What comes to mind when you think of spam? miraculous pills from internet pharmacies, requests for money from “princes” from other countries, or perhaps food, spam? this article is about spam with a lowercase “s”. While many people enjoy food spam, no one wants to be tricked into losing money or downloading malware because of other types of spam.
Spam is annoying, but it’s also a threat. While many of us might think we’re smart enough to recognize any form of this, spammers regularly update their methods and messages to trick potential victims. The reality is that we are all constantly under attack by cybercriminals and the proof is in your inbox.
so read on to learn what spam is, how to recognize it, and how to protect yourself against it.
spam definition
Spam is any type of unsolicited and unwanted digital communication that is sent in bulk. Spam is often sent via email, but it can also be distributed through text messages, phone calls, or social media.
what does spam mean?
spam is not an acronym for computer threats, although some have been proposed (annoying, stupid and useless malware, for example). The inspiration for using the term “spam” to describe spam is a parody of Monty Python in which the actors declare that everyone should eat spam food, whether they want to or not. Similarly, sadly everyone with an email address must be annoyed by spam messages whether we like it or not.
If you’re interested in the origins of spam in more detail, see the spam history section below.
types of spam
Spammers use many forms of communication to send their spam messages in bulk. some of these are marketing messages that sell unsolicited goods. other types of spam messages can spread malware, trick you into divulging personal information, or scare you into thinking you have to pay your way out of trouble.
Email spam filters catch many of these types of messages, and phone operators often warn you about a “spam risk” from unknown calls. Whether it’s via email, text, phone, or social media, some spam messages do get through, and you want to be able to recognize and avoid these threats. Below are several types of spam to be aware of.
phishing emails
Phishing emails are a type of spam that cybercriminals send to many people in hopes of “hooking” some people. Phishing emails trick victims into providing sensitive information, such as website logins or credit card information.
adam kujawa, director of malwarebytes labs, says of phishing emails: “phishing is the simplest type of cyber attack and at the same time the most dangerous and effective. That’s because it attacks the most vulnerable and powerful computer on the planet: the human mind.”
email phishing
Spoofed emails mimic or impersonate an email from a legitimate sender and ask you to take some action. Well-executed skits will contain familiar branding and content, often from a large, well-known company like PayPal or Apple. Common email phishing spam messages include:
- a request to pay an outstanding bill
- a request to reset your password or verify your account
- verification of purchases you did not make
- request for updated billing information
tech support scams
In a tech support scam, the spam message indicates that you have a technical problem and should contact tech support by calling the phone number or clicking a link in the message. Just like email phishing, this type of spam often claims to come from a big tech company like microsoft or a cybersecurity company like malwarebytes.
If you think you have a technical problem or malware on your computer, tablet, or smartphone, you should always visit the official website of the company you want to call for support to find the legitimate contact information. Remote tech support often involves remote access to your computer to help you, and you don’t want to accidentally give that access to a tech support scammer.
current event scams
Hot news topics can be used in spam messages to get your attention. In 2020, when the world was facing the covid-19 pandemic and there was an increase in work from home, some scammers sent spam messages promising remote jobs paid in bitcoin. During the same year, another popular spam topic related to offering financial help to small businesses, but the scammers eventually asked for bank account details. News headlines can be catchy, but watch out for them when it comes to potential spam.
advance payment scams
This type of spam is likely to be familiar to anyone who has used email since the 1990s or 2000s. Sometimes called “Nigerian Prince” emails, as that was the supposed sender of the message for For many years, this type of spam promises a financial reward if you first provide a cash advance. The sender usually indicates that this cash advance is some sort of processing fee or collateral money to unlock the larger sum, but once you pay, they’re gone. To make it more personal, a similar type of scam involves the sender posing as a family member who is in trouble and needs money, but if they pay, the result is sadly the same.
spam
Short for “malware spam” or “malicious spam”, malspam is a spam message that sends malware to your device. unsuspecting readers who click on a link or open an email attachment end up with some form of malware including ransomware, trojans, bots, data stealers, cryptominers, spyware, and keyloggers. A common method of delivery is to include malicious script in an attachment of a familiar type, such as a word document, pdf file, or powerpoint presentation. once the attachment is opened, the scripts run and retrieve the malware payload.
spam calls and messages
Have you ever received a robocall? that’s called spam. A text message from an unknown sender urging you to click on an unknown link? this is known as text message spam or “smishing”, a combination of sms and phishing.
If you receive spam calls and texts on your android or iphone, most major carriers give you the option to report spam. blocking numbers is another way to combat mobile spam. in the usa In the US, you can add your phone number to the National Do Not Call Registry to try to reduce the number of unwanted sales calls you receive, but you should still be on the lookout for scammers who ignore the list.
how can i stop spam?
While it may not be possible to completely prevent spam, there are steps you can take to help protect yourself from falling for a scam or being phished from a spam message:
learn to detect phishing
we can all be victims of phishing attacks. we can be in a hurry and click on a malicious link without realizing it. If a new type of phishing attack emerges, we may not easily recognize it. To protect yourself, learn to look for some key signs that a spam message isn’t just annoying, it’s a phishing attempt:
- Sender’s email address: If an email from a company is legitimate, the sender’s email address must match the domain of the company they claim to represent. sometimes these are obvious, like example@abkljzr09348.biz, but other times the changes are less noticeable, like example@paypa1.com instead of paypal.com.
- lack of personal information: if it is a customer, the company should have your information and will probably address you by your first name. a missing personal greeting alone isn’t enough to spot a phishing email, but it’s something to look for, especially in messages that say they’re from a company you do business with. Receiving an email saying your account has been locked or you owe money is cause for concern, and sometimes we rush to click on a link to fix the problem. if it’s phishing, that’s exactly what the sender wants, so be careful and check if the email is generic or directed specifically at you.
