Despite email being the most important communication tool in use today, people and businesses everywhere are plagued by spam and malicious emails that contain malware or attempt to carry out phishing attacks. While it’s a global problem that is unlikely to be resolved any time soon, there are ways to eliminate spam from your inbox and in this post, we look at what these are.
The problem with spam
We live in an age where virtually everybody has an email address and sends and receives email. It is used for personal and business communications and companies use it for both internal and external messaging. More importantly, it has now become the main channel through which official communications are made and official documents are sent. From insurance certificates and job contracts to flight tickets and invoices, email has replaced the printed letter as the main source of correspondence. For this reason, users need to know that the emails they receive are genuine and secure.
The problem with spam is that it poses as genuine emails, and it is frequently anything but secure. To convince recipients that a malicious email is genuine, cybercriminals go to great lengths to make them look like they are from real businesses or people. They will change the email address in the ‘from’ field to include the right domain; copy and paste business logos into emails; and even format the emails to look and read exactly like those sent from individual companies.
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Spam emails are often targeted. If a business has been hacked and the email addresses of its customers are sold on the dark web, cybercriminals will buy those addresses and send fake emails to them, knowing that the recipient will expect to get regular communications from that company – thus increasing the chances of it being opened.
These emails, of course, are designed to do damage. Some will contain links or attachments that if clicked upon will install malware on devices. This can be ransomware that takes over the device, software that spies on users to steal their information or programs that let hackers control the device, perhaps using it to send spam, mine cryptocurrency or take part in DDoS attacks.
Other spam emails will try to con people into giving up their login credentials, scaring recipients into doing so by telling them there’s an urgent problem with an account that requires them to verify their details quickly by logging in. The link provided, however, is to a fake website that steals that login information. Hackers can then access that account, whether personal or business, change passwords so the user is locked out, and carry out their criminal activities with impunity.
Don’t get caught out by a cyberattack – read: How to Protect Against Email-Related Data Breaches
A more recent development has been phishing attacks where spam emails have been sent to employees pretending to come from executives within their business. Using real names and realistic layouts, they convince employees to carry out malicious acts on behalf of cybercriminals, including giving up login credentials, sending money to hackers’ accounts and forwarding business intelligence.
For businesses, the impact is staggering. According to Mailmodo , in 2021, more than three-quarters of businesses experienced business email compromise (BEC) attacks, such as payroll and supplier invoicing scams, while 83% of companies faced phishing attacks. Meanwhile, 39% of employees have received suspicious email attachments and 15% have received emails impersonating their employer.
Worried about phishing? Read: How to Protect Your Business from Phishing
Other types of malicious emails include scams telling people that they have inherited money, are due tax refunds, have been caught watching pornography, have unclaimed lottery prizes, or have a love interest that would like to get in touch with them. All the emails mentioned here can cause significant harm to recipients and their employers if they fall victim to them. They are not, however, the only types of spam.
While malicious emails pose a major threat, they only account for around 2.5% of all spam emails . According to Mailmodo, the vast majority is made up of unsolicited marketing (36%), adult content (31%) and financial (26%) emails. Website owners, for instance, are often inundated with emails offering SEO, social media and web design services. Other businesses buy huge email address lists, often targeting different sectors, so they can send unsolicited emails by the tens of thousands. While this is illegal in many countries, many get away with it by using other addresses rather than their business emails, making it difficult to report or track them. While these emails don’t cause malicious damage, they clog up inboxes and waste people’s time in reading and deleting them. Some businesses find this has a significant impact on employee productivity.
The scale of spam
If spam emails were few and far between they would not be so much of a problem, however, the scale of use is enormous. According to emailtooltester.com, 162 billion spam emails were sent every day during 2022 – that’s approximately 40 each for the world’s 4.26 billion email users . And while spam as a percentage of all emails has reduced from 80% in 2011 to 45.6% in 2023 , this reduction is not due to a decrease in spamming but to an increase in legitimate emails being sent, with the total number of daily emails rising from 269 billion in 2017 to 333 billion in 2022 . In reality, the number of spam emails has risen over that period.
How to eliminate spam emails
The easiest and most effective way to keep spam and malicious emails away from your inbox is to use a high-quality spam filtering tool like SpamExperts. A cost-effective solution, costing just £1.67 (inc. VAT) per domain per month, it uses a powerful and intelligent self-learning algorithm that scans all incoming mail and accurately detects up to 99.98% of all spam emails, preventing them from reaching your inbox.
Its self-learning capabilities mean that it can quickly identify and block new types of spam and malicious attachments, and this is enhanced by research teams that refine its detection engine to ensure up-to-date protection. Any emails considered spam are quarantined securely, however, you can view them if you need them for data retention purposes.
Importantly, SpamExperts also scans your outgoing emails to ensure they are not spam or contain malicious attachments. This can happen if your email server has been hacked or your system is infected with malware. By using SpamExperts, not only are your recipients protected, but the risk of having your email domain blacklisted is also significantly reduced. Moreover, SpamExperts even keeps a record of anyone who attempts to send spam so you can lock their account if needed.
Conclusion
Spam emails are a huge and persistent problem that poses considerable threats to businesses and individuals. They enable cybercriminals to take control of devices, steal data and carry out fraud. Additionally, they clog up inboxes, fill up email storage quotas and waste people’s time deleting them. However, by using an advanced spam filter, like SpamExperts, you can eradicate the vast majority of spam from your inbox, reducing the risk of falling victim to scams, phishing and infection, while keeping your inbox free from unwanted clutter.
SpamExperts is available as an add-on solution for eukhost customers. For more information, visit our Spam Filtering page. For enterprise customers with greater regulatory obligations and who require advanced data leak protection, take a look at our Mimecast Email Security solution.
