Why are unnecessary messages in the world called spam? What is email spam and how to deal with it

Email is one of the most popular ways modern communications. Naturally, social networks and services instant exchange messages pushed back a little electronic mailboxes, allowing you to exchange letters, but this method still remains in great demand.

Most people have their own personal online mailbox to receive messages not only from friends, but also from resources they subscribe to, advertisements and promotional offers from stores where they shop, and so on. It is also worth noting that email is still one of the key elements of communication at the business level, so it is not surprising that even with the advent of “messengers”, the number of mailboxes is growing, not falling. But there is one problem that cannot be overcome one hundred percent, and it plagues all email users. We are, of course, talking about spam. What is spam in email? This is exactly what we're talking about we'll talk in this article. You will learn absolutely everything about what spam is, in what forms it appears in the mail, how to deal with it, and so on. Knowing what email spam is can help you protect yourself and your computer, so this information is very useful.

What is spam?

So, first of all, naturally, we need to consider what spam is: in email, on forums, in instant messengers, and so on. Spam is the commercial sending of advertising or any other messages to people who have not given their consent to receive them. It is distinguished by its mass appeal. Those people who send spam do not try to work with individual clients to convince them to use their services. They focus on mass distribution, sending out hundreds of thousands of messages every day. The result is that spam becomes incredibly unpleasant and annoying, which is why no one likes it. Moreover, it can even be dangerous, but this will be discussed in more detail later. Now you are probably wondering what this word means. After all, until recently it was not in the dictionaries of either the Russian or even the English languages. Now that you know what email spam is, it's time to learn a little history about the origins of this term.

Origin of the term "spam"

And indeed, it's quite interesting word, which previously did not exist even in English. After all, it usually happens that a term is called in English, and then goes into Russian without translation. But this time the term appeared after the Second World War, and the history of its origin is quite curious. The food company Hormel Foods produced a canned food product called SPAM during World War II that was issued to American soldiers. However, when the war ended, the company was left with a fairly impressive stock of these canned goods, which they could sell using standard methods It would be impossible - they would expire. The result was an advertising campaign of unprecedented scope. The word SPAM was on every corner, advertisements for these canned foods were broadcast on television and radio almost without interruption, advertising messages could be found in every newspaper and in every other print publication, banners with this word were on the walls of houses, above the roadway, that is , in other words, everywhere. Thus, it was impossible to hide from this annoying advertising, because it was everywhere.

Decades later, with the advent of the Internet, people appeared who wanted to impose their products and services in the same way. At that time, the main means of communication were email and guest messages, and both of these methods began to be bombarded with numerous advertising messages. As a result, such mass mailings began to be called spam in honor of the same SPAM canned food advertising campaign. And now no one remembers that several decades ago there was such a company, such a product and such an advertising campaign, but everyone knows what “spam” is on the Internet.

What is spam like?

As you already understand, previously there were not such a large number of communication options on the network, so spam was limited to email and guest messages. But now, in the era of social networks, spam has also begun to flourish. Now you can receive an advertising message that you did not give your permission to everywhere: in instant messengers such as Skype or Viber, in social networks VKontakte or Facebook, and, of course, good old email. It was already said above that email remains one of the most popular methods online, so for those who send spam, this communication method is one of the most attractive. Considering that this article is specifically about spam in email, at this moment It's worth going into more detail. You should definitely understand when an email address is protected from spam. And understand how much he can actually be protected from it.

Spam in email

Every person would like to know that their email address is protected from spambots, that is, from programs that send spam messages. However, this is not so easy to do. The fact is that in the case of email it is impossible to clearly distinguish spam from an advertising message of an adequate nature. Therefore, email services are introducing a wide variety of protection systems to allow users to forget about spam. But this comes with consequences. In some cases, spam messages get through the filters, in others, completely normal messages are filtered, and sometimes both happen. Therefore, if you use email, you just need to understand that spam is an inevitable part of such a process. And only you can completely protect yourself from negative consequences. However, why is it so important to know that your email address is protected from spambots? Are a couple of extra emails really that annoying to make a big deal out of it? big problem? It turns out that the situation is much sadder than one might initially think, and this issue is worth dwelling on in more detail.

What are the dangers of spam?

