Nigerian Spam

If you are experiencing excessive amounts of junk e-mail, or so called spam, you are just not alone. There are many struggling to deal with spam. Spam can be defined as any e-mail that pops on your e-mail box without your permission.These e-mails might be very irritating (some people report receiving 50 or more spam e-mails just in a day) but they could even be harmful. Recent studies have proved that many are designed to install spyware, or tracking software, on your computer.

Others include nasty code, which could plant viruses on your computer. Unfortunately, you may not tell which e-mails are safe and which are not until you open them. On average, three per cent of spam is fraudulent, and one per cent contains viruses. The use of fraudulent spam then includes e-mails designed to pinch money, or identities, from unaware victims. Money scams might also carry the sale of fraudulent goods, or a request to front fees with the promise of huge financial returns later.

One such spam, the "Nigerian 419" spam operation that originated from Nigeria, grossed $2 billion US during 2003. The "419" spam, named after the Nigerian criminal code section it infringes, was in fact Nigeria’s second largest business!

Experts predict that by 2007 up to 85 per cent of all e-mail would be made up of spam. A recent study by ITsecurity.com exposed that most spam e-mail, up to 60 per cent, come from U.S. Only four per cent come from Canada. Other key sources of spam carry China (10 per cent), South America (eight per cent) and the United Kingdom (six per cent).