Simple rules for emailing & How to protect yourself against spam emails
Spam email is used to deliver unwanted materials , It is annoying & malicious , It causes considerable harm to your computer & yourself , You should not reply to email unless you are certain that the message comes from a legitimate source , Spam can not be stopped , But there are certain things that can be done to reduce the number of spam emails coming into your inbox .
How to reduce spam emails
The first rule is obviously do not open & reply to spam mails , Even if you open an email , Do not download or click on any links or files inside email Spam , Also , You should not reply to these spam mails , It is common that even the experts break the first rule , The users are still tricked into opening these mails using attractive headlines & offers .
You should not respond to any spam , Most spammers verify receipt & log responses , The more you respond , the more spam you’re likely to receive , You have to think before you click ‘unsubscribe’ , The spammers send fake unsubscribe letters , in an attempt to collect active email addresses , If you click ‘unsubscribe’ in one of these letters , It may simply increase the amount of spam you receive .
You should not stop email spam using unsubscribe link , Every mail list , genuine or spammy carries the link inside to unsubscribe from the subscriber list , If you find the particular mail spammy , it is recommended not to unsubscribe the mailing list , Clicking on unsubscribe list is in a way confirming that your email address is active & you received this mail .
You have to keep your browser updated , You should make sure that you use the latest version of your web browser & all of the latest Internet security patches have been applied , Do not respond to emails from unknown sources and you have to use anti-spam filters .
You can submit your email address to genuine websites , But never publicly show your email address , so , the email owner is exposing that email Id to the world of spammers , The spammers have specialized bots & crawlers created for the purpose of continuously crawling websites & harvest new email addresses .
The website & domain name owners should be careful about revealing email address publicly on their websites , One of the main sources of spam emails are from e-commerce sites constantly sending offers about new products , So , You have to dedicate a separate email for receiving these types of mails .
You can use Anti Spam tools ,There are plenty of Anti-Spam tools available in the market like Spamihilator , Spam Assassin , MailWasher Free , CleanMail HomePaid etc , Some of them are free & some paid tools , Paid tools may not necessarily be the best , but most of them carry additional features and are more effective .
Some ISP also offer email filters , Check with your ISP , if they have spam filtering software , You may have a subscription fee , When installed , you will not receive any blacklisted emails inside your inbox , You should always be vigilant when receiving or responding to emails , You have to make sure that your spam filter is switched on to minimize the risks .
You should not threaten spammers , The spammers have their rights , Within certain terms & conditions , what they do is legally allowed , By threatening the spammer , you are exposing to legal action , Also , It is not practically always possible to take legal action against the spammer .
You should not open emails which you suspect as being scams , Do not open the attachments from unknown sources , The attachments might be viruses or spyware that download to your machine when you open the attachment file , If you don’t know whom the attachment is from or if you weren’t expecting it .
You should not click on the links in emails from unknown sources , You should not make the purchases or charity donations in response to spam email , You should not click or remove or reply to unwanted email , You have to delete all addresses of previous parties in the email string , before forwarding or replying .
Most Microsoft & the other email clients come with spam filtering as standard , Ensure yours is switched on , Most spam and junk filters can be set to allow email to be received from trusted sources & blocked from untrusted sources .
If you choose the webmail account such as gmail , Hotmail & Yahoo Mail , You have to make sure that you select one that includes spam filtering and it remains switched on , Most internet security packages contain spam blocking .
You should keep your versions of Windows & Outlook up to date by checking your Control Panel and setting to auto-update , You have to keep your system clean of viruses & spyware by running anti-virus & spyware checkers on a regular basis , When the email looks suspicious , don’t risk your personal information by opening or responding to the message .
When you receive a phishing e-mail message , do not respond to it , Don’t open junk mail at all , Phishing is a type of online identity theft that uses e-mail & fraudulent websites that are designed to steal your personal data or information such as credit card numbers , passwords , account data or the other information .
You should not risk your personal information by responding to it , You have to delete junk email messages without opening them , Opening spam can alert spammers or put an unprotected computer at risk , Many links in phishing email messages take you to phony sites which encourage you to transmit the personal or the financial information .
You should not click on the link in an email message unless you are sure of the real target address , URL , or a valid sender , Most e-mail programs show you the real target address of the link when you hover the mouse over the link within the message .
You have to make sure that the spelling of words in the link matches what you expect , The spammers and the scammers use URLs with typos & transposed letters in them that are easy to overlook , such as “Retdail.”
The beacon within the oceans transmits the message or data back to the source , images within email messages —also known as web beacons — can be used to secretly send the message back to the sender , The spammers rely on the information returned by these images to locate active e-mail addresses .
The images can contain harmful codes & they can be used to deliver the spammer’s message in spite of filters , The best defense against web beacons is to prevent the pictures from downloading until you have had a chance to review the message , Most offline mail clients include these settings .
Don’t trust the sender information in an e-mail message , If the email message appears to come from a particular sender that you know & trust , use the same precautions that you would use with any other email message and don’t forward chain email messages .
Spoofing is email activity in which the sender address & the other parts of the email header are altered to appear as though the email originated or was sent from a different source , This is a common practice of spammers & it is one of the hardest to combat as there may be legitimate reasons to spoof an address .
When you receive a suspicious email that looks like it cames from a company that you know & trust , report the email to the faked or spoofed organization , You have to contact the organization directly (not through the email you received) and ask for confirmation on the validity of the message , Or call the organization’s toll-free number & speak to the customer service representative .
Don’t enter personal or financial information into pop-up windows , One common phishing technique is to launch a fake pop-up window when someone clicks the link in a phishing e-mail message , To make the pop-up window look more convincing .
When the pop-up window looks official or claims to be secure , avoid entering sensitive information , because there is no way to check the security certificate , Close pop-up windows by clicking the red X in the top right corner as the Cancel button may not work as you’d expect it would .
You have to only open email accounts with the providers that include spam filtering , You have to choose an antivirus and Internet security solution that also includes advanced anti-spam features , You should set up multiple email addresses , It’s a good idea to have at least two email addresses ( private email address & Public email address .
Private email address
You should have private email address that should only be used for personal correspondence , Because the spammers build the lists of possible email addresses by using the combinations of obvious names , words & numbers .
You should try to make this address difficult for the spammer to guess , If your private address is discovered by the spammers , you should change it , Although this may be inconvenient , changing your email address will help you to avoid spams .
Your private address should not simply be your first & last name , you should protect the address , You should not publish your private email address on publicly accessible online resources , When you need to publish your private address on a website , it’s safer to do this as a graphics file rather than as a link .
Public email address
You should have public email address , You use this address when you need to register on public forums & in chat rooms or to subscribe to mailing the lists & the other Internet services , There are useful tips that will also help you to reduce the volume of spam you receive via your public email address , You have to treat your public address as a temporary address .
The chances are high that the spammers will rapidly get hold of your public address – especially if it is frequently being used on the Internet , You should not be afraid to change your public email address often , You have to consider using a number of public addresses , So , you’ll have a better chance of tracing which the services may be selling your address to the spammers .
Spam email and phishing scam risks & Can it be dangerous to open spam emails ?