Log in to your e-mail on an average day and you're likely to see a variety of messages. Finding that message from Mom, or that important e-mail from a professor can be much harder when inboxes are overwhelmed with messages promising "Easy $$$," "Bigger Breasts Guaranteed," or "Rapid Weight Loss." This junk e-mail, known as spam, has recently gone from a minor annoyance to a large concern for students and lawmakers alike.
Spam, whose name is derived from the infamous luncheon meat, is generally accepted to mean a solicitous e-mail sent out in huge quantities to anonymous recipients. Spam is often sent under deceiving subject headers. In other instances, the header can be strikingly graphic, even bordering on pornographic.
The concern over the spread of spam has prompted government action. Last December, President Bush signed into law a bill known as the "CAN-SPAM Act of 2003." This act requires senders of these mass e-mail messages to clearly identify themselves and to give recipients the option to remove themselves from the list. The law also prohibits the use of deceptive subject lines and authorizes the Federal Trade Commission to publish a "Do-not e-mail" registry. Similar laws have been in effect for telemarketers, but the government is now targeting their Internet equivalent.
The effectiveness of the new legislation, however, is in question. A survey conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project in March found that 24 percent of people feel that they are receiving more spam e-mail than before the law went into effect on Jan 1. The increase in spam is also having an impact on the way people view e-mail, as 63 percent of the respondents said that the amount of spam they receive makes them less trusting of e-mail.
Tufts students expressed similar frustrations about the amount of junk mail clogging their inboxes and agreed spam is a problem. Many students recognize that certain online behaviors can increase the amount of junk mail they receive, however. These students said that being careful about where you post your e-mail address may help curb the problem.
"If you use your Tufts e-mail and post it online or to register on Amazon, eBay, fantasy sports, or online catalogs ... your e-mail is going to end up on a mailing list you didn't sign up for", junior Timothy Ho said.
Blaney added that paying attention to online forms can be another way to decrease spam. "Make sure to check all the boxes that say 'I would not like to receive any mail from them or their partners in the future," he said.
It is possible, however, to continue on-line shopping and fantasy sports -- without all the junk mail baggage.
Junior Dan Blaney had one suggestion that has proven successful for him thus far. "I have a separate Hotmail account at Hotmail that I use for my e-mail address whenever I am suspicious of the website I am giving it to."
A separate e-mail account reserved specifically for questionable web sites and impersonal notifications is not uncommon -- particularly now that SPAM has such an unavoidable presence in e-mail inboxes.
Senior Tara Bannon has another e-mail account, keeping her Tufts' account clean. "I do have a second account", Bannon said. "I never give [my Tufts] address out online".
For those students who want to continue to use their Tufts and personal e-mail accounts, Tufts Computing and Communications Services (TCCS) endorses the use of a 3rd party downloadable program called Mozilla 1.6. The software is completely compatible with Tufts' Webmail and allows students to keep their multiple e-mail addresses and consolidate them into a single inbox.
"Mozilla software has automated SPAM filters that learn based upon your own criteria and behavior", Bart Decrem, a Mozilla developer, said. "The filters get smarter and smarter as you use them".
Mozilla allows for faster Internet access and e-mail management. Decrem recommended their newest program, Thunderbird 0.5, for those students who just want the e-mail portion of the program.
TCCS endorses Mozilla on their website, stating that it "offers excellent junk mail filtering capabilities ... the Support Advisory Team (SAT) has approved Mozilla as the primary custom client for the Trumpeter e-mail system".
One alternative to a 3rd party program is to "use an e-mail address which forwards, so that your e-mail address can be changed periodically", TCCS staffer Andrew Gordon said. "That will stop the spam".
Many free e-mail providers, such as Yahoo!Mail, have responded to the spam influx by offering to send "Bulk Mail" to a separate folder. This system is not foolproof however, and spam frequently slips through their filters.
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