For those of you lucky enough not to have met with it, spam is the technical term (no not for ham in a can) but for mass messaging, promoting something or another, or being generally annoying, in most cases both.
The first and most important thing to remember with spam is this: it is designed to appeal to you, be it ego, heartstrings, monetary gains... Spam is designed to be bait, which is partially what makes it so effective, it is in a sense, the clever but lazy persons way, of baiting their fool.
For example:
- "Hey there poet, after browsing your pages it's been decided that you are worthy of joining the ranks of fakepoetrysite.com, here you stand the chance of being noted by the worlds most famous publishers and making something of yourself by simply clicking here and registering your details with us.."
Notice the buzz words here: Worthy, ranks, famous,
This particular form of spam, can be sent to hundreds, if not thousands of people in a day. The trick here is to con a high volume of people into a transfer of private information.
Another example can be seen here:
- "Hey there, at present i'm terminally ill and cannot afford medications, anything you can provide no matter how little, would be of great help, you could be the one saving me."
Buzz words here: Help, Saving, Terminally ill
This one has proven in times to be amazingly effective, it tugs on the heart strings of people, and those people in turn will send for example a dollar or so. Now picture 10,000 people sending a dollar or so a day...
Besides being globally annoying, spam is highly dangerous, for if either of the two above were enough to scam you, imagine what more tactful spam is capable of.
So here's a few DO's and DONT's to go about dealing with it:
Do: In regards to SW, check out the profile of the user who sent it to you, see if it's filled with poetry, descripting in anyway, try and deduce whether this is a profile of an active member or an account created specifically for the purpose of something other than storywriting.
Don't: Try and contact the account, chances are one of two things: The account is maintained by a bot ( a program designed specifically for a purpose, in this case spam) in which case it wont reply, or, if it's a human, will more than likely try several pursuasive tactics of which the purpose is to lure you in further.
Do: Search online, see what reputation the promoted site has, see what stories others have posted about their experiences with it etc...
Don't: Promote the spam, forward it on etc... apart from being against site rules if you have received false info, or have not realized as of yet your being scammed, you could be luring people in to the same trap as you.
Do: Avail of a block feature if a site provides one (in this case SW does) and notify admins (in relation to SW this is the moderators) so they may confirm whether it is indeed spam or not and take relevant action.
Don't: Commit to anything on the spot remember, anything asking for money, or bank account details should ALWAYS be followed through thoroughly before commiting to anything, it's your hard earned cash, dont let someone scam it from you it from you.
Sadly no site is forever free from spam, be it external or internal, and sometimes it can be well hidden, be it a budding young author who has written a poem and wants a read, or an external site like "ourmoneyforyourpoems.com" which offers to pay you for your poems and all you have to do is provide them your credit card number to proceed, spam does exist. But here's a few ways to identify spam and deal with it.
- Most spam will have a very formal tone, it will read to you like a letter and will if thought about will be so nuetral it could be sent to ANY other user ie: no hey dude etc... and not look out of place because chances are it has been.
- Nearly all Spam contains a link, one thing to note on a harmless vs potential danger scale is the end url. For example /allpoetry.com will mean in this case internal and therefore (hopefully) not as much of a threat as for example /virussenders.com
In all cases it is important to remember that simply deleting will not make it go away, there is always someone else who will fall victim to it, there is always something to take the place of the last one, thats why you should always try and do the following:
Alert the nearest admin, tell them you suspect spam is being sent out and provide as much info as you can.
If others approach you providing you the same link or spam (ie: friends etc...) do tell them you suspect it's spam and not to spread it untill it's been confirmed just incase.
It's your internet experience, it's your computer, be aware, be safe, be spam free.
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