Malware & SPAM Tips

Malware is Everywhere

We originally wrote this back in 2017. Since then the level of SPAM coming at you from every direction has increased. We thought it was time to revisit this topic and remind you to be vigilant in your effort to avoid these attacks on your inbox and privacy.

MALWARE & SPAM TIPS

We’ve all experienced a jump in the amount of SPAM emails recently. Along with the increased amount – the tactics have become more ruthless. It’s something everyone is affected by and it can have malicious intent, or be more benign but regardless, it’s ALL a big pain in the ass. Especially for businesses.

Unsubscribing

Many times an unsolicited email will have an “Unsubscribe Link”. Score right?! Well, maybe but it might just turn out to be a touchdown for the other team. Take our word for it, those almost never work. As soon as you click it, you’re alerting the Spammer they have reached an active email address. It encourages the sender to throw more junk your way. Don’t waste your time with Unsubscribe Links.

Address Removal Services

Well, what about using one of those Address Removal Services? There are a bunch of those, all offering to remove your email address from spammer lists – for a fee of course. Turns out, these Unsubscribe Services are just as bad if not worse than the spammers they claim to help get rid of. They are cons; some even claim to be consumer protection agencies. They hit you two ways. First, they extort money from you, then instead of removing you from any spammer’s list – they collect your email address and any other personal information you have given them and use it to spam you all over again.

The truth of the matter is that once you start getting spam emails (and you almost certainly will) it’s impossible to remove yourself from the clutches of these creeps. About the best you can hope for is to set up some email filters to help deal with it.

You May Be Spamming

Did you know you could be sending out spam yourself and not even know it! Usually, it happens like this: you get an email with a link to a suspicious site. You are on top of your game and know that you shouldn’t click on the link but the email came from your friend and you trust them, right? Wrong! Once you click on the link a bot is downloaded to your computer. Now the spammers will use the bot to send email to your friends to try and get them to click on the same link you did. Eventually, they build a network of bots they can use for bad things like denial of service attacks or sending out massive amounts of spam. Installing a good anti-virus program can protect you from bots. Want to check your computer for malicious code or viruses? We recommend Malware Bytes. They offer a free version and it works!

Rules To Live By Online

1. Never click on an attachment in an email unless you are 100% sure it’s from a trusted source AND even then proceed with caution. Hover over the link and look in the status bar to see where the link will take you. This is a good way to “look before you leap”.
2. Never, ever buy anything from an unsolicited email. Never! Don’t you do it!
3. Install and use a good anti-virus program. There are many free programs that do an excellent job of protecting you. Find one and use it!

SPAM is costly ($6.28 at WalMart for the canned version – back in 2017 it was $1.98). Trying to pin down an accurate cost of SPAM is tough but most estimates put the cost in tens of millions of dollars. (we think the true cost is much higher than that). According to the IBM Threat Intelligence Index 2022, The volume of malware increased 3,000% Q3 2019 and Q4 2020. If you have a SPAM problem and would like some additional information or help to resolve it, please use our Contact Form – we’d love to hear from you.

Unfortunately, Malware and SPAM are here to stay and something we all have to deal with. Follow our Malware and SPAM Tips and stick to common sense online “rule of the road”, learn how to set up filters in your email client to delete SPAM and remain vigilant. If it makes you feel any better, buy a can of SPAM and fry it up. It’s actually not too bad.