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Afraid Of Falling Into Another Airg Spam? Here’s What You Can Do To Stay Safe

<p>Humans are reckless by nature&period;  They act before they think things through&period;  And now more than ever&comma; as we surf the internet and come across numerous interesting websites&comma; we freely and willingly enter our email addresses and phone numbers without thinking about the consequences&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Often&comma; personal data that is entered to register or login to websites is misused&period;  Hence our inboxes are flooded with spam&period;  Junk emails&comma; promotions&comma; and fake messages are just a few examples&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>What is spam&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Spam refers to the use of unrequested or unwanted messages via electronic messaging systems&period;  It targets a large number of people and is sent out in bulk&period;  When we hear the word spam&comma; we immediately think of email spam&period;  However&comma; as technology has evolved&comma; so has internet-based communication&period;  Basically&comma; any device or service that provides a means of communication is good enough for spam&period;  Therefore&comma; there are various types of media through which it is sent&period;  Here are just a few&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ol>&NewLine;<li><strong> Email<&sol;strong><&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ol>&NewLine;<p>Email spam&comma; also known as junk mail or unsolicited bulk email &lpar;UBE&rpar;&comma; is the practice of sending unwanted email messages mostly with commercial content&period;  An industry of email address harvesting is dedicated to collecting email addresses and selling these compiled databases to promote advertising&period;<sup>  <&sol;sup>Most of the times users do not read the fine print of agreements&period;  Inadvertently&comma; this results in allowing these sites to send messages&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ol start&equals;"2">&NewLine;<li><strong> Social media<&sol;strong><&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ol>&NewLine;<p>Spam content appears on social media networks such as Facebook&comma; Pinterest&comma; Google&plus;&comma; etc&period;  it is estimated that 40&percnt; of these accounts are used for spam&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ol start&equals;"3">&NewLine;<li><strong> Instant messaging<&sol;strong><&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ol>&NewLine;<p>Messaging spam&comma; also known as SPIM&comma; targets users of IM and SMS&period;  It is directed at text messaging in mobile phones or other communication services in smartphones&period;   Whatsapp&comma; Messenger&comma; Snapchat&comma; and Airg spam these social media platforms by using information such as gender&comma; age&comma; location&comma; and interests&period;  Scammers and advertisers sign on to these services and send unwelcome messages containing malware&comma; scam links&comma; or pornographic material&period;  However&comma; users can adjust privacy settings so that only people they know can contact them&period;  They can also block and report spam accounts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ol start&equals;"4">&NewLine;<li><strong> Online gaming<&sol;strong><&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ol>&NewLine;<p>Online gamers share personal information through chat rooms&comma; player-to-player messaging&comma; and public discussion forums&period;  However&comma; it is common for scammers to use this data to sell game-related objects for real-world money&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Who uses spam and why<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Almost everyone will agree that spamming is immoral&comma; but many people still do it&period;  It’s beneficial for those who are linked to e-marketing&period;  As businesses are expanding and competition is fierce&comma; everyone agrees that it is the survival of the fittest and strength is in numbers&period;  To attract as many customers as possible&comma; institutions are deploying to advertisement tactics&period;  Advertising on paper is expensive&period;  Comparatively&comma; the cost of delivering an ad through digital media is next to nothing&period;  This is because large-scale spamming can be done effortlessly with nothing more than a computer and internet connection&period;  Considering this minimal expense&comma; the potential for profits is huge&period;  But even if a small percentage of people respond to spam&comma; the campaign is deemed successful&comma; and the costs can be easily recovered&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>The problems associated with spam<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>E-commerce and e-marketing are huge industries&period;  With millions of potential clients&comma; spam is appealing and&comma; unfortunately&comma; successful&period;  Yet there are multiple problems associated with it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li>The main problem is that it wastes a lot of time&period; According to current estimates&comma; approximately 95&percnt; of email is spam&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Because spam arrives in great volume&comma; it consumes a lot of network bandwidth&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Another problem is the content&period; Not only is spam unwanted&comma; but it advertises many questionable services and products such as scams and other shady subjects&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>This leads up to the most negative aspect of spamming&comma; also known as phishing&period; Personal information&comma; such as ID&comma; phone number and credit card number&comma; is used for fraud&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p><strong>How to avoid getting spam<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<ol>&NewLine;<li><strong> Prevention<&sol;strong><&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ol>&NewLine;<p>Prevention is the number one way to avoid spam&period;  Avoid handing out email address and other personal information on unknown sites&period;  And if the necessity arises&comma; use multiple email addresses&colon; one for work and colleagues&comma; one for friends and family&comma; and another disposable one for unfamiliar sources&period;  If an email account receives large amounts of spam&comma; it is highly possible that it is on a spammer’s list&period;  The volume of junk mail will only continue to increase&semi; therefore&comma; the only solution is to replace it with another one&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Following are tips on how to avoid getting into a spammer’s mailing list&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li>Avoid opening spam emails or clicking on links in spam messages&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Do not reply to spam mail or messages&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Do not unsubscribe from the spam list&period; This only tells the spammer that the email address is valid and in use&period;  Unfortunately&comma; this will only increase the quantity of spam mail&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Do not buy anything from a spammer&period; By disclosing personal information&comma; you may be putting yourself in a risky position&comma; either for fraud or infecting your computer with malware&comma; virus&comma; trojans&comma; etc&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Do not threaten the spammer&period; Your response can be used against you in the court of law&period;  Even spammers have rights&excl;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>As explained above&comma; use a disposable address when dealing with unknown sites or sources&period; Keep your main email address safe&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>To misguide spambots&comma; write out your email address in words&comma; instead of symbols&comma; for example&comma; &OpenCurlyQuote; an at z dot com’ instead of the usual &OpenCurlyQuote;a&commat;z&period;com&period;’ And if you own a business&comma; don’t post your private email address&period;  It is better to use a contact form instead&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<ol start&equals;"2">&NewLine;<li><strong> Spam filters<&sol;strong><&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ol>&NewLine;<p>Email apps and ISPs &lpar;internet service providers&rpar; are providing filtering features for transferring unsolicited emails into &OpenCurlyQuote;junk’ or &OpenCurlyQuote;spam’ folders&period;  You can set the application’s features to block specific unnecessary messages&period;  Some phones are even able to divert calls and block spam calls&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Be smart and protect yourself from potential scammers&excl;  The easiest and best way prevent yourself from falling prey to spammers is to protect your email address&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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