Is your email address protected from spambots? Should you keep anti-spam protection enabled on your mailbox at all times? Many people think that negative impact spam is exaggerated, and there is nothing wrong with the fact that they receive various advertising messages. But in reality, everything is far from so simple, and the situation is much more unpleasant. The fact is that there are several directions in which spam can cause you damage. Firstly, its quantity can negatively affect email servers, causing problems when using it. Secondly, you yourself are unlikely to enjoy using a mailbox filled with unnecessary messages, and you will also get tired of constantly clearing it of them. Thirdly, among the large amount of spam, you can easily lose important messages, so this can cause serious harm to you, especially if we are talking about a mailbox used for business correspondence.

More serious consequences

But this is far from the worst that can happen. The fact is that spam e-mail may contain not only harmless, albeit annoying, advertising, but also malware. For example, you may be asked to follow a link or open a document contained in an email, after which the virus program, infecting your computer. It is also worth noting that many spam emails can be classified as “phishing”.

Phishing is an Internet fraud, and it received this name for the reason that users are literally extorted for money using a wide variety of schemes, methods of luring and extortion. Accordingly, spam is not limited to harmless extra letters that end up in your inbox. But how to deal with this? Protecting email from spam is largely the responsibility of the service, but you also play a very important role in this process.

How do spammers work?

If you think about it, it is not profitable for a person involved in distributing this kind of information to simply send spam email to one user, then to another, and so on. This takes too much time, and given the fact that spam is sent out in the hundreds of thousands of messages per hour, it is worth wondering how spammers work. It turns out there is one secret you need to know to effectively fight spammers. The secret lies in email address databases. It is precisely these databases that spammers use, since they allow them to immediately send large number messages to a large user base.

Email address databases

How can your address end up in such a database? There are millions of ways your address can end up in bad hands. In most cases, this happens when you fill out a form on the Internet and enter your email address. Naturally, if you do this on a trusted site, then you don’t have to worry about your address falling into the wrong hands. But if this is an unverified source, then there is a high probability that your mail will end up in just such an address database, which will then be used for mass spam mailings. Want to have spam-free email? Then you can draw your first conclusions now.

How to fight spam?

As you can already understand, the first step to spam-free mail is your own awareness. If you have an email address, then you should under no circumstances leave it on unverified sites, otherwise you seriously risk ending up in one or even several mailing address databases. And you can already imagine the consequences of this.

You should also pay attention to the spam filters that your service provider offers you. If you use common services such as Gmail or Mail.ru, then high-quality filters are already installed there, so everything else is up to you. If you use less popular services, then you should definitely check your email for spam and consider switching to a more spam-safe service.

Mark as spam

Another very important point- this is the fight against spam after receiving it. Even if you take all security measures, there is a possibility that spam messages will leak into your inbox. And every person will most likely think first of all about deleting this message or simply ignoring it. However, there is a much smarter solution. You can mark a received email as spam - all email services offer this feature. When you mark a letter in this way, it will no longer be visible to you, and this mark will provide the service with information that you do not want to receive any more messages from the sender. Moreover, the sender ends up in the service database, and if complaints are received against him in the future, all his messages will be considered spam and, accordingly, filtered.

Normal mailings

However, this raises another question: what to do with promotional emails that come to you from trusted sources. For example, you made a purchase from an online store and allowed it to send you promotional messages. You may have even viewed emails from this mailing list for some time, but after some time you decided that you no longer want to receive these emails. IN in this case You don't have to mark the email as spam, just use the form at the end of the email to unsubscribe.

Spam is the sending of advertising letters of a political or commercial nature to people who have not subscribed to it. Spam refers to emails, received by user's email, phone, social applications type whats app, Skype and many others. Main topics letters can be different: from a visit to a resort to an offer to earn big money or receive a prize for some action that the user has never done.

The first episode of spamming took place in the nineteenth century. In 1864, politicians in Britain received telegrams advertising dental services by telegraph. In the twentieth century, a similar term was used to designate the trademark of Hormel Foods Corporation. This there was an abbreviation SPAM stood for SPiced hAM, which translated meant “spicy ham.” After the war, advertisements about unconsumed canned food were broadcast at every turn - from the radio, newsstands, on trams and buses. There was a sketch on a television show in Britain called "SPAM". This is where the modern name comes from.

Sometimes spam turns from harmless letters into real black PR. For example, with its help, one company can denigrate another by sending Internet and telephone users some kind of defamatory information last message. With the help of such mailings, pornography, drugs and much more are advertised, which is prohibited by law.

