Drowning in spam? Here’s how to send those spammers running.
Spam, or unsolicited emails sent to a large number of recipients, is an unfortunate byproduct of our online activity. Anytime you share your email address, you increase your chances of receiving spam. This includes posts made to online forums or web sites, online order forms that require an email address, web site registrations, job inquiries, blog subscriptions, and even emails sent to friends. Some companies share your information with partner vendors, while others sell it to the highest bidder. Even if you only share your address with a select few, if your friend’s account is hacked, the spammers gain access to their address book.
It’s easy enough to stop legitimate spam received from companies you know. Simply click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email to be removed from the mailing list. This will either unsubscribe you immediately or take you to a preferences page where you can unsubscribe altogether or limit the number and frequency of emails you receive. Marking this type of message as “Junk” often doesn't work well because businesses try very hard to craft messages that ensure their emails do not end up in a Junk folder.
Getting rid of the bad spam is a little trickier. This type of email often includes “phishing” links in an attempt to get you to click through the email to sell bogus products, steal personal information such as account names and passwords, or expose your computer to a virus. Spam filtering software through your email client such as Apple Mail, Outlook, webmail, etc. will scan your incoming mail and move suspicious emails to your Junk folder. The downside with this type of filtering is that it only works when you’re checking email using your computer. If your computer is off and you’re checking email via your phone, the computer doesn't scan the email and you may end up with more spam in your inbox. Mobile devices currently don't have the ability for client side spam filtering using the built-in email clients.
Spam filtering is also available on the server side. Most email providers offer some sort of spam filtering on their mail server that happens before the email gets to your account. This system isn’t infallible, but it can keep a fair amount of spam from ever reaching your inbox or at least send it straight to your Junk folder for review. It will also scan attachments for viruses and block any email containing them.
Third party spam filtering runs on a dedicated spam filtering server that receives your mail, scans all incoming email before it gets to your mail server, and pulls out anything that appears to be junk. These messages get stored on their server in a special quarantine area. Users are then sent a list of the quarantined messages and can approve any legitimate emails that may have been mistakenly placed in quarantine.
Choosing the best spam filtering for you depends on what type and how much spam you receive. Typically, a good spam filter will catch 96% - 99% of spam, but if a user is getting 1000 spam messages a day (not uncommon) that's still 10-40 emails per day that could end up in your inbox. Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet, and different users get hit with different spam problems. Here are a few steps you can take to reduce your spam volume.
For more information about preventing and eliminating spam, and for all your IT needs, contact us at support@cranstonITcom.
Spam filtering is also available on the server side. Most email providers offer some sort of spam filtering on their mail server that happens before the email gets to your account. This system isn’t infallible, but it can keep a fair amount of spam from ever reaching your inbox or at least send it straight to your Junk folder for review. It will also scan attachments for viruses and block any email containing them.
Third party spam filtering runs on a dedicated spam filtering server that receives your mail, scans all incoming email before it gets to your mail server, and pulls out anything that appears to be junk. These messages get stored on their server in a special quarantine area. Users are then sent a list of the quarantined messages and can approve any legitimate emails that may have been mistakenly placed in quarantine.
Choosing the best spam filtering for you depends on what type and how much spam you receive. Typically, a good spam filter will catch 96% - 99% of spam, but if a user is getting 1000 spam messages a day (not uncommon) that's still 10-40 emails per day that could end up in your inbox. Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet, and different users get hit with different spam problems. Here are a few steps you can take to reduce your spam volume.
- Unsubscribe from legitimate emails you don't want. This only takes a second and in most cases you'll reduce the amount of spam you receive by 80% or more.
- If you use a desktop client for checking email, make sure you are using the built in email filter properly. When spam finds its way to your inbox always click the "Junk" button and have the program remove it. Secret Tip: The junk filter gets better over time the more you add junk to it. But, if you just delete junk mail from your inbox without marking it as junk, you are actually training the junk filter to accept that email as legitimate and it will let through more spam in the future.
- Ask your email provider how to adjust settings and train the spam filter on your server. Every service and provider has a different way of doing this, and knowing how to use yours can make a big difference. For instance, we use Kerio and their mail server integrates with the Junk Mail folder so if you move a message from your inbox to the Junk folder on any device it learns it as spam for the future.
- If these methods are still allowing too much spam through, the solution is probably a 3rd party spam filtering service. They cost extra but can be very helpful in cleaning up your inbox.
For more information about preventing and eliminating spam, and for all your IT needs, contact us at support@cranstonITcom.