Students at UAF found a new email message in their aurora inbox this week as part of the university's attempt to eliminate spam.

The message, with the ambiguous subject line "End User Digest," is the byproduct of the new proof-point protection server, a service designed to eliminate spam on major networks.

Proof-point acts as a gatekeeper, filtering and trapping messages it thinks are spam before they get sent to your inbox. Every day, the system sends the user an email listing all the messages quarantined, with the option to allow any or all of the messages to be delivered.

Students can also simply ignore the weekly emails. The quarantined messages will be deleted after 14 days.

Spam, unsolicited email messages, come in all sorts of varieties and from myriad sources. Legitimate businesses send out mass emailings hoping to lure in customers for any number of products from Viagra to CD clubs to Rolex watches; adult websites peddling explicit sexual content lure in business, often with misleading messages or offers; and, of course, more unsavory characters and shady businesses use spam as a way to obtain sensitive personal information from unwary users.

One method used by identity thieves is called "phishing." A message purporting to be from an legitimate business, say bank or even the University, informs you that your account may have been jeopardized and you need to confirm some information or face some dire consequences. The website looks authentic, often even displaying the businesses logo and legalese, but the information entered gets into the wrong hands.

"Legitimate companies don't ask for sensitive information via email," said the Federal Trade Communication in a recent consumer alert. "If you are concerned about your account, contact the organization in the email using a telephone number you know to be genuine, or open a new Internet browser session and type in the company's correct Web address."

The FTC warns consumers should never reply to or click on the links in any message of this kind.

Spam messages often seem silly and harmless, but some consumers have encountered violence and even death after receiving a "silly" spam message.

The U.S. Secret Service calls it the "4-1-9" scheme or the "Nigerian Advance Fee Fraud." Almost everyone has surely gotten the emails supposedly from a Nigerian expatriate with a boatload of illegal money looking for a bank account to put it in. The ultra-polite message promises large sums of money in exchange for simply setting up an American bank account.

Those foolish enough to pursue the offer find themselves trapped in a maze of strange requests, additional upfront fees, and even threats of violence. The scammers eventually entice the victim to travel to Nigeria to facilitate an easier transfer of the funds. Once in Nigeria, the fraudsters use the victim's illegal entry into Nigeria as leverage to pressure further funds.

According to the Secret Service, in June of 1995 an American was murdered in Lagos, Nigeria as a victim of such a scam, and numerous other foreign nationals have been reported as missing.

The old adage stands firm: if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 tried to put a legal hold on spammers. The law, which became effective Jan. 1, 2004, prohibits deceptive subject lines, bans false or misleading header information, and requires that businesses sending mass emailings give recipients an opt-out method. It provides severe penalties to violators.

The law, however, has proven almost impossible to enforce so businesses and universities, like UAF, have taken action into their own hands.

Proof-point, DCC hopes, will be a step in the right direction.

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