Victims of fraudulent e-mail can take action against Internet abusers

by Michael Holly
Daily Illini reporter

For many students, e-mail is a desirable modern convenience. However, victims of e-mail scams and fraud have found the consequences anything but desirable.

Bob Foertsch, senior research programmer and security officer for CCSO, said he receives complaints about e-mail "spam" and e-mails soliciting business and donations about two or three times a day.

"There is a lot of unsolicited mail going on," Foertsch said. "Those are only the ones that people report. A lot of other people probably just hit the delete button."

Brian Mclaws, junior in engineering, said he rarely reads messages if he does not recognize the sender.

"I get mad about it because it just fills up my in box," Mclaws said. "I just delete all forwards."

According to Foertsch, e-mails that solicit donations for various causes and organizations are rarely legitimate.

Foertsch said these solicitations are generally illegal. "It is either a pyramid scheme or making fast money or urban legends," he said. "It just clogs things up. It’s garbage."

Colan Bruce, assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of Illinois, said such e-mail is frequently sent as part of a scam directed at a specific group of individuals. However, he said he has not yet seen an e-mail scam that specifically targeted students.

Spam mailers obtain lists of e-mail users through a variety of resources. Foertsch said one of the most common ways is to take login names from mass mailings sent by university departments or from forwards sent by an individual to a large number of other users. Spam mailers who receive such a mass mailing instantly have access to hundreds of names to use for their purposes.

"Not responding (to mass mail) is actually one of the best things to do," Foertsch said.

Students can also forward spam or other suspicious e-mail to abuse@uiuc.edu in full header mode and necessary security measures can be taken. According to Foertsch, CCSO can track the spam sender and contact the associated Internet Service Provider. Spam is a violation of the Internet Service Provider’s policies and the spam sender’s e-mail access can be revoked.

Foertsch also indicated that students who receive mass mailings from University departments should contact the department and request that mass mailings be sent as a list serve or blind carbon copy in order to protect recipient identities.

Not all lists used by spam mailers are obtained from mass mailings, however.

"They sometimes have people steal lists for them or buy them legitimately," Bruce said. "Regular merchants buy and sell these things all the time."

Serious spam might require the involvement of law enforcement officials. The problem is that it is sometimes difficult to determine when a crime has been committed.

"If it is a part of an overall scheme to defraud where you’ve been promised something to induce you to give money and what you are promised is not true ... then it is fraud," Bruce said.

If fraud is committed using e-mail or the Internet, tracking the violator is relatively easy in most cases.

"E-mail frauds are often apprehended more quickly than postal frauds because of paper trails," Bruce said. "The difficulty comes when the sender is out of the country."

Bruce said violators dealt with through the criminal justice system can be charged at the state or federal level depending on the affected parties involved. Punishment varies depending on the total amount of money lost by the victim and the offender’s past criminal record.

While it may be difficult to characterize spam as a crime, Foertsch said sending spam is a violation of University policy.

"There is an appropriate use policy in place," Foertsch said. "University resources can not be used for commercial purposes. That is clearly inappropriate. People benefiting from campus resources is against state law."

Students who violate University policy on computer use are dealt with on a case by case basis. In some cases, students may lose their University computer account privileges, or in the most extreme cases, the student may be referred to the Dean of Students.

"I’m always fond of saying that this is an educational institution and our business is education and generally if someone does (commit a violation) we like to educate them on the problems with (sending spam) and hopefully their (reason) will prevail," Foertsch said.