Filters to Weed Out Pesky Spam Emails
Spam is a major problem which affects virtually every single internet user all around the globe. Spam is any abuse of a digital messaging system to send out unsolicited bulk emails to people that never requested them. Spam can trace its root right back to when the internet was in its infancy. In the early 1990's, when the internet was just getting started, spam sprung to life and began infiltrate people's inboxes. Read on to find out how to get spam mail out of your inbox.
Types of Spam
While spam started out affecting just emails, it now affects virtually all forms of electronic communication including cell phone SMS messages, blog comments, forum posts, and instant messaging communication. Around 80% of the emails sent every day are thought to be spam, which shows that it's putting a significant strain on the infrastructure.
The reason why spamming is so popular is because of the simplicity and ease at which a spammer can send out bulk emails. It's also very cheap to set up a spamming campaign. Although most countries consider spam as illegal there are still some which will not make it illegal. This makes it impossible to press charges against some offenders.
Problems with Spam
The biggest cost caused by spam will be paid by the ISP's who have to pay increased bandwidth charges as a result of increase network traffic. However, spam also causes problems for many other people because of increased fraud, wasted time, and various other scams.
It's estimated that businesses all over America lose around $100 billion per year in lost productivity due to spam.
Spam Filters
Because spam is such a major problem there are many people who offer solutions to fix it. There are all sorts of spam filters and anti-spam scanners. While these do work, you will never be able to completely get rid of all spam.
Spam filters are actually pretty reliable and you might already be using one if you don't know it. If you use Gmail or another free email account then many of these have built in spam filter software. If you do use these then you will probably already realize the problems with using these features.
The main problem is that some of the emails that get put into your junk email folder aren't actually junk. A spam filter is very useful but you cannot trust it to classify everything correctly. It's important that you check your junk box on a regular basis to ensure that nothing you want to read was accidentally put there by your spam filter.
While filters are useful you can't afford to assume that they will make the right decisions all of the time.
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