The View from Here: I can’t shake all this spam e-mail
Apparently, I e-mailed myself.
If that sounds strange, that was pretty close to my reaction when I booted up the old computer a while back to check messages from friends and family.
It was all right there for me alone to see. The e-mail address in the “from” box matched the address in the “to” box. Yep, I e-mailed myself. That would have been better if it was true, except I knew I didn’t need electronic messages desperately enough to stoop to e-mailing myself.
My mind began to wander more about the face behind the e-mail. Was it some middle-aged man with a beer belly and no job that only wanted to sell me something who could stoop to making it appear I had e-mailed myself? Was it a virus? Was it a link to some sleazy Web site? I theorized silently as if it was a suspicious physical package, but how harmful could it be? It was from me. I had to know.
Despite everything we’ve been told about not opening messages from senders whose e-mail addresses are unrecognizable, this one was obviously familiar. Curiosity ruled.
Instead of some sleazy link or a pitch from the Internet company, which I ultimately thought was the most likely reason for the strange message, it was neither. It wasn’t the next new wave of computer viruses, either. When all was said and done, it was just an ad for a vacation package.
While I could use a vacation, I was disgusted. I could have forwarded the offending message to the Internet provider, but tried that a few years ago and never got a response. And since then, the junk mail has increasingly gotten worse. So I just trashed it, knowing it wasn’t going to give me much satisfaction.
I asked around about this strange phenomenon and got mixed reactions. Co-workers No.’s 2 and 3 have not only heard about it, but one was certain 70 percent of the public knows about this, too. Maybe I’m just slow.
They told me of problems I was only vaguely aware of before. Apparently, a virus can go into your computer and e-mail everybody listed on your address book without your knowledge. It was a little funny too, when my co-worker politely asked me if I had his e-mail address and when I saw him relax a little when I told him no.
It’s not a virus. But I learned I do need a fire wall for added security and was assured, even though I already knew, that somewhere, somebody is tracking every place on the Web that gets visited. It’s not a conspiracy theory, but a truth of the 21st Century.
It was only a few years ago it seemed access to e-mail was the best answer for distance between family and friends. Today, more and more, it seems like it’s becoming a great big hassle.
Because I wanted to know more, I used the Internet to type in the word “spamming.” The first listed Web site on the search engine was for anti-spamming software. The next said, “Get 75,000 addresses!”
Who are these people, and do they really think the majority of Americans are going to fork over a credit card number to buy a tourist package from someone they don’t know who has showed up in their homes, uninvited and leering?
If there was ever a time to put some more laws on the books, enforce the ones we have and create better e-mail security, I think this would be it.
There’s no telling how many other people besides me got an e-mail, from me, disguised as a message I didn’t create. Until then, all it seems we can do is keep hitting the delete button.
(Amy Satterwhite is a reporter for the Standard. She can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].)