Just Imagine a Spam free mailbox – It is achievable

But why so much fixation with Spam?

First of all, we must understand that majority of these mails which we term as Spam, are source of livelihood for the senders. With global market and intense competition in every business, newer marketing tools are required to sell the services. Marketers of the new generation have targeted Mobiles and Emails as the latest weapons.

The obvious reason is that messages sent using these services will get the attention of the recipient at least one. No one ignores his emails and mobile phones. Such is the penetration that companies spend millions of its marketing expenditure on these tools.

Blasting Emails

The common way to send the spam mails is by searching for the domains and sending unsolicited emails on the most common email ids like support, info, sales etc. Further, the spammers use the dictionary software to generate random names and send emails.

Email Lists and Subscription

Not all, but some of the online marketers also earn money by selling the email lists. These lists change hands just like the mobile numbers and new buyer starts sending the spam mails instantly.

Live Email ID

Some advanced techniques are also used to see if the email ids are live or not. Some mails may have pictures which are linked to some site. If the pictures are downloaded, they get to know that the email has been viewed. Other popular technique is by sending an unsubscribe link. Once you start the opt-out process, you will stop getting spam from the original sender, but start getting mails from a different marketer. Jut like porn sites, these email marketers have a great resource sharing network.

Type of Spam Mails – Dangers associated with them

There are several types of mails which are being circulated these days. Most of these emails have some intent associate with it.

Product Promotion Mails

These emails are harmless in the sense that it doesn’t do any harm to you system. But they eat up your precious web space and your important mails get lost among the pile of junk.

Non English Character Mails

Only the sender knows what is written in these mails. But still they increase the junk in your Inbox.

Phishing Emails

These are the most dangerous of them all. These mails provide you with the replica of popular online banking webpage, credit card account pages, pay pal or eBay account pages. The user put in their sensitive information like bank account numbers, passwords, credit card numbers, CVV etc in these pages.

Mails with Attachments

Some malicious piece of code, spyware, adware component or virus etc is attached and sent as email. Opening such mails provide the hackers an entry into your system easily.

How to Fight Spam?

There are ways to fight spam. Some of these methods are preventive and others are cure.

• Do not sign up for newsletters till you are sure of the company
• Do not open the links provided in the mails till you are certain of its landing page
• Do not provide your sensitive information on the pages opened by these links
• Never open the Attachments till you are sure of the sender and the content of the attachments.
• Get a Bayesian Spam Filter installed for your POP accounts