It’s a million dollar question, but
do you know why? It’s because ‘you’ are disclosing it!
The reason that you are a
recipient of spam email is because you have disclosed your email id to someone,
somewhere and somehow.
Some common sources to whom you
might have disclosed your email id could be:
- Sign-ups everywhere!
- Online forums
- Newsletter sign up
- Lucky draw coupons in stores
- While entering feedback
- Software downloads
- Your buddies
Other major sources of spam emails
- Through forwarded emails
Everyone receives forwarded
emails with valuable messages or stories or pictures. If you notice, it would
have been circulated through a wide network and sometimes folks do not delete
the email addresses from where the message came or to whom all it was
forwarded. Someone like you or me would not even bother about it. But for a
scammer, who wants to target millions of people, it is an added advantage.
Hence always remember to delete the loop of email id’s in a forwarded email
before you forward them to your buddies. Also request your recipients to do the
same, as a habit.
- The unsubscribe button
This is quite a tricky situation
though. Whenever you have signed up for a newsletter, there comes an
unsubscribe button at the bottom. For a legitimate source, it will
automatically unsubscribe you from the loop. But sometimes you might receive
spam emails where there is an unsubscribe button at the bottom. It is natural
that you do not remember for which all sources you have subscribed and you
eventually click the unsubscribe button at the bottom to stop receiving emails
from the source. You have thus indirectly confirmed to the spammer who sends
out mass email, that you are a valid and active email id holder and you can be
targeted. This is another reason why it is important to report scam emails.
- Random generation
This method is used by spammers
to find out legitimate email id’s using a random text generator. Every email id
has a standard syntax such as <name>@<email domain>.com. Finding
email domain is easier for the spammer, as there are many standard internet
service providers which people use. Finding the name plays a trick. For
instance, say your name is Richard Walker and your email id is richardwalker1985@gmail.com. With
just your name, a spammer generates richardwalker1@gmail.com,
richardwalker2@gmail.com and so
on till some reasonable number and sends out spam emails to all the id’s. Hence
it is sure to strike richardwalker1985. Similarly, even if there is 1% chance
for him to find a legitimate email id, that 1% is equivalent to thousands of
people who receive spam emails.
- Buying email database from companies
Sometimes a spammer pushes in a
huge sum of money to a company to receive a bulk database of email id’s. It is
a bitter truth, but yes, companies do sell their email databases, violating
their own private policies. In rare cases, the hackers can even hack the
company database to obtain email id’s.
Is there a solution?
Whoever you are, wherever you are,
a spammer will find you and target you!
There is literally no solution to
escape from the hands of a spammer, provided you are at least aware that it is
a spam. Report scam emails to your internet service provider as and when you
receive a spam email. When you report scam emails, it can reduce the chances of
receiving more emails in future. You can also report scam emails by clicking on
the ‘report phishing’ option for complaining about phishing activities. Also
delete the email immediately or push it to the spam folder. Never click on any
link or attachment which comes as a part of the email. You can also report scam
emails by forwarding the mail to your government’s cyber crime board. Also
report scam emails by forwarding it to organizations or banks whose name has
been impersonated in the mail. Report scam emails to break the loop of scammers
and hackers around the world.
