The spam e-mails containing the name Ron Paul originated from a network of computer worldwide. Still no one is certain if this email blast was meant to help or harm the candidate in upcoming elections.
Gary Warner, the head of University of Alabama Birmingham's research in computer forensics said
"This is clearly a criminal act in support of a campaign, which has been committed with or without their knowledge,"
Warner is part of a group that recently analyzed a recently email blast that came from the Ron Paul campaign that sent hundreds of emails out to unsuspecting people supporting Ron Paul.
Wired reports that the emails were captured by the university's spam data mining application that was being used for a Law Enforcement Applications project. The project intercepts 2.5 million spam messages a day, and analyzes 100,000 of them a week.
The emails had 16 different subject lines, including "Ron Paul Wins GOP Debate! HMzjoqO" and "Ron Paul Exposes Federal Reserve! SBHBcSO." The random string of numbers on the end is a common technique used by spammers to bypass spam filters on email systems. At this time Ron Paul's camp says they knew nothing of the scam.
Warner worries that this kind of method may become more prevalent in the future,
"The question is, will we see more and more of this, or will this bring shame to the campaigns and will they make clear that this is not a form of acceptable behavior by their supporters?"
With more spam than actual being sent than real email already, it's terrifying to think that the method could be used to influence voters. Spammers send spam email for a reason, people are influenced by it and purchase their products. These guys aren't multi-millionaires on accident.
If 10 Million people receive a spam email about a toothbrush, there is a percentage of those people that will buy the toothbrush, can the same be said for votes?
