Everyone agrees that SPAM is a growing problem on Internet. And with estimates that we will soon have over 1 billion people worldwide surfing net, this problem will only continue to grow worse.The worst part of this situation is that spammers are very clever people and they are using all of their knowledge to get their message onto our desktops whether we want it or not.
For example, this week hidden among all of my usual get-rich quick schemes and penis enlargement information was an email from a porn site that literally took control of my desktop.
As soon as email message was highlighted in my Outlook Express window, it launched a web page that took up entire screen of my computer.
There it was on my 21" monitor, for whole world to see it if they were looking over my shoulder, a lusty, busty women crouched on her knees with her arms pressing together her breasts to overly exaggerate obvious and her legs spread so far apart you could see her most intimate body parts in all of their powder pink glory.
I am a man with a healthy love for women but I do not appreciate having this sort of thing forced on me because someone wants me to give them my money in exchange for pornographic pictures.
As far as I am concerned, these are "Terroristic Tactics".
My computer and I were held hostage by use of HTML source code that includes script language that launches a window to view their web page.
Worse still, window is one that takes up entire computer screen and does not have usual buttons on upper right hand corner to minimize or close window.
And, it might even include command to keep popping open even more windows on your desktop at set intervals that can literally freeze up your computer!
What can you do to fight back?
Whether this problem occurs via reading your email or if you are trapped into it while visiting a web site, there are a few things you can do short of ripping power cord out of wall.
First of all, Federal Trade Commission, FTC, http://www.ftc.gov/, takes a very dim view of anyone that tries to force you to view any material you do not wish to view, be it advertising or pornography.
In a recent action by Federal Trade Commission, they "asked a U.S. District Court Judge to halt a Internet scam that clones everyday Web sites and uses copycat sites to barrage unsuspecting consumers with pornography. According to agency, scammers copy existing Web sites and insert coded instructions in copycat sites which automatically redirects unwitting consumers to adult sites operated by defendants. Then scammers disable browser's "back" and "exit" commands so that Internet surfers trying desperately to escape pornographic images face screen after screen of similar material and advertisements for other adult sites."