Is it just me or has anyone else seen a
resounding increase in spam recently? Being bombarded with spam is annoying in itself, but when it has the title “You � Can � Still � Qualify � for � Affordable Health Coverage”, “Very good technique to increase your intimate life”, or something rather more sordid it makes you wonder why people bother sending them in the first place, do they seriously think people are going to open them and read them?
Unfortunately this kind of email does have a purpose, much to the irritation of its recipients. Spam emails are used as a mechanism to send malicious material, steal personal details or deliver a Trojan. The emails are not targeted but sent out in their thousands in the knowledge that a proportion of them will be successful.
Studies show that 95% of emails sent throughout the world are spam. A shocking statistic, but while the majority are absolute gibberish, spammers are very shrewd and use the sending out of nonsense spam messages to disguise real malevolent mail that can cause considerable damage or scrape information from your devices.
Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between a spam email and a genuine one. Many spammers try to make emails look like they have come from an authentic source such as a bank, others use the email subject box to make it look like they are replying to an email you have sent them e.g. Re: Unpaid invoice, Fwd: Request for meeting etc. If you open a spam email often there is a link, which if you click it basically gives the spammer permission to scrape information from your machine.
How to avoid the avid spammer
Spam emails will always find a way into our inboxes, but here are our five tips on helping to escape the perils of spam emails.
- Train your email client
Keep an eye on your inbox regularly so if a spammy email comes in you can deal with it straight away. Always mark spam emails as “spam” or “junk” and your email client will learn that emails from that source are unwanted and prevent it hitting your inbox altogether.
- Be cautious at all times
If you’re unsure if an email is a spam email or not always move it to the “spam” folder and open it from here. This will give you extra protection when you open the email and it turns out to be malicious.
- Never open an attachment or click a link
If a spam email has an attachment or a link, do not open/click it. This will trigger the spam to do its job to scrape information or damage your machine. This can happen very quickly and you might not have time to stop it.
- Who is the sender?
Always look who has sent you an email, does the email address look genuine? Would your bank be sending you an email, or do they normally contact you in another way? If you are dubious that the email is genuine do not open it, and if it says it’s from your “bank”, call them to check whether they have sent you an email before you decide to open it.
- Multiple emails
Spammers will send out emails to thousands of addresses at a time. If you have more than one email address quite often you will receive the same email on all of your account. If this is the case you know it’s a spam email.
In conclusion, always be vigilant when you receive emails and don’t always assume they are from the person they say they are. The best way to beat the spammers is not to open their emails and to delete them straight away so they can’t harm your machine or get to your information. Lock down the spammer’s access and they won’t be able to get in.