Masked as spam money swindling. For example, a woman receives a message in the mail that her son was in an accident and asks to send money for a complex operation and a number where to send savings. Those women who have never encountered such actions believe and send money. And then it turns out that the son is healthy and nothing happened to him. The types will be discussed in more detail below.

Types of spam

The most common type is advertising. With the help of advertising, companies sell services and offer goods. Such advertising is permitted at the legislative level. But many recipients are still wary.

Another type is " Nigerian letters" The name was formed due to the fact that a large number of similar messages were received in Nigeria. The recipient of such a letter is promised a large sum of money, but it is necessary to open an account and postage costs, which the scammer will supposedly pay only when the recipient sends the money to him.

Almost the same in appearance is " phishing" Allegedly, the bank administration will block the recipient's account if he does not send his details and does not confirm the data on the site under which the link to the spammers' site is hidden. This way, fraudsters will receive all the necessary data in order to transfer the money in the recipient’s account to themselves.

Letters of happiness, common among schoolchildren and adults, are also one of the varieties in our country. They are based on the requirement to forward the message as soon as possible more friends. And in return, a miracle will happen in the life of the recipient in a few days. Sometimes such messages may contain negative content. For example, threaten with heavenly punishment if a person does not send a certain amount letters to friends.

All these are legitimate and misconduct committed by people called spammers. They can be mailing services, database collectors, manufacturers software and even an ordinary user. If a person wants to communicate something to many people without their request or consent, he automatically becomes a spammer.

This type of mailing brings benefits to the customers of letters. It is difficult to fight this species, but it is possible.

How to fight spam

You can deal with mailings yourself. If you often receive messages from a particular group or user, you can always add the person to blacklist and make sure that messages fall into a specially designated block. On the website mail.ru, or Yandex.Mail, it is called “Spam”.

For the user who wants to protect himself from spammers, not recommended publish your mailing address on publicly accessible websites. Or create a special box if you have to register in unreliable groups and communities. Not recommended respond to similar messages or follow the links in them. Perhaps the link already contains a script that will block your computer or phone best case scenario. At worst, he will gain access to your cards and bank accounts.

There is special software that protects against annoying mailings. Typically, such antispam modules are built into the antivirus or installed separately. Kaspersky Lab, Antispam, Counterspam are the best of these programs.

It is recommended to blacklist such senders on phones. Letters will arrive in separate block called "Antispam" on the phone. And if the recipient wants, he can look, if not, he can put it on automatic removal after a certain number of days.

You can find examples in the pictures below. These are like this harmless mailings also called spam on the Internet.

These are examples of mailings from ordinary users. There are entire companies, for example, computer repair, window installation, that engage in similar mailings, inserting links to their pages in user names or words. Below is an example:

What to do with spam emails

How dangerous is spam?

First of all, it is dangerous because in a pile of various mailings you will have to search for a long time for a truly useful letter from a friend or from work. By opening a spam email and clicking on the link, you expose yourself and your corporate network to infection various viruses. Thirdly, additional load on the network.

Spam is something every network user is familiar with.

In its most common sense, spam is mass mailing advertising letters to users who did not give their consent.

Nowadays spam has many more meanings and variations: SMS spam, spam on social networks, and so on. But let's start with the origin of the word itself.

Term

The word “spam” itself, or rather the English version “spam”, has a rather funny origin. SPAM was originally a trademark American company; Under this brand, canned meat began to be released in 1936, of which so much was produced during the Second World War that an urgent advertising campaign had to be carried out - it was necessary to sell them before the expiration date. These canned foods were advertised everywhere, and were also advertised on the radio.

This situation was played out in one of the episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus, and the word SPAM acquired its current meaning in 1986, when many identical messages from financial pyramid advertisements appeared.

Currently, the amount of spam varies from year to year. For example, in 2017, the share of spam in total email traffic was slightly more than half, 56.63%; at the same time greatest number spam (more than 13%) came from the USA.

Types of spam

1. Bulk mailing- most known species spam. Spammers buy databases postal addresses, and then send letters with commercial offers(which most often contain viruses, phishing, and so on).
2. Messages on social networks and instant messengers. Previously, these were the same advertising messages as in letters, but now a scheme is becoming popular when a user’s account is hacked, and then messages are sent on his behalf asking him to transfer a certain amount of money.
3. Spam on forums. Spammers are also active on forums: they leave messages in discussions and send private messages to users. Sometimes this is used to build up the link mass of a site.
4. Spam in comments on the site. The type of spam that website owners hate the most. The goal of spammers is still the same - either to advertise their goods or services, or to increase subject citation index(tIC).
5. Spam in catalogs and message boards. Directories are used to promote websites (although less so now), and message boards are used for fraudulent advertisements.
6. Spam via SMS. Just like when sending emails, spammers buy user databases mobile operators and send spam messages of an advertising or fraudulent nature.

