We’ve all gotten at least one in our inbox-an email from a foreign aristocrat of some sort, begging for your help in getting their multi million dollar fortune out of the country. In return for letting them use your bank account, they will give you a hefty cut. Known as Nigerian (because that’s where this type of spam originated and where most of it still comes from) or “419” spam (in reference to the section of Nigeria’s Criminal Code that deals with this type of fraud). One of the most popular ways these scammers get email addresses to spam is by scraping the guestbooks found on many sites. If you use one, make sure your visitor’s email addresses are hidden.

A recent report has found that scammers have put a new twist on this old scam. Now they are hacking into web based email accounts and sending their 419 spams to everyone in the account’s address book. They even use the account holder’s signature to make it look authentic. This disturbing new twist only illustrates further how very very important it is to never give out your personal information(such as passwords and usernames) to a third party!

Companies can protect themselves by having a strong spam filter in place and by blocking or discouraging the use of web based email applications. (A clearly defined internet usage policy is helps a lot in this regard) If the company website has a guestbook, make sure the email addresses of anyone who signs it are hidden, and use your .htaccess file to block the IPs of any suspicious looking entries. 419 spam is a very big, very real problem, but using a few common sense rules can go a long way in protecting yourself from it!