Many web users are becoming a bit more sophisticated when it comes to protecting their privacy, by using SPAM blocking software and carefully guarding their privacy when entering information online. Unfortunately, there are still two commonly used "dirty tricks" in use by the junk e-mail hucksters that can thwart even the most cautious among us.

The first trick commonly used by junk mailers is to embed "e-mail bugs" into their marketing pitches. This is usually done in order to verify that you've read their solicitations.

Bugging e-mail can be achieved by simply including a standard HTML link within the messages that they send. Sometimes these images are visible. At other times, they are simply one-pixel in size (and transparent in color) thus making them nearly impossible to detect.

However, just because you receive an e-mail that includes some sort of graphics, this does not necessarily mean that you've been bugged. What differentiates an "e-mail bug" from an ordinary graphic is the method used to deliver and display the image within the e-mail you receive.

Pictures and graphics that your friends send to you are commonly included in the e-mail message itself, (or included as attachments) and are generally harmless. On the other hand, images that are actually "e-mail bugs" are not physically included in the e-mail message itself. Instead, these are delivered from an Internet server in direct response to a simple HTML request contained in the e-mail message. Essentially, when you either "open" (or even simply "preview") the bugged e-mail, the HTML code requests the image from the server in just about the same way that your Internet Browser would.

The distinction is that with "e-mail bugs," the image is requested using a unique code that corresponds back to the original solicitation sent to your specific email address. The net effect is that when the junk marketer's server receives the request for the image, it verifies that the junk e-mail sent to your address has been viewed or read.

In the mindset of a junk e-mail marketer, this verifies that your e-mail address is not only active and valid, but also that the owner (you) are willing to read unsolicited email.

Additionally, many abusers of this tactic will then use the code to place a "cookie" on your hard drive, thus permanently "marking" your system for future web tracking and abuse!

The result is that your e-mail address will then receive much more SPAM and your address will be sold to other junk e-mailers as a "verified" address, one of the most valuable types in the junk e-mail business!

Fortunately, not all e-mail software programs will participate in these shenanigans. Users of Eudora Pro, for instance, can disable the use of active HTML coding in their emails and thus defeat the bugging of their email.

The best way to tell if your email software is allowing bugs to track your behavior is to make a quick visit to Mackraz.com.

This site will allow you to test your e-mail software's "bug-ability" by sending you a harmless, but bugged, e-mail and then reporting back to you as to whether their server was able to subsequently read the bug.

In addition, this site also does a good job of explaining the issue in greater detail.

Published: April 25, 2002

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