Stopping email spam dead in its track is our forte here at Mail Cleaner. But that’s not the only sort of spam out there…
Spam Profiles
In early December, Facebook-owned social photo sharing website Instagram deleted millions of accounts that it believed to be distributing spam. “We’ve been deactivating spammy accounts from Instagram on an ongoing basis to improve your experience,” wrote chief executive and founder Kevin Systrom.
In 2012, Facebook estimated that they have up to 83 million fake accounts. “On Facebook we have a really large commitment in general to finding and disabling false accounts,” Facebook’s chief security officer Joe Sullivan told CNN in an interview. Our entire platform is based on people using their real identities.” Many of The profiles are aimed at spreading spam or tricking users into joining affiliate programs, all of which translate into real-world money for the scammers. Learn how to spot the fake profiles.
Instant Message Spam (Spim)
Spim is spam delivered through instant messaging (IM) instead of through email. Even with the implementation of Report as Spam functionality, some of the major instant message providers have become swamped with malware delivering spim accounts. Not even video messaging site Skype has been immune, with hundreds of malware Skype profiles reported to have been set up. However there are ways to protect yourself from spim, one being to change your settings to block messages from anyone not your buddy list, or to allow messages only from those on a permission list.
Letterbox Spam
Junk mail has been around longer than spam but has it become just as big a problem and are the two interlinked, with address details harvested online used to bring spam right to (and through) your front door? In late 2012, Royal Mail confirmed that almost half of the 54 million items that it delivers every day are ‘marketing’ mail paid for by companies.
If you are having a problem with the overall amount of junk mail that is addressed to you, it could help to register your name and address with the Mailing Preference Service (MPS).
Spam Comments
We’ve all seen the bogus comments that often follow a favourite Youtube video, blog post or product review. These are often non-sensical collections of words or seek to promote an alternative product or service. It’s wise to avoid clicking on any links posted in such comments.
Tasty Spam!
There the harmless canned meat kind of Spam of course and even Monty Python’s playful spam.
But of course, normal email spam is what’s rally on our minds…and if you want to see the extent of the challenge we meet every day for our clients, take a look at these maps of global spam volumes and trends —
Trend Micro Global Spam Map and Cisco SenderBase.