There’s nothing worse than opening up an email box to find nothing but spam filling its contents. It’s annoying. It gets in the way of work. Plus, it can be dangerous.
Why Reducing Spam is a Must?
Aside from the obvious irritations, spam can be dangerous for a computer and its users. Through email spam bad guys can:
- Send viruses and other malware attacks – It is very common for email attachments to include computer viruses and other bits of malware. When users click on the links within those emails or download the attachments, they could be exposing their computers to infections like viruses, bots, and similar.
- Send “phishing” requests – Some pieces of spam include links to bogus websites. These websites and the emails that herald them are designed to dupe people into visiting fake websites so they can share their personal, confidential information, including but not limited to user names and passwords or bank account numbers.
- Perpetrate denial-of-service attacks – Sometimes the bad guys are just out to flood email servers so they don’t work, or they let them get into the server system by getting stuck.
Getting Rid of Spam
While it’s probably impossible to get rid of all incoming email spam, it is feasible to reduce its amount. Here are a few steps anyone with a computer can take to protect themselves:
- Use email filters – Most email programs have their own spam filters users can customize to reduce incoming spam. Stay on top of filtering and be sure to mark new spam found in the inbox as spam. The filter will keep any new sends from the address out of the inbox. Do check the spam box frequently and remove unwanted emails. Also, be sure to reset the permissions on email addresses that shouldn’t have gone to the spam box.
- Take care with email addresses – Be wary about giving out email addresses to unknown sources. While an address doesn’t have to be a closely guarded secret, it should be given out with care.
- Use an internet protection program – Programs such as Norton Internet Security and Norton 360 are designed to protect against a number of hazards. Since potentially harmful spam can still slip onto a machine and into an email inbox, be sure to run one of these programs at all times.
Email spam is a fact of life as more companies turn to mass mailings to drum up business. Unfortunately, it’s also irritating and can be potentially hazardous. Protect a machine by taking the right steps to reduce spam. Even when spam makes it past a filter, be very wary about what emails to respond to. As it is not enough just to have security software like Norton installed, it’s often better to delete a suspicious email and ask questions later.
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