Spam messages and email is a serious problem for many people nowadays. Millions of people get spammed via their email and mobile phones every day. Any message that is irrelevant or unsolicited can be classified as spam. Spam messages can be a serious problem for people who wish to stay productive. Pointless adverts and emails can often be a serious source of distraction, and can also clutter your life unnecessarily.
Almost everyone who browses the Internet today has had to deal with spam at some point. In fact, some people end up changing their email addresses and mobile phone numbers just because they are tired of dealing with so much spam. In order to help you steer clear of unwanted messages and pointless distractions, here are some basic tips.
Install a Powerful Antispam Software Program
There are plenty of antispam solutions available in the market nowadays. Many organisations and businesses often use antispam software programs in order to prevent useless messages from entering their private networks. The messages are filtered before they can access the inbox, thus reducing the number of distractions for the employee. Antispam software programs are generally quite expensive, so you will have to pay a considerable amount of money if you want an enterprise version. However, installing a powerful antispam software program could make your life tremendously easy. If your inbox is often cluttered with pointless emails that you have to delete every day, investing in a viable antispam solution will save you a lot of time and effort.
Don’t Give Out Your Email Address Easily
Have you ever noticed how every other website often asks you to sign up for their newsletter? If you are on a shopping website, they might even give you a discount coupon if you sign up for a newsletter. Why are companies so eager to get your email address? The reason is simple: so that they can create a mailing list. These mailing lists are then sold off to different companies without your permission, and you often end up receiving spam messages from numerous different sources.
Spammers generally need to know whether your email address is real or not. They try a variety of different techniques in order to find out which email is real or not. For instance, you may receive an email with an HTML script embedded inside. The script detects whenever somebody opens the email. Once the spammer finds out that an email has been opened, they will know for sure that the email address is real. It won’t be long before you start receiving a bunch of different spam emails from different addresses. Therefore, try not to give out your email to different websites so readily. Many people use two email addresses, one for their work purposes and another for entertainment.
Set Filters
Almost every single email service now gives you the option of setting up spam filters. Spam filters generally block certain email addresses, and also directly unsubscribe you from different mailing lists. Taking out the time to set up a few filters is a great option for those who want to avoid spam at all costs. Popular email services such as Gmail and Outlook now make it very easy for their users to completely block spam mail from their accounts. In fact, many email service providers automatically categorise your email into different categories, such as promotional or social.
Hire a Spam Filtering Service
Hiring a spam filtering service may be a great idea for customers who want active protection. Spam is one of the most common ways though which hackers access accounts. These emails run fake scripts in order to gain access to sensitive information about your computer, and can also install harmful malware such as keyloggers in the background. Hiring a spam filtering service may be a great option, especially if you are working in an organisation. Spam filtering services generally use active protection methods in order to monitor all incoming mail on a server. The mail is thoroughly checked for viruses and the sender is verified first before the email is pushed to the recipient’s inbox. Enterprise protection is very important for companies that have to trade sensitive information among their employees. Given the fact that most people use their smartphones for email, many corporations often set up their own private servers. Hiring a spam filtering service is a great way to make sure that your email remains protected from all kinds of hackers and spammers.
Don’t Click on Spam Links
Even if you end up opening a spam email, it is vitally important that you never click on a spam link. Spam links are designed to gain access to your computer, and often look like actual representations of certified websites. For instance, clicking on a spam link may take you to the Facebook login page. However, the only difference is that it won’t be the legitimate Facebook login page; it would be a direct representation created to record your email address and password. If you end up opening a spam link, instantly change your passwords and other important information.
Read the Terms and Conditions before You Register on Any Website
Most people don’t read through the massive chunk of text before registering on any website. They just click on “I Agree” without even paying any attention to the website itself. However, you might end up giving explicit permission to the website to spam your email address. Before you sign up on any website, make sure you go through certain parts of the “terms and conditions” that talk about how the website will use your personal information. You will be amazed at the amount of permission that most websites take from their customers. It would be well worth your time to spend at least five minutes perusing all the terms and conditions in order to figure out whether the website will misuse your personal information or not.
