By now, even the least tech-savvy email users are aware of the common characteristics of email spam. After dealing with spam for decades, we’ve all seen our fair share, and are likely embarrassed to admit how many times we’ve fallen for it.
That infamous Nigerian prince’s email certainly fooled people when they first rolled out, regardless of how obvious it is now that such an email is clearly spam. Now we don’t have to worry about emails coming from big companies like Amazon, FedEx, Apple and PayPal, which are the most fake brands in spam email.
Advances in anti-malware software have prompted cybercriminals to shift their focus back to email spam. Although it is considered one of the least effective infection methods, other methods that worked well only a few years ago are now being thwarted by anti-malware software.
Aren’t spam filters meant for this?
As email clients become more sophisticated in their spam filtering efforts, these criminals still manage to get in their way. Platforms like Gmail and Outlook have worked hard to step up their game in detecting and filtering email spam, and have made significant improvements, but email users need to do much more than just rely on filters. is required.
Just because an email arrives in your inbox instead of your spam folder, doesn’t mean it’s safe. In fact, some have even reported finding spam emails in their sent folders, some that many users may not even consider. Like any type of cyber attack, criminals continue to veer their way and find new ways around common security methods.
One way that spammers find their way around the filter is through the use of multiple redirects. As email users are redirected from one page to another, they eventually land on a malicious file download. Because of multiple redirects, spam is more difficult to detect, as detection tools cannot directly access the malicious file. If researchers do get caught, spammers only need to remove one page from a long list of redirects to break the link, making it much harder to investigate.
Evolution of Email Spam
Chances are if you received an email today asking you to send a money order to someone you’ve never met, you’d delete it before you even read the first sentence. Unfortunately, email spam isn’t quite as obvious anymore. If one of these highly evolved bad boys arrives in your inbox, you’d be surprised how hard it can be to locate them.
Spammers have begun to personalize these emails, leading users to believe that the email is coming from someone they know or a trusted business. These emails are more likely to be opened, or the user has clicked on a link or attachment that is included.
Spam email subject lines are often more convincing, even in this new breed of attacks. Instead of an ambiguous or ambiguous subject line with many grammatical errors, many of these email subjects seem completely generic and often intriguing, resulting in more clicks.
protect yourself from spam messages
No matter how many security features and filters you have, nothing is more important than common sense. If you receive email from someone you don’t know, or if it looks like it could be someone you know but you don’t recognize their email address, be wary. Do not open anything that you are unsure about.
When you open an email, keep an eye on the link. Usually, it’s best to access the link directly from the source rather than clicking it in the email, but if you choose to follow the link within the email text, first hover over it to make sure it’s where you want it. will take you where you intend to go. In most browsers, when you hover over the link URL, you’ll see the link URL in the lower left corner. If something seems off, don’t click on it.
If you need to share attachments, you’re better off sharing the file through a cloud storage service, or getting the shared file from someone else. This eliminates the need for you to download attachments directly from an email that could pose a potential threat.
it’s not worth the risk
When in doubt, contact the sender by other means. Call or text your friend or co-worker if you see a suspicious email that looks like it’s from them. Write to a company’s help desk if you receive an unusual email from them strangely asking for personal information. If you’re on your company’s email account, send any activity that is red flagged to your IT team for review. It may sound like a pain, but ignoring these precautions is not worth the risk.
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