Why has the number of spam emails I receive increased?
Everyone receives spam emails. Why this happens will be explained here.
Then later I will explain why you may have had a sudden increase in the number of spam emails.
Why do I get spam in the first place?
Why do the spammers even bother?
The main reason spammers send you spam emails is to lure you into buying products from them instead of companies you trust.
They may send spam emails disguised as a legitimate email from a company (or bank) you use, hoping to obtain your login credentials. This is called phishing.
They may send you a spam email with a link, hoping you will click on it. From there they may infect your computer with a virus or malware.
Spammers’ methods
Hit and Hope
Spammers know that there are common email prefixes. An email prefix is the text before the @ symbol.
So, info@ admin@ accounts@ are all obvious targets for spammers. All they need to do is send a spam email to info@yourdomainname.com and hope it gets through.
They will send false invoices to accounts@ email addresses hoping that the accounts department will simply pay the invoice.
To a lesser extent, they may send emails to every known first name @yourdomainname.com hoping that your email structure is firstname@yourdomainname.com.
Your email address is publicly displayed on the web
Do a search for your email address. If it’s on the web, the spammers will find it and send you some nice spam. They know the address exists which is better than guessing something that may not.
Someone has been unkind to you
Someone you know may have added your email address to a mailing list or spammer’s list.
The reasons for this are many.
Someone you don’t know but who does know your email address may have added your email address to a mailing list or spammer’s list.
This is common if a call centre worker doesn’t like you for some reason. It has been known for them to add your email address to a mailing list or spammer’s list as an act of revenge. Be nice to everyone and this is less likely to happen.
Someone has sold my email address
You may have added your email address to a website for a product or service purchase or signed up for a newsletter. From there the company you gave your email address to, has sold your email address to a marketing company or spammer.
My email address has been breached
You may have added your email address to a website for a product or service purchase or signed up for a newsletter. From there the company you gave your email address to, has been hacked. Their data is then stolen and used by spammers.
You can see if your email address has been part of a data breach by using the website ‘Have I Been Pawnd?‘. It shows lists of all known data breaches that have resulted in email addresses being shared and displayed publicly.
How is spam stopped
Emails are ‘filtered’ by spam catchers.
Web-based filtering
This can be done without your knowledge by your mail server. If the email is obvious spam then it may not ever reach your spam folder, let alone your inbox. This happens with web-based email providers like Microsoft/Hotmail/Live.
It can also be done by your email service provider. Just check your spam folder to see what’s been caught. Usually, you should have some sort of control over the filter level:
a. Either by turning the dial up or down.
A strict filter level will let less spam through the filter but may catch some good emails. You will be forever checking your spam folder, just in case.
A loose filter level will let more spam through the filter and is unlikely to filter a good email. You will be forever deleting spam from your inbox.
Or b. Adding email addresses to a black/white list.
You can ban or allow specific email addresses. This can stop repeated spam from a sender from arriving. Conversely, it can allow a known good sender through the filter even if the spam catcher believes that the email may be suspicious.
App-based filtering
This is done by your email program, like Thunderbird. It will mark an email as junk for you to review from your junk folder. This filtering lies on top of server-based filtering as this happens after the server has filtered the email.
Program-based filtering
This is done by a virus protection program, like Norton. This filtering lies on top of app-based AND server-based filtering as this happens after all other filtering has been processed.
Nothing is perfect
No matter what types of spam filtering you have, there will always be bad emails that get through and good emails that get caught. Live with it.
So why the sudden increase in spam?
Some days you may get very little spam, other days you will get lots more than usual. Sometimes you will get 100s or even 1000s of spam emails, but why is this.
There are 2 reasons why the number of spam emails you receive will increase:
#1 Your email address has been added to a new spammers list. They will then send multiple spam emails of differing types and styles to see if any get through.
#2 The spammers have found a new way to get through your spam filter. If this is the case, they will try to send as many as possible as quickly as possible to get as many spam emails through the filter.
As your spam filter learns (it does this all the time) the number of emails will reduce.
Other reasons
You may also receive an increased number of spam emails if you have a catch-all email address or multiple email aliases pointing to your main address.
A catch-all email address will allow you to receive any email sent to your domain. For example, you may have a single email address like info@yourdomainname.com. with a catch-all email address you will receive emails to anything@yourdomainname.com. This is commonly indicated as *@yourdomainname.com. The * refers to ‘anything’. This then circles back to the point above referring to ‘hit and hope’.
Email aliases will allow you to receive specific emails sent to your domain. Like a funnel for multiple email addresses. You will not be able to send mail from these aliases but only from your main address. This then also circles back to the point above referring to ‘hit and hope’.
What can I do about it?
You just have to accept that there will be days here and there where you get more spam than usual. it will abate with time.
Spammers never use their own mail server or email addresses to send spam, so often trying to ban email addresses has no effect. The sender may change from email to email even though the content is the same.
You could try banning words in the content of the email, like Viagra. But it’s easy for the spammer to swap an i with a 1. V1agra emails will then sail through your spam filter.
Read the following article for a more in-depth look into dealing with spam.
My advice is simply to delete the spam.
What shouldn’t I do with spam emails?
NEVER reply. Your will be replying to an unsuspecting or even non-existent email address.
NEVER unsubscribe. This will tell the spammer that you received and read their email. They now know you exist. You will be added to more lists and receive more spam.