Safe and dangerous spam

Spam messages can be divided into two large groups- safe and dangerous. The former are unpleasant, but only threaten to ruin your mood and waste time, but the latter can harm your computer and finances.

Safe spam

1. Advertising of legal goods or services. These are ordinary letters of an advertising nature, with the difference that users did not give their permission to receive them.
2. Advertising of goods or services prohibited by law. If the law prohibits advertising a product or service, then spammers begin to actively use mailings; they have nothing to lose.
3. Compromising letters. May be related to politics; are sent with the aim of discrediting competitors, and can also be sent supposedly on behalf of competitors in order to change opinions about them for the worse.
4. "Letters of happiness." Messages (including in instant messengers) with a request to forward a text to other users so that something good happens or something bad doesn’t happen. Sometimes such letters are used by spammers to collect a database of addresses for subsequent mailings.

Dangerous spam

In general, spam is far from a harmless thing, so any messages that look like spam should be treated very carefully.

How to deal with email spam

In order to reduce the amount of spam in your mail as much as possible, you need to start by understandinghow users get on mailing lists.

1. Inattention when registering on the site. Often, in the registration form there is already a checkbox indicating consent to receive advertising materials. However, in this case it is not difficult to refuse spam: at the end of each letter there should be an “Unsubscribe” link.
2. Hacking. Fraudsters hack websites and user emails and gain access to databases (contacts).
3. Sale. Address databases, unfortunately, are sometimes sold by website employees themselves.
4. Phishing. The user enters his data on fake sites.

What to do?

The main advice that has repeatedly shown its effectiveness:

register at least two email addresses. One for personal and work contacts, and the second for registration on commercial sites, sites with dubious content, and so on.

The next tip is to choose a reliable email service (for example, Gmail ). Spam filtering works well in such email services, so most fraudulent emails will go straight to the Spam folder.

If some letter nevertheless “breaks through” into the main letter folder, be sure to mark it as spam - all further letters from this user will end up there.

You can also use filters and create rules to get rid of spam (for example, in Yandex mail).

Conclusion

Spam represents serious problem- Mainly due to the dangerous links and files that can be found inside the email, spam is a serious problem, especially for inexperienced users. Therefore, even if you are sure that you will never fall for scammers, be sure to tell your family and friends about the dangers.

Modern look of the can

The word "SPAM" originally appeared in the city. It stood for SPiced hAM (spicy ham) and was a trademark for Hormel Foods canned meat, a spicy ground pork sausage. World famous in application to annoying advertising The term SPAM received thanks to the famous sketch of the same name from the famous show “Monty Python's Flying Circus” (1969) by the comic group Monty Python. The point of the sketch is that in one cafe all the dishes on the menu contain “SPAM”, some even several times. When the main character of the sketch, who came to this cafe with his wife, asks to bring him a dish without “SPAM,” the waitress offers him a dish with “a small amount of SPAM.” The customer is outraged, and a choir of Vikings sitting at nearby tables begin to sing a song of praise to “SPAM”, after which the sketch plunges into chaos. At the end of the sketch, the hero's wife exclaims: I don't like SPAM! (English) “I don’t like spam!”). The word “SPAM” was also added to the names of the characters in the credits. IN total this word is mentioned more than a hundred times in the sketch.

The most common types of spam

Advertising

Some legitimate businesses advertise their products or services using spam. They can distribute it themselves, but more often they order it from those companies (or individuals) that specialize in this. The appeal of such advertising lies in its relatively low cost and (presumably) large reach potential clients. Such unsolicited advertising may have reverse effect, causing rejection among recipients, and can even become synonymous intrusive advertising, as happened with ham, they can actually increase sales without causing much trouble to the recipients. The main conditions of mutual benefit for the recipient and the mailing organizer are:

• combining the roles of mailing list organizer and email service provider;
• improving the quality of the target audience of each specific advertising mailing letter;
• warning clients by the provider that he will send promotional letters;
• provision convenient means for blocking unwanted emails.

