Nigerian 419 scam: What is Hotmail doing about it?

Last week's coverage of the 'Nigerian' 419 email scam led many of you to contact us demanding to know what part ISPs and webmail providers are playing in the fight against this fraud.

silicon.com spoke to a representative of Hotmail, which has become a particular favourite for all kinds of spammer because they are able to sign-up anonymously and start spamming within minutes. Similarly Hotmail users are targeted prolifically because of the sheer number of addresses @Hotmail.com - offering rich pickings for software generating random mail addresses.

Will Collins, spokesman for Hotmail, told silicon.com: "We take spam incredibly seriously. We clearly set out terms and conditions for all users and when we receive a report that these terms and conditions have been breached we will investigate and act accordingly in every case."

Collins confirmed that this includes closing down the accounts of any email user who is sending spam emails. "If somebody with a Hotmail account is spamming, we will close down that account," he said.

The 'Nigerian' 419 scam is one such form of spam which is being watched very closely by service providers such as Hotmail.

Collins said: "These are of particular concern as they [the spammers] are trying to defraud people. For this reason we have developed very strong lines of communication with the police for dealing with these scams."

Collins said Hotmail works closely with the police, providing all account information Hotmail has on a specific user whenever requested by the police, who must first obtain a court order to request such information.

However, he admitted that this is a fundamentally flawed approach in the case of the 419 scammers as they will invariably have signed in using a false identity.

As with most other webmail providers, Collins admitted Hotmail still has "no way of verifying" the details provided by those using its email service. As such spammers can create as many email accounts as they like - moving on to a new one every time they are shut down. While that's still the case it will remain difficult to track down scammers via the ISP through which they send their mails.

As such Collins claims education is the key in the first instance. "You do have to be incredibly gullible to fall for these scams," he said. "But unfortunately people are, and as such they need to be educated."

He said users need to be warned about such scams and encouraged to just delete them or report them where necessary to Abuse@Hotmail.com in cases where the sender is using a Hotmail address. He also stressed the need for Hotmail users to configure the built in spam filters correctly.

However, he refuted the suggestion that webmail providers should highlight the threat of such scams by giving warnings prominence on the homepage, or even posting warnings to all potential scammers advising that any such activity is closely monitored and will not be tolerated.