Spam Email
What is email spam?
An email spam is unsolicited junk email sent in bulk to an indefinite recipient list. Spam emails are mostly sent by bots or by fraudsters targetting users to either buy a product or click on malicious links. Hence, it is recommended that users stay vigilant while opening or clicking on any links that are received from unknown senders to protect their email data and accounts from getting compromised.
Is spam email dangerous?
Yes. Falling prey to an email spam is a critical threat and poses a serious consequence to your business. An email can look very legitimate but in reality, contain malicious links which infect your computer with a malware. This is just an example of spam. To learn more about spam emails, navigate to the types of email spam section.
Types of email spam
Spammers often change their methods of sending spam messages to trick users. Some of the common spam types are given below:
Malware
This type of spam email is an attempt to trick the recipient into taking an action that can lead to data/ privacy compromise or hack a system. Such spam emails could contain a warning message against a malware/ virus threat and end with a call to action, such as to download an attached file or click on a link.
Email Phishing
Phishing is an advanced technique of email spam. It is a type of cyber attack intended to steal sensitive information such as passwords, credit card details, and other personal information. The attackers disguise their identities by posing as a reliable source to tempt their victims to fall prey.
Email Spoofing
A spoofed email is a spam that is sent to deceive the recipient by forging the sender's identity. Stay alert and scrutinize the email header to ensure that the message has come from a trusted sender.
Promotional Offers
Many reputed organizations send promotional offers with the intention of generating more leads for their business or creating brand awareness. Cybercriminals see this as an avenue to lure in recipients by offering exclusive discounts, vouchers and other such offers.
Financial Scam
A financial scam is a type of email which urges a recipient to enter their credit/ debit card details to hack their financial records or extract money. The email might appear to have come from your bank's customer support team and request you to provide personal details in order to avoid account/ card blockage. In such cases, call the bank's toll-free number and verify your account status instead of following the instructions in the email.
Prize Scam
Certain emails promise a reward amount or other prizes mentioned in the email content. Such emails look attractive and tempt the recipients to follow the steps to claim their prize. These victims end up losing thousands of dollars or giving personal data to spammers.
How to stop receiving spam emails?
Spam filters are the most viable option to prevent your mailbox from getting flooded with spam messages. Spam filters can be configured using a trusted email security solution which can detect spam messages and can either reject them or move them to the user's spam folder or quarantine for admin moderation.
Despite having stringent email protection filters, spammers find alternative ways to send junk emails. Therefore, in addition to the spam filters, users need to be equally responsible and follow certain best practices as mentioned below.
Best practices to fight spam email
Note: The best practices given below are only an example to fight against email spam and is not an exhaustive list.
Be vigilant
Do not respond or click any links/ attachments in an email received from unknown senders. Scrutinize the email for typos and grammatical errors. Hover over the links inside the email and look for the actual website address before clicking it.
Do not expose your email address
Do not share your email address in public forums. Bots can easily detect email addresses from open forums and start sending spam emails to that email account. If it is really necessary to share your email address, type it in an encrypted format such as myname(at)domain(dot).com instead of myname@domain.com.
Inspect the email header
If you suspect an email to be a spam or received from an unknown sender, click more options and inspect the email header. Ensure the From and Reply-to fields have the same domain name and check if the domain is trustworthy. In case of any discrepancy, mark the email as spam.
Opt-out and Unsubscribe
Most users fall for this trap. Do not click the Unsubscribe link in an email unless you trust the sender. It need not be necessary that all emails having an opt-out or unsubscribe link will help you not to receive similar emails. Spammers use this technique to inject malicious content when you click the unsubscribe button.
Further steps to fight spam
There have been multiple cases of users falling prey to spam emails and losing thousands of dollars of money. Neither spammers nor email spam be fully eradicated. Administrators of an organization must enable an email protection plan for their business and set up stringent spam filters, continue to educate the users to stay cautious and act wise whenever they open an email. Fighting against spam is an ongoing task and not just a one-time activity.