What Are Spam Emails?
The loosest definition of spam is unsolicited and unwanted emails. At this level, recipients just receive lots of junk mail that they can delete. However, spam also includes malicious emails that can contain viruses along with fraudulent emails that masquerade as an email from a legitimate source. Emails with subject headers such as "Your business development pack" or "???" or "thought you might like this" could all be spam if they are unsolicited.
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Types
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Most spam emails aim to get the recipient to purchase a product. Some of the most common are financial services, such as home equity loans and "get-rich-quick" schemes. Spammers also send many health-related products such as diet pills and Viagra. They like high-price ticket items such as watches and electronics too. Most computer users find that they receive repeated emails with the same subject header.
Tactics
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Most spam email is just a nuisance but others are more worrying in that they aim to get hold of your financial details. For instance, many scam emails purport to be from a financial institution. The tactic is to use a particular bank in the hope that some people, from the millions of scam emails sent, will respond. An email with the subject header "HSBC Internet Bank: Reconfirm Your Online Account Details" wants you to click a link within the email and then reveal your bank details. Other scam emails purport to be from relatives or friends with a simple "Hi" but sometimes come with a not-so-friendly virus.
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Protection
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Using an effective spam filter can cut down the volume of spam, although it does not eliminate it entirely. One tip to prevent spam reaching your in-box in the first place includes being Web-savvy. For instance, do not post your email details on websites and be careful when opening emails, particularly those with attachments. Do not respond to a spam email. Be careful when filling in forms on websites. Try to give out an email address that is not your primary one.
Trends
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Spam made up 80.65 percent of all emails sent in February 2011, according to Symantec. This was a slight rise on January when spam accounted for 79.55 percent of all email messages. The U.S. was the largest spam region of origin: around 28 percent of spam was sent from the U.S. The Netherlands was the next largest region at 5 percent.
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References
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