Word of Advice

28 October 2008

Stop the spam!

Annoying and tiresome, many of us are resigned to the seemingly constant offers flooding our inboxes of rather dubious products or services in the form of email spam. According to some figures, spam makes up around 80 to 85% of all the email in the world, so it’s a big problem.

With spam recently hitting the headlines here in New Zealand, we take a look at why people send spam and what you can do to protect yourself from both spam and scams.

Why do people send spam?

Basically, spammers are out to make money. Spamming is economically viable as advertisers don’t have any operating costs other than managing mailing lists. Because it’s relatively easy and there are a lot of spammers, the amount of spam has grown rapidly.

Internet services providers have to add extra capacity and people have lost money by responding to spammers who are out to rip them off. 'Phishing' emails are an example of this and are described later on.

How can I try to avoid spam in the first place?

You can attempt to avoid spam by:

• only giving your email address to people and organisations you know and trust
• setting up a second email address to use online for activities like posting items on bulletin boards where your email address may be visible
• when filling in online forms, look around for tick boxes that state you won’t be sent further offers or information
• delete emails which appear dodgy and don’t open any attachments you weren’t expecting
• don’t hit ‘unsubscribe’ in an email from someone you don’t recognise – if you click on the link it will only tell the spammer that your address is active and you’ll end up getting more spam!
• use a filter – a piece of software which sorts incoming emails and blocks those it thinks are spam. Remember though that these filters aren’t perfect and sometimes spam may slip through, or accidentally block a genuine message.

Hasn’t New Zealand got an anti-spam law?

Yes, the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act came into force last year. The Act is designed to:

• prohibit spam with a New Zealand link
• require commercial electronic messages to include information about the person who authorised the sending of the message
• give an unsubscribe facility
• prohibit address-harvesting software being used to create address lists for spam.

The Act is designed to deter spammers in New Zealand and encourage good marketing practice by requiring that emails contain an unsubscribe facility and are only sent to customers who have consented to receiving them.

For more information on this law and how to make a complaint if you have been spammed from a spammer in New Zealand, visit The Department of Internal Affairs website. [external website]

What are ‘phishing’ spam emails?

Phishing is trying to get your account numbers, passwords and credit card numbers. You’ll receive an email from what appears to be a bank or financial institution, giving some reason why you need to confirm your account details into a return email or website. A false Internet Banking log on page could appear and account information may be captured if your details are entered. These details are then used to steal your money.

These hoax emails can look genuine, using the company's logo and format, and a link which leads to a website that seems genuine, but isn't. Emails from genuine banks don't include links.

Further information

For more information about scams, visit Scamwatch.