What do we know about spam? You’ll say, there’s nothing new about it, and spam is as old as Internet itself. But do You remember what the Internet was like when You saw it for the first time and how it has developed comparing to that time? Don’t forget that spammers also keep up with the times, and sometimes they’re even way ahead, given the fact that we still receive spam letters.
Spam is a mass distribution of e-mails to persons who didn’t sign up for receiving such e-mails. There are plenty of reasons for spamming, both good and bad – product advertisement or anti-advertisement, frauds, viruses, collecting active user addresses or personal data, etc. (more information about purposes of spam letters is available here). Always be careful when You receive a spam letter!
To protect users from spam, there is special automatic software – spam filter. Postal service Inbox.lv also uses spam filters with 2 main methods of filtering: analysis of message contents and analysis of sender (more details – here). On the average, our spam filters handle more than 2,5 millions letters every day. Based on the rules and standards, all incoming letters are automatically checked and the system makes a decision whether to accept the letter, move it to the spam folder or delete it. Our technical department analyzes the situation with spam and not only controls the system messages, but also pays much attention to users’ complaints about receiving spam letters. In the case of repeated illegal malicious spam to our users, technical team of Inbox.lv without notice blocks domains, sender addresses, IP addresses and keywords.
Sometimes some important mails are automatically placed in the spam folder. This happens for the reason that the letter does not match rules and standards. Often, people who send informative letters to customers ignore or forget something technically. As a result, when the letter passes through spam filters, it gets in the risk zone.
It is not possible to make an exception for each single letter; in this case, an exception should be done by users themselves, as only You can take the 100% right decision about the importance of this letter. In order to solve this situation, we offer You to use filters for the incoming mail. Make a filtering rule “move the message to folder” for such e-mails where You can choose any folder You wish. Alternatively, if You do not wish to receive any letters in “Inbox”, set the rule “to move the message to the Spam folder” (more about working with filters see here).
Most issues arise with spam letters that mislead our users. For example, You can receive messages (system errors) that an e-mail sent from Your account did not reach the recipient (which is unknown to You). In this case, the report incorrectly stated the name of Your computer or Your provider’s name. Do not pay any attention to it. This message was not sent from Your address – it was sent by spammers (more information is available here).
You can also receive letters that were addressed to a very different user (field “To” field has quite a different address). Do not worry, these are usual spam messages, too, which are distributed by using the so-called “dictionary spamming “(more information is available here).
But more often, people fall for the “personalized letter”, when in a letter contains Your personal information, names of Your friends, and sometimes it looks as if this letter was actually sent by Your friend.
With the development of the Internet, social networks, dating portals, etc. programs-robots record in their database not only e-mails, but also additional information about the user when they scan public websites. The more information spammers have about You, the easier it is for them to send You more personalized and unique spam letters, which are more likely to bypass all spam-blocking software, filters and will be opened by You.
Personalized spam is harder to identify and block, it is not the same mass mailing to all users, and this is a personal letter to You (more information is available here).
Sometimes, because of our inexperience, we share our e-mail to spammers ourselves. There can be plenty of reasons why You suddenly start receiving. You can read about the most common cases here.
However, spam isn’t undefeatable! Try to follow one important rule – do not let spammers know Your e-mail address. To make sure Your e-mail address doesn’t get into the hands of spammers read some of our tips on how to deal with spam – here.
We can’t tell all available ways and options of which letter You will receive from spammers next time, it is not possible to predict them. Inbox.lv team tries to respond to new spammers’ tricks as fast as possible. But as long as the returns from spam exceed its cost, spam won’t disappear. We hope that this article will help You to navigate through spam e-mails and tomorrow we all have one spam message less.
P.S. If the major amount of emails from a specific domain or server is determined by the Inbox.lv service as spam, please send Your request to the address abuse@inbox.lv to determine the causes and actions required to solve the problem.