Advertising illegal products

Spam is often used to advertise products that cannot be communicated in other ways - for example, pornography, counterfeit (counterfeit) goods, medicines with restrictions on circulation, illegally obtained classified information(databases), counterfeit software.

Anti-advertising

"Nigerian Letters"

Sometimes spam is used to lure money from the recipient of the letter. The most common method was called "Nigerian letters" because a large number of such letters came from Nigeria. Such a letter contains a message that the recipient of the letter can somehow receive a large amount of money, and the sender can help him with this. Then the sender of the letter asks to transfer him some money under the pretext of, for example, completing documents or opening an account. Extorting this amount is the goal of the scammers.

A narrower name for this type of fraud is scam or scam 419(by article number in the Nigerian Criminal Code).

Phishing

Distribution methods

Spam folder in an email client window

E-mail

The largest flow of spam is distributed through electronic mail (e-mail). Currently, the share of viruses and spam in total email traffic ranges from 70 to 95 percent, according to various estimates. The most common spam content is advertising of unpopular products: Viagra, etc. .

Fighting spam

Ideology

It is obvious that spam brings economic benefits to its customers. This means that users, despite their dislike of spam, still use the services advertised through spam. As long as the return from spam exceeds the cost of defeating the defense, spam will not go away. Thus, the most in a reliable way struggle is to refuse services advertised through spam. There are proposals to use public condemnation, up to the cessation of communication, against persons purchasing goods and services advertised by spam.

Other methods are aimed at making it difficult for spammers to access users.

Preventive protection measures

The most reliable way to combat spam is to prevent spammers from finding out your email address. This is a difficult task, but some precautions can be taken.

All address hiding methods have a fundamental drawback: they create inconvenience not only for alleged spammers, but also for real recipients. In addition, it is often necessary to publish the address - for example, if it is contact address companies.

Filtration

Since promotional emails tend to be very different from regular mail, a common method of dealing with them has become to filter them out of the incoming mail stream. Currently, this method is the main and most widely used.

Automatic filtering

There is software for automatic detection spam (so-called spam filters). It may be intended for end users or for use on servers. This software uses two main approaches.

The first is that the content of the letter is analyzed and a conclusion is made whether it is spam or not. A letter classified as spam is separated from other correspondence: it can be marked, moved to another folder, or deleted. Such software can run both on the server and on the client’s computer. IN the latter case the user does not see filtered spam, but continues to bear the costs associated with receiving it, since the filtering software receives each letter and only then decides whether to show it or not. On the other hand, if the software runs on a server, the user does not incur the costs of transferring it to his computer.

The second approach is to use various methods, identify the sender as a spammer without looking at the text of the letter. This software can only run on a server that directly receives letters. With this approach additional traffic is spent only by the server on communicating with spam mail programs (i.e., refusing to accept letters) and contacting other servers (if any are needed) during verification.

There are also specialized online services, for example, Kaspersky Lab (Kaspersky Hosted Security service), Outcom (SPAMOREZ), INCAP (Antispam-Post), which provide paid protection from spam. Changing the MX record in a business domain name (see.

Another problem with automatic filtering is that it can mistakenly mark useful messages as spam. Therefore, many email services and programs, at the user’s request, may not delete those messages that the filter considers spam, but place them in a separate folder.

Automatic filtering methods

Automatic filtering programs use statistical analysis content of the letter to decide whether it is spam. The greatest success has been achieved using algorithms based on Bayes' theorem. For these methods to work, it is necessary to first “train” the filters by sending them manually sorted letters to identify statistical features of normal letters and spam.

The method works very well when sorting text messages(including the sample manages to cut off up to 95-97% of spam. To bypass such filters, spammers sometimes place the content in a picture attached to the letter, but the text is either missing or random, which does not allow the filter to compile statistics for recognizing such letters In this case, you need to use text recognition programs (most modern email programs do not support this), or use other methods.

The key to reliable operation of the Bayesian method is constant additional training of the filter and pointing out errors to it. IN mail programs To achieve this, the ability to manually mark messages as “spam/not-spam” is being introduced, and in mail services on the Internet, a “report spam” button is being introduced.

Manual filtering

Many programs and email services on the Internet allow the user to set their own filters. Such filters may consist of words or, less commonly, regular expressions, depending on the presence or absence of which a message does or does not end up in the trash bin. However, such filtering is labor-intensive and inflexible, and also requires the user to have a certain degree of familiarity with computers. On the other hand, it allows you to effectively filter out some of the spam, and the user knows exactly which messages will be filtered out and why.

