Support :: Security :: Spam Emails

What is Spam?
The term Spam refers to unsolicited, unwanted, inappropriate bulk email. Spam is often referred to as Unsolicited Bulk Mail (UBM), Excessive Multi-Posting (EMP), Unsolicited Commercial email (UCE), spam mail, bulk email or just junk mail.

Don't get caught out
Do not fall prey to fake emails that make unrealistic offers. Spam emailers will try anything that they can possibly think of to try and trick people. Some Spam emails make every attempt to appear plausible. Some however do not seem to make any sense at all.

NOTE: Some Spam emails attempt to get personal information from you be pretending to come from some trusted organisation (see our section on fake websites and Phishing for more details) .

Nonsense Spam Email

Beware of any email that contains its text in the form of an image. There is no reason that any legitimate organisation would send their information in the form of an image. The reason that the Spammer has sent the text information in an image is that they wish to avoid having the email blocked because of the text content conveyed on the image.

Spam Email with Text in an Image Example

You may receive offers for all manner of things. Be suspicious of anything that you have not asked for. Particularly any financial offers, Medical supplies, too good to be true prizes etc.

Spam Email Example Offer

Any offers you receive that seem too good to be true probably are. If in doubt don't. Particularly do not click on any links in junk emails!

Why is Spam called Spam?
The probable answer is that it refers to a classic sketch by Monty Python's Flying Circus. In the sketch a couple in a restaurant tries in vain to order something that does not have SPAM in it. As the waitress lists endless dishes, all of them containing increasing amounts of SPAM, a group of Vikings in the corner begin to sing "spam, spam, spam, spam." until all useful information is drowned out.

How do spammers get my email address?
Through many means. Some companies you may have had dealings with sell their mailing lists to third parties, spammers included. Spammers also use "robots" to scour the Internet and harvest any email addresses that they find. Often it is from you yourself. Many people sign up to 'lists' to get information from doubtful sources and then wonder why they are getting all this Spam sent to them. Unfortunately it is because you unwisely gave your email address out to the wrong people.

If I unsubscribe won't it get rid of spam?
In a nutshell NO! If you didn't have to subscribe to get it, there is no chance that un subscribing will get rid of Spam. Spammers often only provide an unsubscribe link to validate email addresses on their list. They use lists containing millions of email addresses. Large percentages of these addresses may be inaccurate or may not exist. By un subscribing to the list, you are informing the spammer that your email address is a current valid address. The Spammer may then very well sell your email address onto other spammers.

NOTE: You will now be able to look forward to getting many many more Spam emails from many more sources.

How to beat Spam
You cannot currently beat spam totally but you can at the very least enormously reduce the amount of Spam that you receive by taking just a few sensible precautions and thinking clearly before you subscribe to any list or give your email address to any organisation you do not know.

Have a separate email address for every list that you subscribe to
For instance:

1. If your normal email address is info@yourdomain.co.uk
2. Subscribe as listname@yourdomain.co.uk
3. For another list subscribe as secondlistname@yourdomain.co.uk
4. If you receive Spam from listname@yourdomain.co.uk you know that they are Spamming you themselves or have sold your email address to a Spammer.
5. Stop collecting mail from listname@yourdomain.co.uk

This way you will know exactly which list that you subscribed to has caused the Spam and you will be able to ignore that email address without having to change your main email address.

Linx Data Ltd. do not sell computers or computer peripherals, however as we are regularly asked by our clients and others what laptops, home or office computers are the best value for money.
Linx Data Ltd. Recommend Dell computers.

Dell Desktop Inspiron™ 530 DT (D115003) | / Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core E5200 processor (2.5GHz, 800MHz, 2MB cache)/ Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium with Service Pack 1, 32-bit - English/ 250GB (7200rpm) SATA Hard Drive/ 2048MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]/ 18.5in ... £ 488

Dell Desktop Inspiron™ 530 DT (D115004) | / Intel® Core™ 2 Quad-Core Q6600 Processor (2.4GHz, 8MB cache, 1066MHz FSB)/ Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium with Service Pack 1, 32-bit - English/ 500GB (7200rpm) SATA Hard Drive/ 3072MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024+2x51 ... £ 517.99

Linx Data Ltd. Recommend and Use Dell Computers exclusively.

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