spam e-mail, DoCoMo Net, 2002
See: Mobile
spam: Is the next plague upon us?, Silicon.com, June 2003
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Spim is to chat users what spam is to e-mail users. Spim is usually constituted
of a one-line message with a link to a website (most of the time with
pornographic material).
See: Is spim
worse than spam?, The Register, 8 April 2004 and Spam
monster eyes another target, Wired News, 26 March 2004.
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Spam and
fraud
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Spam is a vehicle that can carry advertising, but also viruses, scams and
other deceptive content. Beside violating anti-spam laws - where these already exist -
spam often breaches privacy, represents fraudulent behaviour, can have offensive
or disturbing content, and creates problems relating to protection of minors
from pornographic material.
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"
It
is a well-known fact that no other section of the
population avail themselves more
readily and
speedily of the latest triumphs of science
than the criminal class."
(Inspector
John Bonfield, Chicago Police Department, 1888)
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Fraud operators are always among the first to appreciate the
potential of a new technology to exploit and deceive consumers. The Internet
itself has given rise to new high-tech scams that were not possible before
development of the Internet. Both traditional scams and innovative ones exploit
the global reach and instantaneous speed of the Internet. In addition, the
Internet enables anonymity, making the work of law enforcement authorities
particularly difficult.
See:
Anti-Spam
Solutions and Security
- Security focus, February 2004
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The US Federal Trade Commission listed in its
2003 report the top ten Internet frauds. Several of them are usually perpetrated
through spam messages, such as, for example, foreign money offers (“Nigeria
scam”), false business opportunities, and, more recently, ID theft (including
the s.c. “phishing”).
See: Trends in fraud and identity theft, FTC,
2004
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Phishing
attacks use 'spoofed' e-mails and fraudulent websites designed to convince
recipients into disclosing their personal financial data such as credit card
numbers. By hijacking the trusted brands of well-known banks, online retailers
and credit card companies, phishers are able to convince up to five per cent of
recipients to respond to them.
See: Anti-Phishing
Working Group and FTC's
Consumer Alert
The
so-called "Nigerian letter fraud", created more than 20 years ago, has
taken on a new life online.
See: Internet
Fraud Complaint Center and Nigeria
scam
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