The term Spam is the one that is popularly used to define the so-called “junk mail”, which are unwanted messages that we receive in our mailbox in bulk. They’re usually advertising messages about a product or service.
Usually, these junk messages are easy to recognize, since they usually have email addresses of doubtful origin, or have a clear intention to advertise something to us. However, sometimes its detection is not so simple, since it is also common for spam messages to impersonate a particular company or even family and friends.
Clicking on links included in a spam message is one of the biggest mistakes one can make. Not only can it be dangerous as it may be a link that contains a virus or perhaps it is an attempt to “phishing” to steal our information: by clicking the link, we also are confirming that our email address is valid, which will cause us to receive more spam.
Today, all email services have an anti-spam filter that directly sends these emails to the spam mailbox, but these spam filters are not infallible. By following a few basic tips, we can further reduce the presence of spam and keep our mailbox clean.
In addition to the filters that are already integrated to mail services, we can add an anti-spam filter to our inbox. This is highly recommended as you can move the addresses that send you junk emails persistently to a “blacklist”, therefore blocking them from sending you more spam.
When registering for news services or any online service, it is also convenient to cancel the option to subscriptions that are usually activated by default, unless it is a reliable service and we really are interested in receiving the news.
Another interesting measure that we can easily carry out to reduce spam is to create an alternative email account to register for different online services or even to make purchases on the Internet. This way, no junk messages will reach our main mail inbox.
Check if your antivirus includes an anti-spam filter. By activating this filter, our email will be automatically checked and we will be alerted of any suspicious emails.
Finally, we must bear in mind that we, ourselves, may fall into somebody else’s spam inbox and our emails will not reach the recipients. So that spam filters do not send our messages to the junk mailbox, we must try to avoid certain words in the subject of the message, such as “discount”, “special promotion”, “lose weight” or any typical phrase used by spammers. You should also avoid sending repetitive messages regarding the same subject to the same recipients as we can automatically go to the blacklist of the mailbox without knowing it.