Blacklists

Ownership, use, effectiveness

These include:

• lists of IP addresses of computers that are known to send spam.
• (widely used) lists of computers that can be used for mailing - “open relays” and “open proxies”, as well as lists of “dialups” - client addresses on which there cannot be mail servers
• (possible use) a local list or a list maintained by someone else.
• (widespread due to ease of implementation) blacklists, queried through the DNSBL service ( DNS B lack L ist). Currently this method is not very effective. Spammers find new computers for their purposes faster than they can be blacklisted. In addition, a few computers sending spam could compromise an entire email domain or subnet, and thousands of legitimate users on indefinite time will be unable to send mail to servers using such a blacklist.
• (there are) lists of people preaching rather radical theories (for example, equating viral messages with malicious spam, etc.).

Misuse

Often, irresponsible and incorrect use of blacklists by resource administrators leads to the blocking of a large number of innocent users.

Example: using lists without an exact idea of ​​which addresses are included in it and how, using email blacklists for web resources, etc.

Irresponsible use

Example: failure to provide the user (or administrator) of a blocked address with information about the list (since there are a great many of them) or guided in their actions by the principle of presumption of guilt.

Racket by blacklist administrators

IN lately There are more and more complaints online about blacklist administrators who blackmail Internet providers and hosting providers by refusing to remove IP addresses from which spam may have once been sent (addresses end up on blacklists by anonymous complaints, which are often impossible to verify). In addition, many require “donations” from IP address owners to remove entries from blacklists.

Authorization of mail servers

Various methods have been proposed to confirm that the computer sending the letter is indeed authorized to do so (Sender ID, SPF, Caller ID, Yahoo DomainKeys, MessageLevel), but they are not yet widely used. In addition, these technologies limit some common types of functionality of mail servers: it becomes impossible to automatically redirect correspondence from one mail server to another (

It is a common policy among providers that clients are only allowed to establish SMTP connections with the provider's servers. In this case, it becomes impossible to use some of the authorization mechanisms.

Gray Lists

Method greylisting is based on the fact that the “behavior” of software designed to send spam differs from the behavior of regular mail servers, namely, spam programs do not try to resend the letter when a temporary error occurs, as required by the protocol

The simplest version of greylisting works as follows. All previously unknown SMTP servers are considered to be on the gray list. Mail from such servers is not accepted, but is not rejected at all - they are returned a temporary error code (“come back later”). If the sending server tries again after at least some time t g(this time is called delay), the server is whitelisted and the mail is accepted. Therefore, regular letters (not spam) are not lost, but only their delivery is delayed (they remain in a queue on the sender's server and are delivered after one or more unsuccessful attempts). Spammer programs either do not know how to resend letters, or the servers they use manage to get blacklisted during the delay on the computer from which the letter is sent, etc. Using these measures, only the most primitive spam is eliminated - a small number of messages. However, it is not zero, so their use still makes sense.

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Every Internet user has at least once received an email from an unknown recipient.

Political advertising, a call to go to a website, or an offer for a promotional product have repeatedly cluttered the mailbox, preventing access to important messages. This phenomenon is called unsolicited sending of information or in other words - spam.

Interesting! The word “spam” appeared at the beginning of the twentieth century. Then this was the name given to expired canned food that consumers did not buy. One day, the manufacturing company sent a batch of such canned food to the American Navy, emphasizing the necessity and benefits of these goods. Then spam began to be associated with unsolicited mailing that did not bring any benefit.

Today, the definition is most often used in the Internet environment, denoting with this word all types of advertising sent to users without their consent or request.

What is email spam

It's hard to imagine, but 80% of all email content is unsolicited email. Offers of joint cooperation, congratulations on a non-existent win, and even threats are sent to the mail. There are also some very funny messages from foreign spammers who use Google Translate to compose text.

In general, three main groups of such messages can be distinguished:

• Legitimate advertising (used by small companies wishing to attract potential customers. Most often, such correspondence does not pose a threat to the operation of the device, and sometimes it provides the recipient interesting information: announcement of sales, information about the opening of a new department, etc.).
• Illegal advertising (promotion of goods prohibited for sale or illegal services).
• Game advertising (enticing messages with offers to take part in various games: chain letters, flash mobs).

• catchy headline (“Win a million dollars!”, “Get an inheritance from deceased relative"," Participate in the prize draw "," URGENT! Invest money at a favorable interest rate” and the like);
• unknown addressee (often the sender is foreigners);
• absence useful information or the presence of links to dubious sites.

