Tuesday, October 21, 2008

‘Backscatter spam’ gums up many e-mail inboxes

Dubbed <A target="_blank" href="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2008-10-20-backspatter-spam_N.htm?csp=34">"backscatter spam," bounced messages</A> clog e-mail accounts and slow inboxes to a crawl. Up to 3% of all e-mail today is backscatter and the problem is getting worse.



How it works: Spammers collect real e-mail addresses, via websites or viruses. Then they fake - or "spoof" - those addresses to send spam. When the messages are "bounced" by scanners, or as undeliverable mail, the unsuspecting user is notified.

News Timeline



From Our Sponsor