Spam: More Than Annoying

Three years ago Bill Gates of Microsoft predicted that the spam e-mail problem would be solved by 2006 — he was wrong.

According to a New York Times article, there's more spam than ever because the new generation of spammers knows how to get through the filters.

America Online consumer adviser Regina Lewis said that spam, which is unsolicited junk mail, can be contained.

"It has to pass through a filter," Lewis told The Early Show co-anchor Rene Syler. "Every major Internet service provider has those … You, personally, as the e-mail recipient, may be the biggest culprit here."

Lewis said that people often sign up for things such as newsletters or product promotions that they later get sick of and consider spam. She said never open unknown attachments and report spammers to authorities.

"Three out of four are financial and they're phishing schemes," she said. "They have a false sense of urgency so you don't think. That's why IRS, tax foreclosure, from the mortgage company you think, 'Oh, God, did we forget to pay the mortgage?' Right now the one getting everybody: 'Before we ship your recently purchased order we just need to confirm a few things, like your credit card.' You think, 'Oh, I've been shopping online, I may have made a mistake,' and people respond to that."

Lewis said that people should never give credit card information to someone who asks for it, even if did you order something.

"You've got to understand the source here is not a person pressing, they're big computer servers … just cranking out tons of stuff," she said. "If you write back, all you do is confirm you have a valid e-mail address and you use it. And you'll get more."

Lewis said to watch out for the Nigerian e-mail scam, phishing, work at home scams, weight loss claims and foreign lotteries.

"Americans love the lottery, we fall for that," she said. "The weight loss claims falls under the too good to be true category."