Do you ever wonder why every email account eventually starts to get spam? Not to be confused with the canned mystery meat shown in the picture above, spam is the junk email that we all get overtime. If you want to actually use your email address, you will eventually get spam.
Email addresses are meant to be shared so we can communicate with others. Companies require email addresses for buying things online or creating online accounts. It is the sharing of emails that makes our accounts more vulnerable to spam. Information from databases are stolen all the time, part of that stolen information includes your email. Even if you don't click on any dangerous links that leak your information, other people you know may do it which can leak their email address book; that address book includes your email. And if none of that happens, there are other ways people can get them including going through email accounts one-by-one to see if they are taken.
It is usually not a good idea to open spam email because of the risks involved, but I have included a video below of a guy who replies to spam emails. It think it is a excellent video to watch not only because it is hilarious, but because it can make you more aware of what is out there and what things to look for in scams.
The following video is from Ted Talks which is a great source for inspiring presentations and growth:
Hi April,
ReplyDeleteSometimes I get so frustrated with spam. Unfortunately this class has created quite a lot spam by requiring us to sign up for so many different things like Feedly, twitter, the infographic sight, and so on. My email account now is getting flooded with all kinds of spam as a result. Learning the technologies has been really interesting but the spam is definitely a down side. Great blog. Thanks
First off that was hilarious! But so very accurate. The spam collected in my email is crazy, I spent the better part of an hour last week cleaning out all the junk and spam emails in my inbox. I have had the same email address for 15 years and oh my the amount of garbage I get is unreal. What's scary is you never know what ones you dare open with all the embedded viruses attached. You could lose all your information like passwords, debit card numbers etc jyst by having a little curiosity over a clever subject line.
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