On average, 162 billion spam emails are sent globally every day. While most of these emails can be unnecessary junk, about 3.4 billion could compromise your security. So, what exactly is spam email? It can be defined as any unwanted email that you did not sign up for. These emails usually contain tempting offers and rewards or fake updates about your bank account, urging you to take some action.  

Spam emails can go beyond annoyance; they can seriously jeopardize your inbox and communication channels. Moreover, ensuring your inbox is clutter-free and organized to show you the most important emails relevant to you can also be time-consuming. 

Are you looking for ways to understand what is a spam email and ways to control it permanently? This blog will provide you with all the information to understand what is a junk email and the tools to manage it effectively. Keep reading to know more!

What is a Spam Email?

Any form of unintentional bulk-sent digital communication is considered spam. While emails are the common medium of spam, social media, text messages, and phone calls can also transmit it. 

Businesses often send spam emails for marketing purposes to send large volumes of emails on a regular basis due to their incredibly low cost. The end goal of these emails is to urge the recipients to take certain actions that benefit the sender. Many of these emails can also contain scams, phishing attacks, and other malicious content.

How to Identify Spam Emails?

To understand how to prevent your email from being taken over by email, it is important to understand what is the structure of a spam email. They usually contain clickbait subject lines, such as asking you to take urgent action quickly, or hook lines that pique your interest, such as low-interest loans. Furthermore, they are also from unknown senders with weird domain names or spoofed email accounts impersonating reputable companies. Often, the sender's name and email address won’t match each other.

Another red flag that can help you know what is a junk email and identify it is the email content is that it will have a generic opening that could apply to virtually anyone, as well as suspicious links and attachments. They generally give you excellent offers or discounts on a product or service and ask you to click on links. These emails are usually riddled with semantic and grammatical errors and lack a professional signature. 

Types of Spam Emails

There are different types of spam emails. Some are sent for marketing purposes, while others contain malicious content that could potentially lead to data leaking and financial loss. Take a look at different types of emails to learn what constitutes a spam email. 

• Commercial Spam Emails - These contain some form of promotional content from companies or people whose mailing lists you did not sign up for. They are the most common type of spam an average person would receive. 
• Phishing Spam Emails - These emails are sent with the main goal of soliciting sensitive information from you, such as passwords, credit card PIN, CVV number of your debit card, etc. They often impersonate a bank or other figures of authority and contain links to spoofed portals or sites where you are asked to input your information. 
• Malicious Spam Emails - These types of emails contain links, which, when clicked, will install spyware, a backdoor, or a virus in your system. These emails are used to gain access to the recipients' system and for surveillance purposes. 
• Scam Spam Emails - Similar to phishing emails, these emails are sent to convince recipients to claim large sums of prize money or buy discounted products. Scam emails are sent to trick you into paying money to the sender and compromising your personal information.  

Consequences of Spam Emails

Responding to spam emails exposes individuals and businesses to unwarranted risks. Spam emails, when sent to put your cyber security at risk, can be very convincing and can lead to serious consequences. If you want to know what is the consequence of a scam email, take a look at it below. 

1. Inbox Cluttering

Inbox clutter is one of the obvious effects of spam emails. Sorting through a large number of unsolicited communications can be frustrating and time-consuming, making it difficult to identify and respond to important messages swiftly. This could result in a loss of productivity and delay in responding to urgent and relevant emails. 

2. Identity Theft 

Spam emails may use phishing attempts to steal information. These emails can trick you into divulging sensitive data like your social security numbers, important passwords, or financial details. 

3. Threats from Malware

Spam emails may sometimes contain dangerous attachments or links. Clicking these links infects your computer and the company server with ransomware. This could result in data breaches, unauthorized access to sensitive information, and surveillance of your operations.

4. Financial Losses

If you don’t know what is the sign of a dangerous spam email, you can be at a financial loss. Some unsolicited emails might contain phishing schemes, scams, or malware. These can cause immediate financial losses. If you deal with third-party sensitive data and the scam email leads to data loss or breach, you may also be liable for legislative actions. 

5. Damage to Reputation

Malicious spam emails can harm your brand reputation in addition to causing financial loss and identity theft. If your organization's email system gets compromised and used to send scam emails to your mailing list, it could cause irreparable damage to your integrity and consumers’ trust in you.

How to Protect Yourself from Spam Emails?

