You've got mail... but it's junk

How many times have you opened e-mails and read warnings about devastating new viruses, malicious software that can eat your system, and pleas for financial help for someone suffering from some rare disease?

Messages about winning prizes and helping children in trouble basically thrive on users' gullibility and clog up our mail servers on a daily basis.

In their vast majority, though not all, these messages are hoaxes or chain letters. But how can you tell whether a message is genuine or not?

According to Maltanet's commercial services manager, Gordon Dimech, the answer to the ever-growing problem of junk mail is simple.

"If you get e-mail chain letters ignore them! At the end of the day, each user is in control of his mail box, and if he does not like a particular mail, the delete key is always there."

Mr Dimech advised that no action should be taken unless a person is 100 per cent certain of its being genuine and you should never reply to an e-mail, especially if you do not know the sender.

Most suppliers or virus scanning software developers also provide updated hoax information on their website.

Before taking any action recommended in a suspicious e-mail, users should check out the information on anti-spam sites such as www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html or www.hoaxbusters.ciac.org.

Many have in fact been enticed to delete a particular file from their system thinking it was a virus. Mr Dimech said some 98 per cent of virus warnings were hoaxes.

He said such mails originated from unsound and lonely people or those who wanted their action to be featured on websites or the media.

"Others simply get a kick out of seeing their e-mail being circulated and hopefully somebody sending the mail back to the originator without knowing."

He said Maltanet constantly received reports about spam, although users were now becoming increasingly aware of such hoaxes and therefore tended to ignore them.

"Unfortunately however, you will always find people who believe anything, especially new internet users who were still excited about receiving e-mail."

Though most spam does not originate in Malta, a few mails, normally those spreading gossip, have been circulated. Some are rumours, easily mistaken for possible truths, but are commonly malicious.

Another reason behind such e-mails is the collation of e-mail addresses. This is especially true when the mail asks you to "reply".

Most people still do not use the BCC (blind carbon copy) function resulting in the recipient gaining access to a large number of e-mail addresses, which are again used to spam.

Anti-spam is also becoming a roaring trade.

The latest version of AOL's software allows users to report spammers simply by clicking a single button, while Microsoft's Hotmail has for a long time attempted to filter it out before it reaches the user.

Still, according to recent figures, Americans receive an average of 2,200 junk e-mails a year.

And in the meantime, new and more imaginative e-mails appear on users' inboxes every day.

A recent malicious e-mail which upset people worldwide concerned so-called "bonsai kittens". It claims that the tiny furry animals are being squeezed into a bottle which enables them to grow into the shape of the bottle!

Understandably, thousands of people sent e-mails to try and stop what sounds like a horrendous practice.