You’re tired of spam emails. You’ve been tired of spam emails for a long time. It’s been so long, you’ve abandoned an overflowing email address and learned to keep your new one very private. And yet, the spam keeps coming.
Am I right so far? I bet so, because this is so common! Scammers and hackers are everywhere, and they want desperately to get ahold of your information and into your system. There are all kinds of ways they work their evil magic, and MAN are they persistent!
From Spam to Scam
Emails are an absolute favorite of online scammers: once you have the email addresses, they cost nothing, they take little time to put together, they require almost no maintenance, and they can be very tricky! Getting the email addresses is the only part that costs, as scammers often buy them in bulk. So how does your email address end up in those lists?
Well, being active on the internet will do it in most cases. Ever used your email for access to a cooking blog? News site? Forum? It can now be picked up by email-harvesting bots.
Another way is by unsubscribing from email lists. If you didn’t personally subscribe to that list, it may be an attempt to validate your email address. Unfortunately, clicking “Unsubscribe” will tell the originator that your account is active and ready to be sold in a nice, bulk package. This can also be done via a tracking image in the email. In this case, even opening the email will validate your address to the scammer if your email platform is set to auto-load images.
How Do I Stop It?
Frankly, there’s no way to get rid of spam emails entirely. Online tips will tell you to mark things as spam, delete the emails, don’t use your email address for anything, unsubscribe from email lists… You see why these won’t work, right?
For free, there’s only a few things you can do, and they’re not effective for long. Set up and keep up with spam filters on your email server, avoid clicking into emails you don’t recognize, use a spam-only email address for accounts when possible, and hope you don’t wind up on too many bulk lists.
Honestly, your best bet is to purchase spam protection, such as Norton or Bitdefender, and let it do the work for you. Buying a program may not be the answer you’re looking for, but email scammers are far too plentiful and far too persistent to fend off on your own. It’s not pretty, but it’s the (virtual) world we live in.
For more tips, tricks, and insights to navigating and marketing in this virtual world, keep an eye on this blog, and book a consultation!