*Nerd Alert* You got too much mail

It has been a while since I have “geeked” up this blog with a techie entry. It is a challenge to make technology sound interesting. I remember growing up watching a science show by Bill Nye the Science Guy. He tried to make science “cool” and fascinating with his over the top enthusiasm. At the other end of the spectrum you have that nerdy guy from the Simpsons, who is funny only because his geekdom is out of control. Hopefully, my techie entry will be somewhat in the middle.

Today, I will talk about E-mail spam. It is estimated that almost 80-85% of all emails sent in a day are spam. It is a common nuisance that bothers anyone who uses email. All email servers use spam filters, which block the majority of spam from entering into your inbox. Recently, I have been receiving more spam email, which the spam filters have been unable to block. All these emails center on a common theme of advertising “penny stocks”. The Penny stock emails bypass spam filters because information is contained within an image and most spam filters look for common key words in text.

The spammers goal is to use a fraudalant scheme called "pump and dump". They advertise these penny stocks in hope they will get people to purchase these stocks. The artificial demand drives the stock price up. Once the spammers see this rise, they will sell the stock and profit and when the market corrects itself on the true value of the stock, the penny stock investors will lose out.

Hopefully, no one has been coerced into purchasing a penny stock. As the old adage goes, if it is too good to be true, than it probably is.