WHY IT WORKS: The 809 area code is located in British Virgin Islands (The Bahamas). The 809 area code can be used as a "pay-per-call" number, similar to 900 numbers in US. Since 809 is not in US, it is not covered by U.S. regulations of 900 numbers, which require that you be notified and warned of charges and rates involved when you call a pay-per-call" number.

There is also no requirement that company provide a time period during which you may terminate call without being charged. Further, whereas many U.S. homes that have 900 number blocking to avoid these kinds of charges, do not work in preventing calls to 809 area code.

We recommend that no matter how you get message, if you are asked to call a number with an 809 area code that you don't recognize, just disregard message.

Be wary of e-mail, or calls, asking you to call an 809 area code number. It's important to prevent becoming a victim of this scam, since trying to fight charges afterwards can become a real nightmare. That's because you did actually make call. If you complain, both your local phone company and your long distance carrier will not want to get involved and will most likely tell you that they are simply providing billing for foreign company. You'll end up dealing with a foreign company that argues they have done nothing wrong.

Please forward this entire message to your friends, family and colleagues to help them become aware of this scam.

Sandi Van Handel AT&T Field Service Manager (920)687-904

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This message may contain information that is confidential and may be subject to obligations of secrecy in terms of Section 36, 39 or 41 of Serious Fraud Office Act 1990. A breach of these secrecy provisions is an offence. If you are not intended recipient you must not peruse, use, copy or disclose contents to any other person. Messages sent or received by members of Serious Fraud Office are not private and may be subject to monitoring. If you have received this message in error, please contact sender. Thank you.

What Users are Searching for?

Like Internet users worldwide, majority of Russian and Ukrainian surfers search Web for information. A Yandex poll shows that about 24 percent searchers use Web for easy reference and over 15 percent use it as a research tool. A further 12 percent of those polled said Internet was a news source for them while only 14 percent preferred online entertainment services. An increase in personal consumption in Russia and Ukraine has made a positive impact on regional Internet. Russians and Ukrainian are increasingly relying on Internet in order to evaluate products or services before they make their final decision to buy, whether online or offline. Currently, about 1200 online shops are listed in Magazin.ru, largest Russian e-commerce catalogue, while CNews.ru reported last year that total number of operational online shops in Runet was 500 at beginning of 2002. The most e-shops are online outlets of bricks-and-mortar businesses, but some "pure" online stores have opened their virtual doors as well. Most notable are bookstores such as Ozon, Biblio Globus and Books in Russia, and Bookshop, AzBooKa and Bambook in Ukraine. Despite a certain lack of high-quality online offerings in Runet and Uanet, surprisingly few Western sites offer products and services that need no customs clearance. For example, web hosting fees in Ukraine are about two to eight times higher than those somewhere in United States, but service providers abroad seem to be in no hurry to enter local market. This is also true for e-books, especially on programming and computing.

Spam and Spamdexing

Despite spam is still flourishing on Russian Web, unsolicited email messages in Runet are far less aggressive than email marketing campaigns in US, when a news subscriber may receive bundles of advert mailings that are vaguely associated with his/her initial subscription.

The more pressing issue for both users and search engines is spamdexing, i.e. unfair tricks aimed at attaining high rankings in search engines. Searching Runet for a particular key phrase can give you dozens of mirrors and doorways. Some successful SE optimizers in Russia and Ukraine openly advertise that their promotion techniques are solely based on building doorways or cloaking, which currently seems unwise on global Internet.

The top Russian search engines fight against spam in much as most popular search engines do worldwide. For example, Yandex and Rambler penalize websites for using unfair tricks and encourage Runet users to report search engine spam. Many professional programmers and webmasters also voice their concerns about spamdexing. Articles by A. Shkondin at ClubPro.spb.ru provide some classic examples of how spammers play games with Russian search engines and Internet surfers.