Tips for Dealing with Spam Email

From Your Friends at Integrity Computer Consulting and Repair

We have seen an unprecedented rise in spam email, spoofing and phishing attacks are on the rise as well.  Unfortunately we see these continuing and increasing into the future.  

 Here are a few best practices and tips keep it to a minimum: 

1. When in doubt, do not open the email. Many spam emails have attractive subject lines to get you to open the email.  When that happens, the sender/spammer is notified with analytics and they will keep sending emails to you.
2. Do not reply to spam or spoofed emails. Google the business and call the number from there if you are unsure of an email's legitimacy.
3. Email management is key.  Do not delete these messages.  Move them to your spam filter or mark them as junk, often this is as simple as a checkmark or a right-click on the message in the email list to do this.  It can be done in Outlook and the web portals for all email providers. All mail servers are heuristic and actively and constantly learn how users use their email.  The more you move to spam and junk, the more your email provider will start to put there automatically.
4. Never respond to emails asking you to verify information like phone numbers, credit card info, etc. These are phishing emails and are 100% never legitimate.  If you have fallen victim to a phishing email, please call our office so we can assist you in securing the account that was compromised.
5. Unsubscribe from those pesky newsletters you signed up for. Scroll down to the bottom of the email and hit that link to unsubscribe.  It can be automatic or they will give you a list of options to unsubscribe from.
6. Covet your business and personal email addresses.  Is saving 50¢ on a gallon of milk, gas, etc, worth years of daily headache with spam emails and also giving businesses the ability to sell your information or lose it in a data breach?  It's more common than you think.
7. Set up a separate email for those spammy newsletters, loyalty programs, etc.

 As always you can send questionable emails to us for evaluation.  Send them to info@integrityidaho.net. However, as most of these emails are spam, they do get caught in our spam and junk filters.  If you do not receive a response, please call our office at 208.288.4345 and check to make sure we have received it.