spam emails

Don’t you just hate receiving spam emails? They crowd your inbox, bombard you with offers of products you don’t want, and even cause annoyance. Sorting through spam emails can take up much of your time that you can use for other more productive activities. If you don’t like receiving spam emails, then you’re among the many people who share the same sentiment. Unfortunately, the Virginia Supreme Court has declared that the state’s anti-spam law is unconstitutional, which means that spammers will have less reasons to stop spamming.

In 2004, Jeremy Jaynes became the first person in the United States to be convicted for the offense of sending many spam emails. Authorities stated that Jaynes was able to send up to 10 million spam emails in a day from his home, which is in Raleigh, North Carolina. Back then, Jaynes was sentenced to stay in prison for nine years. Although Jaynes lived in North Carolina, he was charged in Virginia because the spam emails he sent went through an AOL server in that area.

In 2008, though, the Virginia Supreme Court reversed the conviction of Jaynes and declared that the state’s anti-spam law as constitutional. This was brought about by Jaynes’ claim that the anti-spam law goes against the free speech protections provided by the First Amendment.

Now that the Virginia Supreme Court has struck down its anti-spam law, chances are spammers will continue to send more spam emails. It’s advisable for you to guard your email against spam by using spam filters and by ignoring and deleting spam that gets to your inbox.

If you check your email account often, then you’ve most likely received unsolicited messages regarding various products. These are spam emails that are meant to entice you to click on the link and take you to a website where you can buy the products.

Studies conducted by some individuals from Berkeley and UCSD have found that it takes only one in 12.5 million conversions to make spam profitable. The researchers hijacked the Storm worm botnet, which is deemed responsible for around 20 percent of all spam. Dummy sites were set up in place of the real site, complete with inventories and shopping carts, but an error would result once a would-be customer presses the checkout button. This set-up allowed the researchers to study how spam interaction actually went. The researchers came up with a theory that the persons behind the creation of the sites were the ones who spearheaded the creation and use of spambots.

Other interesting findings include results on which of the popular free email clients are most effective against spam emails. It turns out that Hotmail was practically impermeable by spam emails, while Barracuda email accounts were the most susceptible to being infiltrated by spam. Gmail didn’t let in as much spam email as Barracuda, while Yahoo! succeeded in keeping out most spam emails.

Majority of the spam emails created by the Storm worm were sent to people in India, France, and the United States. The researchers believe that those who took the bait were probably not as educated about spam emails as those who did not respond to spam.

If you have a free email account, then you probably receive lots of spam emails every day. These spam emails may go directly into your spam folder, although there are some that get through spam filters of your email client and land in your inbox. These spam emails may contain viruses and spyware, or even be used for phishing. But why are these spam emails so prevalent?

* Spammers spam because spam email works. Although many people are careful not to open spam emails and delete them immediately, there are those who read spam emails and click on links. Advertisers gain revenue from these clicks and keep on sending spam emails to more individuals.
* Spammers keep spamming because sending spam emails is cheap. One of the main reasons why advertisers choose spam for publicity is that spam is very inexpensive. Sending emails is free, so spammers can send to as many people as they want. Even if only a very small percentage of recipients actually clink on their link, sending spam is still worth a try for them.

* Spammers send more spam because spam emails are hard to eliminate. Although Internet service providers and software companies are working to battle spam, there are still many people who choose to send unsolicited commercial emails to a large number of individuals. There are, however, some measures you can take to decrease the number of spam emails going to your email. When you spot spam emails, mark them as spam so that your email will recognize similar messages as spam too.

If you’re using a free email service and you use your email address when signing up for various social networking sites and promotions online, then you most likely receive a lot of spam emails. Spam emails are unwanted commercial emails from people you don’t know. If you’re using an email client that intercepts spam emails and puts them in a spam folder, then you wouldn’t have to sift through these emails. There are times, though, when these spam emails get through and are deposited in your email’s inbox. When this happens, it’s advisable to report the spam emails so that authorities can take action.

Spam emails may contain spyware, viruses, and malicious computer programs that can harm your files and even your whole computer. It’s also possible for spam emails to be used for phishing. When spam emails are used for phishing,  spammers can have access to your personal information and they can use these information for identity theft. If you receive any spam emails that you think are deceptive, it would be good for you to forward it to spam@uce.gov. The Federal Trade Commission of the United States uses the spam stored in that email database to work toward enforcing the law against people who send deceptive spam emails.

You can also browse through the help topics provided by your server. These may include information about spam, how to detect spam, how to protect your email account from spam, and even how you can report spam emails.

Spam emails can cause your email account to be flooded with useless and even potentially harmful messages. These spam emails can infiltrate your computer and give it viruses, malicious programs, or spyware. There are various ways by which you can lessen the number of spam emails you receive at your email account.

* Use a different email when registering for various websites online. Do you love joining various social networking sites? These sites will most likely ask you for your email address. A good thing to do would be to create a different email account and use this account when signing up for various sites or for entering promotions. Even though websites usually state that they guarantee your email is safe, spammers can still find ways to get emails from various sites. Using a different email for various sites than the one you use for important correspondence lessens your chances of getting spam emails at your official email account. You can even send your registration emails to your official email account so you won’t have to keep checking two accounts.

* Use your email account’s spam filter. When you see spam emails in your inbox, mark them as spam. By doing this, your email will be able to recognize similar messages as spam.

* Don’t click on unsubscribe links. Although spam emails promise to take you off their mailing list when you click the unsubscribe link, this isn’t always true. In fact, when you click the link, spammers will just send their mail to you via a different email account because all you did was verify that your email account is indeed active and that you are opening and reading emails.