- links: be careful with all links, including buttons in an email. If you receive a message from a business you have an account with, it’s a good idea to log into your account to see if there’s a message there instead of just clicking the link in the message without checking first. you can contact the company to ask if a suspicious message is legitimate or not. if you have any doubts about a message, don’t click on any links.
- grammatical errors: we all make them, but a company that sends legitimate messages probably won’t have many punctuation errors, poor grammar and spelling errors. these can be another red flag that the email could be suspicious.
- offers too good to be true: Many phishing messages pretend to be from large, well-known companies, hoping to trap readers who do business with the company. other phishing attempts offer something free like cash or a desirable prize. It’s often true that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is, and this can be a warning that a spam message is trying to get something from you, rather than give you something.
- Attachments – Unless you’re expecting an email with attachments, always be careful before opening or downloading them. Using anti-malware software can help by scanning the files you download for malware.
You can learn more about phishing emails and how to spot them on the malwarebytes labs blog.
report spam
Email providers have gotten pretty good at filtering out spam, but when messages arrive in your inbox, you can report them. this is true for spam calls and text messages as many carriers also give you the ability to report spam. You can also choose to block the sender, often in the same step as reporting the message.
reporting spam can help your email or phone service provider improve spam detection. if legitimate emails are sent to your spam filter, it can inform you that they should not be marked as spam and that also provides useful information about what not to filter. Another helpful step is to proactively add senders you want to hear from to your contact list.
use two-factor authentication (2fa)
With two-factor or multi-factor authentication, even if your username and password are compromised through a phishing attack, cybercriminals won’t be able to bypass additional authentication requirements tied to your account. Additional authentication factors include secret questions or verification codes sent to your phone via text message.
install cybersecurity
In the event that you click on a bad link or download malware that was sent to you via spam, good cybersecurity software will recognize the malware and close it before it can harm your system or network. With products for home and business, Malwarebytes has you covered wherever technology takes you.
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spam history
The history of spam begins in 1864, more than a hundred years before the Internet, with a telegram sent en masse to several British politicians. In a prophetic sign of things to come, the telegram was an advertisement for teeth whitening.
The earliest example of unsolicited email dates back to 1978 and the forerunner of the internet: arpanet. This internet proto-spam was an advertisement for a new model of computer from the Digital Equipment Corporation. it worked: people bought the computers.
In the 1980s, people gathered in regional online communities, called bulletin boards (bbses), run by hobbyists on their home servers. In a typical BBS, users could share files, post notices, and exchange messages. During heated online exchanges, users typed the word “spam” over and over again to drown each other out. This was done in reference to a 1970 Monty Python sketch in which a husband and wife eating in a working-class cafe discover that almost everything on the menu contains spam. As the wife argues with the waitress about the prevalence of spam on the menu, a choir of Vikings drowns out the conversation with a song about spam.
The use of the word “spam” in this context, that is, loud and annoying messages, became popular, much to the chagrin of hormel foods, the originator of spam.
On usenet, a precursor to the internet that functions much like today’s internet forums, “spam” was used to refer to excessive postings in multiple forums and threads. Older usenet spam included a fundamentalist religious tract, a political diatribe about the Armenian genocide, and a green card legal services ad.
Spam didn’t start in earnest until the rise of the internet and instant email communication in the early 1990s. Spam reached epidemic proportions with hundreds of billions of spam emails flooding our inboxes.
In 1999, Melissa, the first virus to spread via macro-enabled word documents attached to emails, was unleashed on the digital world. it spread by looting victims’ contact lists and sending spam to everyone the victim knew. In the end, Melissa caused $80 million in damage, according to the FBI.
Without any anti-spam legislation in place, professional spammers rose to prominence, including the self-proclaimed “king of spam” sanford wallace. True to his moniker, Wallace was at one point the biggest sender of unwanted emails and social media spam on sites like MySpace and Facebook.
It wasn’t until the early 2000s that governments around the world began to get serious about regulating spam. In particular, all member countries of the European Union and the United Kingdom have laws that restrict spam. Likewise, in 2003, the United States established a set of laws brazenly called the Can-Spam Law (once again, Hormel just can’t get a break). these laws, in usa uu. and abroad, impose restrictions on the content, sending behavior, and unsubscribe compliance of all emails.
At the same time, the major email providers, Microsoft and Google, worked hard to improve spam filtering technology. bill gates predicted that spam would disappear in 2006.
Under these laws, a gallery of unscrupulous spammers, including the King of Spam, were arrested, prosecuted and jailed for endorsing us penny stocks, fake watches and questionable drugs. In 2016, Sanford Wallace was convicted, sentenced to 30 months in prison, and ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution for sending millions of spam messages on Facebook.
and yet spam still exists. sorry, invoice.
Despite the best efforts of legislators, law enforcement, and technology companies, we continue to fight the scourge of malicious and spam email and other digital communications. The fact is that the spam business requires little effort from spammers, few spammers go to jail, and there is a lot of money to be made.
in a joint study on spam between the university of california, berkeley, and the university of california, san diego, researchers observed a zombie network in action and found that 350 million emails were sent by botnet operators emails within a month. Of these hundreds of millions of emails, the spammers got 28 sales. this is a conversion rate of .00001 percent. That said, if spammers continued to spam at that rate, they’d make $3.5 million in a year’s time.
So what exactly are the types of spam that continue to fill our inboxes to the brim, and what can we do about it?