What is Spam Email and How to Stop it?
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Have you ever wondered what is spam email? How does it work? Why do I get so much of it? In a word or two, email spam is junk email. Now that you are here, ask yourself: There is no straightforward solution to stopping spam emails from being lodged in your inbox, but it can be minimized.
Having a constantly stuffed inbox can be frustrating. But unsolicited emails (useless and scammy emails) might also cost your business money in the long run.
Let’s look at what is a spam email and how you can stop it so that you can have your cake and eat it too.
Key Takeaways
- Email spam, also known as junk email, can clutter your inbox and pose risks to your business and personal information.
- Common types of spam include commercial advertising, malware, prize scams, stock promotion, and phishing emails.
- Replying to spam can confirm your email address is active, leading to an increase in unwanted emails.
- Implementing DMARC can enhance email security by verifying the origin of incoming emails and reducing the risk of phishing.
- To fight spam, it’s important to scrutinize messages, block known spam addresses, and share your email address judiciously.
What Is Spam Email?
Email Spam has been around for a long time, and it’s not going away anytime soon.
In July 2021, 283 billion out of 336.41 billion emails were spam, which was the highest level of spam from 2020 to 2021.
Email Spam is junk email that is sent to a large number of recipients, unsolicited, for advertising or phishing. Spam messages are often sent en masse by software that automatically generates and sends emails. However, spammers can also use “human spam” — real people who manually send out millions of messages per day.
The most common types of Email spam are:
- Commercial Advertising – Messages that promote commercial products or services in exchange for compensation from the advertiser. This type of spam may include links to websites with similar content or offers for products and services not directly related to your interests.
- Malware/Virus – Viruses are malicious programs designed to infect your system and steal personal information; malware usually refers to programs designed to damage computer systems without direct user interaction (such as viruses).
- Lottery/prize spam: This type of spam claims you have won a prize, like a lottery, and asks you to provide personal details like your bank account number, etc.
- Stock spam: It is about Stock or other investment opportunities. Spammers send emails promoting a “sure thing” stock or other investment opportunities.
- Pump-and-dump spam: A type of stock spam in which the spammer promotes a stock through false or misleading statements to drive up the Stock’s price and then sells the Stock at a higher price.
- Phishing – Fraudulent messages are designed to trick you into revealing private information about yourself or your financial accounts so criminals can use it for their own purposes.
Related Read: Phishing vs Spam
Spamming has become a problem for email users because it can fill up inboxes with unwanted messages and clutter them with irrelevant information.
Spammers often use automated programs (called bots) to send thousands or millions of emails at once — this means that some emails are likely to end up in your inbox even if you never signed up for any mailing lists or promotions from that company.
Protect Against Spam Emails with PowerDMARC!
What Is Spam Folder in Email?
Email Spam is a term that describes unwanted emails; the folder where those emails go is called the spam folder. The Email spam folder stores all the unwanted emails, which are automatically moved to this folder by email client software such as Outlook, Gmail, etc.
An email spam filter is a software that helps filter out spam emails from your inbox and move them to the spam folder. It uses various filters like keywords, sender’s address, subject line, etc., to sort out spam emails from genuine ones.
This Is What Happens When You Reply to Spam Email
Replying to spam emails is generally not recommended, as it can confirm to the sender that your email address is active, which can lead to receiving more spam in the future. Additionally, replying to spam emails can put your computer at risk for malware or viruses.
Some other situations might occur when you respond to email spam:
- The spammer sends more junk mail with similar subject lines and body text as before
- The spammer uses more sophisticated methods to get around filters and block lists (like sending messages from Gmail addresses instead of Yahoo addresses).
- Other spammers start using similar subject lines and body text as the original spammer because they know it works well enough that people open it up and click on links inside the email anyway.
- The volume of unsolicited messages increases until it becomes overwhelming for anyone who receives even one or two pieces of junk mail per day — which is most people on Earth today!
What Is the Danger of Spam and Junk Email?
The dangers of spam and junk email range from high business costs to consumer identity theft.
Suppose you’re not careful about what you click on in emails from unknown senders. In that case, your computer could become infected with malware or viruses that can steal personal information such as passwords, bank account numbers, and credit card numbers.
You might even find yourself receiving phishing emails that look like they come from legitimate companies — but contain malicious links that take you to a malicious website where criminals try to steal your personal information.
How To Fight With Spam Email?
Email spam can be a major email security concern, as it can be used to spread malware, steal personal information, and conduct phishing scams. Spammers often use various tactics to evade spam filters, such as using images instead of text or real addresses that have been compromised.
Don’t worry — there are steps you can take to minimize email spam.
To combat spam and protect email security, several different methods are used:
Protect Your Domain With DMARC
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting & Conformance) is an email authentication system that helps protect your domain from phishing and spoofing attacks. It does so by verifying the origin of email messages that claim to be coming from your domain. If not, the protocol can then put instructions for the receiving server to take no action, reject or quarantine the spam emails.
DMARC is a security protocol that enhances email authentication by using two established methods, SPF and DKIM, to validate the authenticity of emails.
When set to enforcement mode, the implementation of DMARC office 365 can provide a strong defense against impersonation attempts and direct-domain spoofing, providing a high level of protection to Office 365 users without relying solely on Microsoft’s integrated security filters.
Don’t Share Your Email Too Widely
If you give out your email address to someone, they can use it to send you spam. To avoid getting spammed this way, only share your address with people you know well and trust — or better yet, don’t share it!
Block Spam Email Addresses
Use an email service that allows you to block certain addresses from sending you emails. For example, if someone sends you spam from a certain address every day, add that address to your blocked list so it won’t appear in your inbox again.
Steps to Block Spam Emails on Gmail
- Open Gmail > Inbox.
- Click More in the top right corner.
- Click Block [Sender].
Steps to Block Spam Emails on Outlook
- Choose the messages or senders that you wish to block.
- Select Junk > Block (or Spam > Block) from the toolbar in the upper-right corner.
- Choose OK.
Scrutinize Messages
Scrutinize messages before opening them or clicking on links inside them. Suppose an email contains spelling mistakes or looks like it was written by someone who doesn’t speak English well. In that case, it may be a scammer trying to lure you into handing over personal information or clicking on links that could harm your computer (for example, by installing ransomware).
Final Words
So here’s everything about what is spam email.
The best way to handle spam email is to prevent it from getting into your inbox in the first place. Always be wary of sending out your personal information through forms anywhere on the web. Be sure to regularly remove yourself from any available mailing lists you do not wish to receive emails from.
Domain & Email Security Expert at PowerDMARC
Ahona is the Marketing Manager at PowerDMARC, with 5+ years of experience in writing about cybersecurity topics, specializing in domain and email security. Ahona holds a post-graduation degree in Journalism and Communications, solidifying her career in the security sector since 2019.
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