Dangerous New Spam Tactic

Unfortunately, spam has become commonplace online, with each of us being sent more spam than actual emails. While filters and anti-spam software do their best to grab obvious pieces of spam, some of it does still get through. Many of us have become savvy enough to tell what is spam and what is legit.

Spam is a constant arms race, and spammers are constantly trying new tactics to see what works. One common tactic is to send email from a normal looking name, and a normal looking email address. I admit I occasionally fall for this, since opening a piece of spam every now and then isn't worth the risk of missing out on legitimate emails from someone I might not know.

However, today I got a troubling email. The email came from "Yogi Hamden" but it wasn't the name that concerned me. It was the subject line:

"Libby defense to challenge Russert's credibility"

Now, unbeknownst to "Yogi" I have actively been following the Scooter Libby trial. For those of you who have as well, you'll know that news commentator Tim Russert testified in the trail yesterday, and provided some interesting (and newsworthy) testimony.

So though I didn't know the name, I did open this email, since the subject was newsworthy, and more importantly, seemed "non-spammy." Upon opening the email, I discovered it was promoting some penny stock, a run of the mill "pump and dump" piece of spam.

Now, granted, many people who got this email aren't following the trial, and would have tossed it. But what worried me is that the email used such a recent, specific headline for it's subject. If this was adopted in a widespread way, it would be another big blow to email users, as it would lead to even more legitimate emails being placed under the suspicion of being spam. It would also lead spam filters to pick out more and more legit emails, as seemingly innocent keywords and terms became part of their filters.

Spam is no doubt a way of life, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. But it's saddening to think that a new tactic like this could continue to undermine the usefulness of all of our inboxes...