What makes spam email so attractive?

This question interests many who have encountered such mailings. After all, sometimes the meaning of a message is so veiled that users do not understand why spammers waste their time on such operations. There are still reasons:

• Cheap advertising (70% of all unwanted messages in Runet are of a custom nature, which indicates a high concentration advertising messages. Small shops, illegal establishments and any other enterprises that want to save on advertising use mailing as a method of promoting their goods and services).
• Theft (links to malware that are “infested” in received messages are aimed at infecting operating system which is usually accompanied by theft personal information, including information about bank accounts and deposits).

How to get rid of spam in mail

Of course, everyone who has encountered “garbage” in their mailbox tries to get rid of annoying letters and restore the correct operation of the device. But this process is not always achieved by pressing one key; sometimes you need to try very hard to protect yourself from “malicious” mail.

No matter how obvious it may sound, the simplest and most reliable email protection against spam is the security measures that every Internet user must take. What not to do while surfing the Internet:

1. Leave your email address on sites with open access. Forums, comments and advertisements are the main sources from which spammers find new “victims”.
2. Use one drawer for all occasions. It's best to have several email addresses, for example: for work, personal correspondence and entertainment. Then you can use one email for business correspondence, another for communicating with friends, and a third for registering on various resources.
3. Don't read license agreement. When registering on online platforms, you need to study the information in full. More and more stores and blogs offer to subscribe to the newsletter, automatically checking a box indicating the user’s consent. After studying all the details of registration in detail, you can unsubscribe from the mailing list.
4. Conduct correspondence with the addressee. Some recipients of unsolicited emails try to remove themselves from the mailing list by writing about it in a return email. This is a huge mistake, giving the recipient the green light. A response to a malicious message informs the spammer that the mail is “live” and is there. real person, which means the audience for advertising.

We looked at methods that warn users against malicious mailings, but what should those who made a mistake and disclosed their data to third parties do?

So, a lot of spam is coming to the mail. What to do?

Unsubscribe from mailing list

In some messages there is special button allowing him to refuse spam mailing. But here you need to be very careful. The fact is that many scammers use this button to signal that the mail is active, and vice versa, they add the address to the priority list for mailing. That's why use this option recommended only when letters come from a known address (for example, from a popular store or company).

Spam filters for mail servers

The most common and reliable protection spam mail. Filtration occurs in automatic mode and allows you to filter out unnecessary messages from truly important messages. There are two ways email spam filters work:

• The first option involves a comprehensive assessment of the address from which the letter was sent. Thus, messages coming from a server with a low rating are automatically marked as unwanted and are not opened. In this case, the filter must be installed on the mail server;
• The second option involves evaluating the message itself according to the special criteria discussed above, which distinguishes “virtual garbage” from simple letters. If the system determines the malicious nature of the message, the mail ends up in spam. In this case, the filter can be installed both on the server and on personal computer user.

Block spam using mail settings

Each email service has a system for filtering unnecessary messages. We will show the process based on one of the most popular resources. So, how to block spam in Mail?

The first step is to accurately determine the nature of the message, since this method suitable only for those messages that are undoubtedly spam.

Then you need to follow a few simple steps:

Important! The procedure should be repeated several times. This is necessary so that the mail service remembers the addressee and automatically identifies such messages as spam. Mail anti-spam protection in this case automatically transfers messages to the junk mail folder.

Am I a spammer?

But what if messages do not come to the user, but on the contrary, they are sent from his mail. This situation has become increasingly common lately. Trying to protect themselves, scammers hack mailboxes and send out mailings from someone else.

So, spam is being sent from my email. What to do?

Changing your password

The most reliable way to protect your mailbox is to change your password. You can use hints postal service or use complex, combined alphanumeric passwords for your account.

Attention! It is unacceptable to use data accessible to attackers as a password: first name, last name and date of birth. Banal passwords are also easy to crack:

11111, 12345 or qwerty1234.

Checking mail for spam list

An important step that is necessary for correct operation your email. There are many programs on the Internet (for example, https://whoer.net/ru) that allow you to quickly check the presence of an IP in the blacklist.

Why is this important? It's simple: if an account is marked as malicious, the correspondence sent will not reach the recipient.

The presented email protection methods are simple and accessible to every user. Remember that eliminating spam begins with applying security measures and non-disclosure of personal data in open sources.