Spam E-Mail
Close to 95 percent of all e-mails sent can be classified as spam e-mails. Whether your e-mail client calls it spam mail, bulk mail, or junk mail, it can quickly clog up your inbox if you aren't careful. In addition to being annoying, spam e-mail can also be dangerous to your personal information and your computer. Many attacks and scams that are operated online having something to do with spam e-mail. Working to eliminate them from your e-mail account can greatly increase your productivity and help to keep your personal information secure.
How To Eliminate Spam E-Mail
Here are some of the basic steps you can take to keep spam e-mail out of your inbox. While you may never be able to completely eliminate it, you can reduce it to a level that is more manageable. This will also reduce the chance for you losing personal information over the Internet.
- NEVER OPEN SPAM E-MAIL OR RESPOND TO SPAM E-MAIL. This cannot be said enough. When you open spam e-mail or respond to it, that is only proving that their marketing method if proving effective. Simply opening spam can install dangerous software on your computer or lead to you getting a virus. Clicking on a link that says "Unsubscribe" or "Remove From Mailing List" will not do so, and may in fact send your e-mail to additional mailing lists and spammers.
- When you get spam, you should mark it as spam and delete it. Marking it as spam in your e-mail client will add future e-mails from this address to your spam folder instead of your inbox.
- Most modern e-mail systems come with an automatic spam filter that can filter out messages you believe to be spam. Make good use of these to keep dangerous e-mails out of your inbox. Most come with a variety of settings and filters that can be used to recognize different types of e-mails and send them directly to a special folder.
- Using multiple e-mail addresses is a great way to reduce the amount of spam you get. Create a personal account for e-mailing people you know, then create an additional account for online shopping and newsletters. Many online stores will send you periodic e-mail advertisements whether you want to receive them or not. With this extra e-mail account, you know you're not getting anything special aside from receipts and advertisements, so you can quickly find and save those when you need to and just delete everything else.
- Be careful who gets you e-mail. Never enter online contests or promotions and never sign up to receive promotions offers or special offers via your e-mail. This will only invite the spam to come in faster. If you have to post your e-mail address online, like many of us do, never put your address as it actually appears. Spammers have filter systems that can identify the @ sign, allowing them to pull your e-mail address into their systems. Instead of displaying your e-mail address like yourname@yahoo.com, try putting it out as yourname at yahoo.com, or yourname (at) yahoo.com. Most people will understand what this means, and spammers will not be able to access your address.
- Blocking e-mail addresses can be effective, but many spam promotions tend to use multiple e-mail address to send material (since many people try to block them). You can try, but it is more effective to block websites from a certain site. Instead of blocking spammer@spamwebsite.com, you can block all e-mail that are from spamwebsite.com (take the option for blocking all e-mail from @spamwebsite.com). This will be much more effective than blocking just one address. You can also set it up so these e-mail will go to your spam folder.
Each of these tips will help you to eliminate spam e-mail for good. You should periodically check the messages going into your spam filter to ensure important messages aren't being put in there by mistake. If you are getting more spam e-mail than you can handle, you can always start from scratch by creating a new e-mail address.
Creating A New E-Mail Address To Stop Spam
The important thing to remember, don't make the same mistakes you did with the first e-mail address. There's a reason that you have to make a new one, so don't do it again. Once you have set up your new e-mail account, you can forward all of your important e-mail from your old account to your new one and import your contacts. Make sure you do not send any spam to this new e-mail account, as it could lead to getting new spam e-mail in this new account.
The Real Dangers Of Spam E-Mail
Spam e-mail is often used by companies because it's cost effective, difficult to avoid and stop, and it works. What also works are the various attempts by spammers to get your personal information. This goes much farther than just your e-mail address. Spam e-mail can open up gateways to you directly providing them with things like social security number, bank accounts, and various logins and passwords you have for online accounts. Here are two of the more common methods employed by spammers to get your personal information.
- Phishing- These will be a direct e-mail that you will reply to. Spammers will pose as your bank, a company, or presenting an amazing offer that will require personal information. They will be asking for things like personal bank account numbers, credit card numbers, social security numbers, and pin numbers. When you send it to them, like they are requesting, your accounts will then be in jeopardy. NO BANK OR LEGITIMATE COMPANY WILL EVER REQUEST PERSONAL INFORMATION VIA E-MAIL.
- Pharming- This is much sneakier. You will be directed to what looks like a real, legitimate website, but you will really be sent to a fraudulent website where you will use logins that will then be stolen. If you get one from a bank, the site will look just like your banks, but it will be a different URL. You won't ever be able to actually access you account, but every time you try to login, you will be giving the spammer your login name and password.
Both of these are very dangerous, and can lead to compromised bank account and identity theft. It's one of the big reasons that spam e-mail is so dangerous.
The other big reason spam e-mail is so dangerous is dangerous programing. Just opening a spam e-mail can install dangerous viruses, malware, or harmful programing. These types of programs can cause damage to your computer, erase personal files, or collect information about your online habits, logins, passwords, and other sensitive information. These programs tend to operate without anyone even knowing. The majority of computers currently have some type of malware currently operating on them. The best defense is to keep your antivirus program up to date and occasionally scan your hard drive with a malware removing program.
