Spammers Try Other Tactics to Get Through
Traditional email spamming has decreased in the past few months. But spammers are finding other ways to get their message through and reach their audience . They are now turning to social networking sites like Facebook because normal emails cannot get past filters any more. Internet authorities around the world are closing down spam networks.
One reason why email spamming has gone down is that internet security firms are stopping more and more emails as they come in. They block emails if the content is suspicious and check if they come from known spamming networks. Security firms say they can filter out 98% of all spam mails.
Spammers usually send mails from different domain names . But buying internet domains is getting harder too. In the past spammers have used Chinese domains to operate from but authorities in Peking have made it harder for foreigners to buy them.
They also have to have many addresses in order to get through to at least some potential customers . In 2008 researchers from the University of California pretended to be spammers. After sending 350 million emails only 28 potential customers wrote back that they wanted to buy something.
Spammers, however ,have been trying new ways of tricking people into buying something. Some even send links to customers. After clicking on them a Trojan is installed on their computers, which searches computers for bank account information and other private data.
Researchers have found out that Twitter and other social networks have more spam traffic than they think. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook , proudly announced that the network was practically spam-free. However , when an Internet security firm set up fake profiles and asked people to become their friends they got over a hundred a day. Over 25% clicked on suspicious links that were set up.
In December 2008 a new computer worm , Koobface , was first detected . It attacks Facebook and other social networking sites and steals personal information. The problem is that the virus changes very quickly and security firms are having trouble fighting it.
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Words:
- announce = to say officially
- audience = a target group
- authority = organization that has the power to do something
- bank account = it lets people take out or pay in money
- computer worm = type of virus that attacks your computer
- content = here: text
- customer = a person who buys something
- decrease = go down
- detect = discover
- domain name = first part of a website’s address
- fake = not real
- filter out = block
- foreigner = person from another country
- however = but
- operate = work
- potential = possible
- practically = almost, nearly
- pretend = to say that you are a person which you are not
- reach = get to
- researcher = person who tries to find out more about a certain subject or field
- security firm = a company that has the job of keeping things safe
- social networking site = an internet platform that connects people who have the same interests
- spam = email messages that you have not asked for and do not want to read
- suspicious = if you feel that something is bad or cannot be trusted
- Trojan = type of computer virus