What is spam and what it’s used for?

SPAM - is the mailing of electronic letters unsolicited by the recipients. SPAM senders pursue the following goals:

   1. Advertising of production and services - companies use direct mail to advertise their products or services. Advantage of such advertising is the relatively low cost and the big coverage of potential clients.

   2. Advertising of illegal production and services - spam is often used to promote forbidden production and services, for example, gambling, the counterfeit goods, medical services/preparations, pornographic websites etc.

   3. Anti-advertisements – dissemination of information that is forbidden by the legislation on advertising. Dissemination of false or defamatory information about the company, people or services.

   4. Advance-fee fraud - the most popular among all the variations are the „Nigerian Letter” and the lotteries with huge prizes. These letters promise recipients huge money, however requiring them to make some payments in advance under the pretext of paperwork, opening an account, fees etc. - this amount is the purpose of the fraud.

   5. Obtaining personal information about users.
   5.1. Phishing- legitimate-looking emails attempting to steal user personal information such as credit card numbers or passwords for online payment processors. Typically these emails appear to come from administration of banks, providers, payment processors and other organizations where user is asked to update personal information by clicking on the provided link to website (belonging to phishers) and filling in the form, because, for example, their bank account is about to be blocked. Phishing website also looks like legitimate one and usually exists only about 5 days. Sometimes recipients are offered to enter their data directly in email.
   Phishing emails are of very high quality. Recipient receives email with bank/ site/ provider logotypes looking exactly the same as real ones. When a user follows a link, he gets not on an official site, but on its phishing analog which is quite difficult to distinguish from the original at first sight. Phishing URLs also look like the real ones. They usually include the legitimate URL string “improved” with other words (for example, www.login-examplebank.com instead of www.examplebank.com) or the reference contains dots instead of slashes (for example, www.examplebank.com.personal.login instead of www.examplebank.com/personal/login).
   Please inform Inbox.lv in case of receiving such „fake” letters.

   5.2. Pharming. The aim of pharming is to gather personal information using official websites. Pharmers change legitimate digital website address on DNS server to fake one resulting in user being automatically redirected to a scam website.

   5.3. Distribution of trojansand other harmful computer programs by emails and through infected WWW sites. The trojan collects the necessary information from your computer (passwords, keystrokes, phone numbers of the provider etc.) and sends back to the attackers.

   6.  The email blocking, the most frequent way for this purpose is DoS and DDoS-attack. Letters are sent to mail system until it is overflowed and fail.
  
   7. Distribution of computer viruses

   8. Collecting the active email addresses.
   8.1. Sending letters containing "sentimental" story(typically about the injured in an accident or sick child) and promising that a certain Internet provider ostensibly will pay the family of victim certain sum of money “on treatment” per each forwarded letter. After numerous forwards to "all acquaintances” such letter usually contains all email addresses to whom it has been sent earlier.

   8.2. Email worms of certain type distribute themselves by emails. Having infected the computer, such worm scans PC to search for an email addresses in mail programs and sends itself to the found ones.

   8.3. Chain letter or Magic letter — typically consists of a religious-mystical message, sent through emails, instant messaging networks or posted on social network sites, and attempts to induce recipient to pass copies of the letter further.


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