Once you know what a junk email is, you can take proper measures to protect yourself from it. While some email providers like Neo, a premier business email hosting platform, provide robust anti-spam technologies, it can still be lacking. Here are some of the ways you can protect your inbox:

1. Check the Email Details

Spam emails usually have several red flags that you can learn to recognize to identify what junk email is. Always check the sender's address and name and ensure they match each other. The sender’s email domain name should also be valid, not have any spelling mistakes, must be specific, or not have a combination of letters and numbers. 

Additionally, check the content and the subject line for any red flags before you click on any links or attachments. If there are any links attached to the email, hover your mouse pointer over it and validate the website name before clicking on it. 

2. Exercise Caution

Your bank or any reputable site will never ask you to disclose any personal details or sensitive information. Neither will your company CEO reach out to you personally for special tasks. They will also never urge you to sign up to third-party websites to win unrealistic prizes or offers. 

As a general rule, if you have not signed up to receive mail from a company or the sender is an unknown person, do not interact with their email. Furthermore, stay alert regarding the latest spam tactics to safeguard yourself. 

3. Organize Your Inbox

Several email providers, like Neo, Gmail, and Outlook, allow users to set email filtering options. You can create a blocklist of spam emails and send them directly to a separate folder to be deleted. Configure your email’s anti-spam settings correctly to automate your inbox management. 

4. Report Spam to Your Email Provider

Once you have identified what a junk email is, you may be tempted to click on the unsubscribe button at the bottom to stop these unsolicited emails. However, doing that can put your security at risk. It could be a mirror site that could trigger spyware downloads or a phishing attack. It’s always best not to interact with spam emails at all. Just mark the email as spam and report the domain to your provider. 

4. Use Temporary Emails

You can use a temporary email if you have to sign up for a website to access it, but don’t want to suffer from spam. These emails, like 10-Minute Mail and 5-Minute Mail, allow you to create an email address quickly and then get deactivated automatically once the time is up. They even give you access to an inbox so you can verify the address if necessary. These temporary emails are a great way to remain anonymous and avoid spam. 

5. Use Specific Anti-Spam Tools

If you want additional protection, use dedicated anti-spam tools like a spam filter or a domain checker. You can check the authenticity of suspicious domains on sites like Spamhaus DBL to see if they are on a blocklist or spam list. 

3 Best (Email Spam Checkers) Anti-Spam Tool to Protect Your Inbox

These tools are specially designed to give you more protection against spam and assist you in managing your inbox. They may also leverage robust AI models to help you create automation and maximize your time. Let’s take a look at the top 3 anti-spam tools. 

1. SaneBox

SaneBox provides comprehensive spam filtering options. It uses AI to sort emails, allowing you to access important emails easily. Furthermore, its unique feature, SaneBlackHole, allows you to permanently block communication from a specific email provider, freeing you from manually reporting all their emails as spam.

2. Mimecast

This cloud-based tool provides security beyond preventing spam from overwhelming your inbox. It allows you to safeguard and archive your data. Additionally, it leverages AI to protect you against phishing attacks and data breaches.

3. Xeams

Xeams is one of the best solutions for enterprises and can also be used as an email server, giving you more control over your email flow. Additionally, it provides dynamic features like email encryption for incoming and outgoing emails, exhaustive email filtering set-up, and domain verification infrastructure. 

Comparison and Our Ratings

To help you make the best choice, we will compare all three options and rate them. The rating will be influenced by their features, user-friendliness, usability, and pricing.

Wrapping up,

Mailboxes are cursed with spam emails. Spam emails are annoying, but they also invite phishing attacks, identity theft, and infections by malware. A spam email victim can suffer serious consequences. Luckily, there are several ways you can safeguard yourself and your data. Furthermore, you can use dedicated security tools to increase your overall security. So, go through our guide to understand what a spam email is and how to deal with it. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Will changing my password frequently protect my account from spam?

While changing your password frequently will not protect your inbox from spam, it is a good practice to follow. With this strategy, if your account gets compromised, hackers will not be able to guess your passwords easily. 

2. Do I need dedicated anti-spam tools to keep my account safe?

It depends on who you are and why you are using the account. If you are only using the email account for personal communication, then your email provider's built-in anti-spam features will work. However, if your account is a business email address, you need a robust solution for overall security, which dedicated anti-spam software can provide. 

3. Can I use a website without signing up for their newsletter?

Most websites don’t ask you to sign up to their mailing list to browse their content. However, if you need to enter your email address to access a website, you can use a temporary email address to prevent spam emails and safeguard your data.