Cybercriminals are on the offensive. Every day, they send out over 300 billion spam emails, looking to trick people into giving over personal information like their bank details or downloading malicious software. Fortunately, there are safeguards in place to help protect you from these attacks.
In this article, we’ll briefly look at a few common scams perpetrated through emails and how filters are designed to make your inbox more secure.
The Most Common Types of Email Scams
Email scams are attractive to cybercriminals. They provide a high level of anonymity, while simultaneously allowing them to cast a wide net. Most people will ignore these spam emails as blatant frauds. However, the fraudsters only need a small percentage of them to fall for it, and it’s immensely profitable.
Let’s take a look at some of the most common ways scammers use email to pull off their attacks. (NOTE: These aren’t exclusive to emails!)
Get Rich Quick Schemes
These emails promise to help you quit your job or become a millionaire overnight. The subject lines often read “Learn How I Make $$ On Amazon!” or “I Retired At 30, So Can!” Unfortunately, they never make good on their deal and keep the secrets to themselves.
Lose Weight Fast & Fix Your…. “Performance”
Another common email scam targets people's insecurities, whether it’s how they look or health/diet-related issues. For instance, there are miracle diets to help shave off pounds before the weekend or vitamin pills that can help a man grow in the trousers. No matter how alluring the subject line, they’re often lies and the products don’t work.
Phishing Scams
These types of scams are called “fishing” because they try to bait and trick you into giving over information. This can be credit card details or bank login info. Typically, they’re dressed up to look like they come from the real source and can be difficult to spot if you aren’t careful.
How Do Email Filters Stop Spam?
Thanks to spam filters, a lot of these fake and fraudulent emails are sent to our “Spam” and “Junk” folders. How they work is they filter based on various parameters because, fortunately, a lot of these spam tactics have a lot of similarities.
These are some of the criteria and areas looked at by filters:
- Content
- Blacklist
- Heuristic
- Headers
- Language
Interested in learning how you can protect yourself and your business from spam and scams with our secure, cloud-based email filtering system? Reach out to us today to schedule a consultation and see what our spam filtering solution can do for you!