How to Prevent Automatic SPAM from Circulating

Spam accounts for over 90 % of all email today. Unsolicited, unwanted phishing, spoofing, spyware and other malware carrying emails, are not just a productivity issue, they cause serious security breaches too.

Here are a few tips to avoid having SPAM circulate through your organization and from cause data loss.

Don’t post your email address

Many SPAM programs will surf the internet looking for email address to add to their list. By having your email posted publicly on your website or in chatrooms you make yourself more susceptible to having your address picked up by a SPAM program and you will more than likely receive a higher volume of SPAM because of this.

Using forms with backend redirects on your website allows your client or prospect to still contact you while keeping your email address private.

Use a hosted anti-spam service

Having a hosted anti-spam service applied to your organization’s email can eliminate the majority of SPAM from getting through to your inbox. By applying these services to the front end of your email you will eliminate the risk of opening or forwarding a malicious email.

If SPAM is able to get through your filters by sure to mark it as SPAM for future. This will allow your provider to black list this email from getting through the next time they try. As with any IT threat, SPAM is constantly updating itself and changing to get around security settings so keeping up with these changes is important.

Don’t reply to SPAM

If you happen to get SPAM in your inbox do not reply to it. It may seem like a good idea to unsubscribe as you would with reputable email lists you are on, but by replying to SPAM all you are doing is confirming to the spammer or automated program that your email address is attached to a live person and you will be hit with even more SPAM.

Simply flag the email as SPAM, or phishing or whatever it may be and inform your IT provider.

Watch who you give your email address to

Anytime you give your email address out either on paper or electronically, think about whether or not you wish to receive emails from that organization in the future.

Be sure to check the privacy agreement with any organization you provide your information to. Some organizations may tell you they want your email address for sending updates on their product or service but the fine print may say otherwise.

Also when providing your information online be sure that the website is secure. There are spammers who are surfing and monitoring for data to be entered that they can then use for sending SPAM emails.

Many times avoiding SPAM is common sense but as the spammers and automated programs become more intelligent so must the end user.

By using software to filter email before hits your inbox, and updating your black list when you receive a potentially malicious email you will be able to stay ahead of the game