Have you ever wondered why you’re getting emails about Viagra or from an online pharmacy offering you the latest drugs? It’s spam! And I’m not talking about the mystery canned meat! We’ve all heard the word and most likely understand that its unsolicited email, but what does spam do and how can you tackle it? Kapersky Lab has offered the following information to help you combat the spam that floods your inbox.What does spam do and how does it work?
Spam makes up about 90% of all email today, eating up valuable resources like computer storage, bandwidth and more importantly your time. Spammers don’t care who their message hits because they know they only need a tiny response rate to make money. Spammers buy lists of email addresses by the millions and then sell them to cybercriminal groups that send massive amounts of messages in hopes they will receive a small cut. Large spam operations can send millions of messages an hour. According to a study conducted by the University of California Berkeley and UC, San Diego, spammers make around $2 million a year from people buying into their scams.Here’s what can you do:
- Learn how to use an anti-spam product. Most common email providers and antimalware products have this functionality built right in. By reporting these spam emails that are missed by the service, you are helping to improve detection and your Internet experience!
- Don’t publish your full email address online. Publishing your email address online exposes you to further digital pollution. Spammers have special tools to automatically harvest lists of addresses. It’s these lists that cybercriminals buy in order to send you spam. If you have to publish your email list it like this: name (at) emailprovider.com – these addresses cannot automatically be harvested.
- Never reply to a spam message. The links are usually ploys to gain more information about you, and by replying to a spam message you’re simply letting the spammer know that his message has reached a valid email address. If you have a website and require users to enter an email address, consider using a “Feedback Form” which will not reveal your readers email address publicly.
- Install an anti-malware program to help combat spam. These programs scan all of your incoming emails for viruses and other malicious content and will help prevent infected messages from reaching your inbox. Because many spam messages also include malicious links or malware-infected attachments, anti-malware programs can be highly effective tools for controlling spam.
By using these tips your Inbox and computer will be more secure. The spam-business is a relentless, booming one and by educating yourself you’ll help combat spam.
Thanks to Kapersky Lab for providing this information. No compensation was received for this post.
Thanks for reading Tech Savvy Mama through your feed! Original post by Tech Savvy Mama
©2012
©2012
I posted your blog link about combatting spam on our Facebook fan page! That was very helpful! I never knew why people write out their email addresses! Here is the link to our page: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Mpower-Media/306124690051?ref=ts.