Spam has probably happened to everyone who uses the internet at some point or another. At first, they are easy to ignore for people who know how to use the internet. However, for people who have never used the internet before, the messages can be scary and sometimes lead to trouble (I will come onto a personal example later).
Spam comes in many forms, including email and search engine spam, but the one we'll focus on in this article is email spam, which you've probably already seen.
Spam is bulk email that you didn't ask for. A lot of it ends up in your "bulk" or "trash" folder, which you can find in the control panel of your email service provider. You've probably seen a lot of these kinds of emails in your bulk folders when you look for emails you've actually asked to get. This is because spam filters catch a lot of emails that shouldn't. Most of the spam you get will be about gambling or sexuality, but in the past few months, I've seen a growing number of scam emails asking for sensitive information while pretending to be someone else.
"Phishing scam emails" like those involving PayPal and eBay are a good example of this type of email. The email will say something like:
"We found something wrong with your account information, so you need to change it right away. If you don't do this, your account will be closed for good."
You can see how these emails could be pretty scary for someone who doesn't use the internet very often, maybe just to sell or buy things on eBay. Some of the emails will look very real and use the company's logos and images, but be very careful and pay attention to the following important point:
If you aren't sure if the email is real, don't click on any links that take you to websites outside of the email. Instead, type the website address you know is correct directly into your browser. This way, you can be sure you are not using a fake website.
If you don't do this, the scammer could take over your account. It's as simple as that. You click on the link in the email, which takes you to a site that says it is yours and looks a lot like it. The website will ask you for your username and password to get into your account, and once you do, the scammer will have your sensitive information.
One of the most common types of email scams is when you are told you won a lottery even though you have never entered a lottery in the place where you are told you won. Here is where an example from your own life comes in. Many people who read this will think, "There's no way I'll fall for one of these scams," but the sad truth is that many people will. My elderly relative got one of these lottery scams from Spain and insisted on following up with the email scam, even though they had never even entered the lottery. The only problem was that the bank account information needed to be sent by fax, which she couldn't do. Even though this made her angry, I didn't help her send the information.
There are things you can do to avoid being a spammer's target. Some of them have been mentioned here. But you should also never reply to a scam email. If you do, the scammer will know that your email address is active and that you have read the email, which will lead to more spam.
There are, of course, many other dangers from spam that we won't talk about here, like viruses and trojans that are sent as email attachments. Here, at www.spam-blocker-online.com, you can find out more about spam.
