What Is Spam and How to Avoid It

01/27/2020

Why do we get sent spam? Why is that a thing? Why is it still a thing? It's annoying.

Why Do We Keep on Getting Spam?

If you've got a Gmail account or you've got an Outlook account and someone gains access to that, it's as simple as them going in and grabbing your address book or contact list. As soon as they get to about 10,000 contacts, they grab all that and shift that off to someone else and someone goes, 'Here, have a dollar.' A whole dollar. When they get the dollar, that's the end of the game for them. They've done the hacking or they've put the malware on or whatever they're going to be doing, and then your system is stuffed.

And once you've got your email address sent across to someone else, that's when you start getting the bitcoins, the increase in size of this and girth of that, the Russian wife this, and what not. It's all fine. If you've got a Russian wife, that’s perfectly fine. I don't myself. I'm still saving up, and I have to sort of do a ransom email that came through about some bitcoin thing that I'm sure isn't spam. Or, is it?

Do People Really Fall for These Spam Mails?

But, why do we have spam? It's mostly just annoying. I don't know why they still think people are going to fall for it.

But people do all the time. That’s why we have to keep informing people of these crazy things.

What Can You Do?

Antivirus for Your Emails

The things you can do to limit the amount of spam that you get is make sure that your email addresses are not visible on your website. Get them gone. You don't need to have that as a thing. Make sure that all your emails that are pulled in and out of your inboxes are protected by some antivirus product. That's another great thing you need to be doing.

Be Diligent

The most important thing that you can do to make sure that you're not getting spam is to keep your security levels high and be diligent. Don't reply to them. If it says there are images in them, don't open them. Just make sure you're aware of what they're doing, and make sure that you're not clicking on the things you shouldn't be clicking on.

Programmes That Get Filter Spam

You might be asking, 'Well why can't we just remove the spam altogether?' That's a very good question, and the answer to that is quite simply programmes try to but people are the ones sending spam. It's hard to tell whether it is spam or it isn't spam. These programmes are just trying to go, 'I don't know.'

You might have a friend who doesn't actually word emails together very well. They don't start the email with your name, and they don't end the email with their signature. They only write half a sentence and then attach a document. That might get blocked out. And if you sir or madam is that person, don't do it because you will look like spam.

What these programmes are doing is trying to work out whether it is or it isn't spam. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. It just tries to get to a spot where it goes, 'Okay, that looks pretty legit. We'll let them through.' or 'Ah, they've had emails from this character before. We'll let them through.'

Maybe you've been popping to the junk folder and you need to be added to the safe senders list. That's something you guys can do very easily just to make sure that things are more likely to get through. And all the different major email readers have the ability to do that. It will make sure that more legitimate mails get through and lets these programmes learn a little bit to know who's okay to come through and who's not.

The Final Word

The problem if you have lots and lots of spam is you have to really tighten the ship on these spam programmes that are filtering the spam out. When you do that, some legitimate stuff sometimes gets blocked out as well. You have a choice to make: get all legitimate stuff and some spam or get no spam and some legitimate stuff will be blocked out. It's all a balance. You just have to look at the scales and work out what's best for your business. Talk to your IT company because they can definitely change around and make sure that it works for you. Stay good.

To learn more about spam filters, go to our blog https://dorksdelivered.com.au/blog/it-solutions/ or subscribe to our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/DorksDelivered/.

About This Author

Dorks Delivered

Dorks Delivered gives you on-call system engineers. Looking after all of your equipment has never been so easy. It can be done 24 hours a day remotely or on-site. Using cutting edge technology, Dorks Delivered can detect your problems before they cause you downtime!…