 | Why are Internet Greeting Cards dangerous? |
Technical Answer:
Internet greeting cards are the spammers' way of getting two email addresses for the price of one. Both the sender and the receivers' email addresses are recorded. The receivers email address is often very valuable to the spammer, because of these reasons:
1) The spammer can acquire the email address of people who are otherwise very careful with their address. The address is acquired not by fault of the receiver, rather, by fault of a friend of the receiver (the sender).
2) The spammer learns the name of the owner of the address. Depending upon the topic of the card, the spammer also can learn the persons birthday, religion, location, interests, profession, or other personal information. With this information, the spammer can send more legitimate-appearing and attractive spam.
3) The spammer learns of the email address of someone affiliated with the receiver (specifically, the sender). The spammer can then forge a From address so that the spam appears to have come from the original sender.
Short Answer:
Internet greeting cards are dangerous because they...
Long Answer:
One of the easiest traps for web-newbies to fall into is, unfortunately, one of the most highly-p...