The Danger of Spam Emails Do you know that by responding to spam emails, you could have your identity stolen and used by crooks in illegal activities? Or be tricked into a scam and lose a lot of money, or worse, unknowingly commit a crime? Spams are dangerous. Here's why.

What is spam?
Spam refers to messages sent to recipients without their explicit permission. Spam emails are sent out in bulk to millions of email addresses at a time. These email addresses are often harvested from websites, newsgroups and online forums where email addresses are openly disclosed, and also through computer viruses which send the email address book of the victims to the virus originator.

Some experts estimate that more than 70% of the total global email traffic are spams. In countries like Australia and USA, spam is already outlawed and illegal.


What are these spams trying to achieve?
Spams are dangerous. They could contain computer virus, spywares, ransomwares, financial scams, offers of illegal goods or could be an attempt to test if your email address is active and valuable for further spamming.

Common objectives of spammers:
- install a spyware on your computer to steal your confidential and financial information
- install a ransomware on your computer that locks up your files and blackmails you into paying up to regain access to the files
- install a computer virus to disable your computer and/or harvest email addresses on your computer
- trick you into parting with your money - lottery scam, lucky draw scam, franchise scam, Nigerian scam, fake invoice scam etc.
- trick you into illegal or money laundering activities - money transfer scam, self-employment scam
- trick you into buying certain shares - stock tip scam
- trick you into investing in a "high-return" investment - pyramid scam, Ponzi scheme
- trick you into submitting your online banking login on a fake bank website - phishing scam
- sell you prescription drugs, software, electronics or other products at a heavily discounted price (but are fake drugs, pirated software and stolen goods)


Why clicking links in spam emails is a bad idea?
Since no legitimate businesses or companies will use spam as a marketing or communication tool, no good thing can come out of responding to spams.

You could:
- lose your banking login and all the money in your bank account
- have your identity stolen and used by crooks in illegal activities
- be blackmailed into gaining access to files on your computer
- have your computer disabled and lose important information
- be tricked into a scam and lose a lot of money
- be tricked into a scam and unknowingly commit a crime
- be tricked into making a terrible investment and lose a lot of money
- buy prescription drugs that are sub-standard and dangerous to health
- buy illegal or stolen goods that can land you in legal troubles
- have your credit card information stolen and used by crooks


If spam is so bad, why so many people still open spam mails?
Because they are not aware of the dangers of spams. Which is why it is important to spread the word to your family and friends to educate them and prevent them from falling into the traps. Refer them to this article or to http://www.tradersnetwork.org/scamalerts


What should I do if I receive spams?
- Do not open any spam emails.
- Do not respond to any spam emails.
- Do not ever open an attachment contained in a spam email.
- Use MailWasher to vet the identity of the sender and the message contents before downloading emails on your computer.
- Delete all spams and emails from unknown source.


How can I prevent or reduce spams?
1. Do not disclose your email address to just anybody, just as you would not disclose your home address and telephone number to anybody.
2. Have 2 separate email addresses. One for important email communications, and another one (e.g. yahoo, gmail, hotmail etc.) for unimportant communications such as lucky draw submissions, mailing list newsletters etc.
3. Inform and educate your friends and families NOT to disclose your email address to others via email forwarding or mass-mailing with all recipients' email addresses revealed in the To: field.
4. If you have to mass-mail, include the recipients' email addresses in the BCC: field. This will ensure the addresses are not revealed to everybody.
5. Eliminate the bad habit of forwarding chain mails, jokes and pictures. If any one of the recipients has his/her computer infected by a virus, every email addresses on the computer will be sent one too (including you).
6. Use MailWasher or your ISP email filtering service to vet emails before downloading them on your computer. Delete spams and unwanted emails from the email server, rather than on your computer.
7. Install anti-spam software.
8. Use a White/Friends List to filter out legitimate emails.
9. Keep your anti-virus and anti-spyware software up to date.
10. Do not open, read or reply to spams. Delete them without second thoughts.