Stop Losing Money to Spam Emails (Phishing for Answers: How to fight back against spam)

Spam — no, I’m not talking about the food. I’m talking about the never-ending stream of unsolicited e-mails you receive everyday. Those unwanted messages are called spam, and they are costing you money.

In April, my company had about 5 million e-mails go through one of our e-mail servers. Of those, 96.5 percent were marked as spam. Most likely, your company has a similar percentage of spam coming in. Have you considered how much it costs your business to delete these messages?

Let’s investigate by creating a sample company:

15 full-time employees (FTE)

Each FTE costs the company an average of $75,000/year

That equates to 1.04 cents/second per FTE

Each FTE receives 100 e-mails per day

85 percent of those e-mails are spam

It takes five seconds to identify and delete a spam e-mail

Here is the cost to our sample company:

                                       Per FTE       For The Entire Company

Spams/Day                      85                1,275

Seconds Lost/Day           425               6,375

Cost in Lost Time/Day    $4.42             $66.30

Cost in Lost Time/Year  $1,105           $16,575

That doesn’t include IT, training, upgrades, software and data-backup costs. Big-picture estimates show the United States loses $35 billion a year in productivity dealing with spam. Worldwide, that figure jumps to around $100 billion. That’s hard to swallow — even if you're Hawaiian and actually like SPAM.

How can spammers send out so many e-mails?

Senders of spam, or spammers, have it rough. Internet providers do not allow them to use their networks to send spam. So, the poor spammers have to find another way to send their e-mails. Don’t feel sorry for them, though, because they have figured it out. They simply have you do it for them.

How do they do it? Allow me to use this metaphor. I’m a doctor and I found a cure for cancer. The cure is a simple computer chip that I install into the brain. I go all over the world installing this chip. But because I am a crooked doctor, I include in my chip – unbeknownst to my patients – the ability to control their minds. Now I can send out a signal to my huge network of patients. This signal “wakes up” the chip and I can control the people for a short while. Then, I turn the mind control off and even erase their memory.

What I have created is a large network of zombies (let’s call this network my botnet) that is not active until I turn it on. This is exactly what spammers do.

Spammers need a large botnet of zombie computers that, when they are “woken up,” can be used to send spam without the computer owner’s knowledge. As a crooked doctor, I installed a chip to gain control of the mind. Spammers send viruses via e-mails that, when opened, secretly install software and giving them control of your computer.

Spammers use your computer and network to send out a small amount of e-mail. If you multiply that by the thousands of zombie computers, you start to see how they are successful. The software they run on your machine has e-mail capability built in, so they don’t have to use your Outlook or even your e-mail address — and you have absolutely no idea anything is occurring.

Why do they do it?

Simply put: money. Spammers are either creating lists of valid e-mail addresses that they can sell to legitimate businesses or they are running a scam. The scam may only work on a very small fraction of users, but it’s enough to make a profit.

What can I do about it?

This is the most important part because there are ways to protect yourself from the viruses, and from IT and productivity costs associated with spam. Follow these steps to protect your business:

Spam/Virus/Botnet Protection

You can save money by installing software that filters out spam, scans for viruses, and scans and protects your computer from becoming a zombie. The software includes a subscription to the company’s virus updates. If you are not subscribed to the updates available for your software, then you might as well turn off your protection software — it will quickly become out of date and useless.

Keep Windows Updated

Many viruses work because there are bugs and security holes in the Windows operating system that can be exploited. Periodically, Microsoft will make fixes available to you for free. Set up a Windows Update to keep your software from becoming vulnerable.

Training

Teach your employees about the protection software installed on their computers. Also, make sure they understand that they should never open e-mail from people they do not know. Opening just one unsolicited e-mail can mean disaster.

Consider Webmail

Instead of using Microsoft Outlook or other installed software, use a Web-based e-mail system. If you read your e-mail using your Web browser, you are much less likely to receive a virus. You also have the added benefit of being able to access your e-mail from anywhere. Some of these Web-based systems are even free.

Spam is taking money out of our pockets through lost time, and nobody is benefiting — except the spammers. If we work together by implementing the ideas above, then we can take back some of the $35 billion our country is losing each year. Maybe then we could afford to buy gas for our summer vacations.

Neal Berry is co-owner of Clearbuilt Technologies (www.clearbuilt.com), a Web-development company. He has spoken at numerous construction industry conferences and is known for his ability to explain complicated technologies in an easy-to-understand manner. Sign up for his newsletter at clearpoint.clearbuilt.com.