{"id":52974,"date":"2025-02-05T10:36:46","date_gmt":"2025-02-05T15:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/?p=52974"},"modified":"2025-02-05T10:36:46","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T15:36:46","slug":"how-to-protect-against-spam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/how-to-protect-against-spam\/52974\/","title":{"rendered":"Spam 101: what is spam, and how to defeat it"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>\u201cHello, this is your distant relative from Nigeria. I\u2019m writing because I have a terminal illness and no other living relatives. My dying wish is to transfer my inheritance of $100 million to you while I still can\u2026\u201d<\/em> \u2014 we\u2019ve all probably received an email like this at some point during our online existence. Originally known as \u201cNigerian prince\u201d scams, today they bear the label \u201c419\u201d (after the section of the Nigerian Criminal Code dealing with fraud). These days, however, instead of a \u201cNigerian prince\u201d, you\u2019re more likely to receive a letter from a fake employee of a bank, online store, or delivery service\u00a0\u2014 or even\u2026 the President of the United States.<\/p>\n<p>This post looks at the most common types of spam emails, and explains what to do if one lands in your inbox.<\/p>\n<h2>Emails from investors, philanthropists, and other rich people<\/h2>\n<p>This is perhaps the oldest \u2014 and most common \u2014 email scam scenario. Even in 2025, benefactors of all stripes are queuing up to <a href=\"https:\/\/securelist.com\/nigerian-scams-2024\/115388\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hand over their hard-earned cash to you in particular<\/a>. Such emails are nothing if not formulaic: a fabulously rich individual (a) describes their source of wealth, (b) mentions a problem, and (c) proposes a solution. Let\u2019s take a look at each step in turn:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>source of wealth<\/strong> can be anything: an inheritance, an incredibly profitable business in a faraway land, or a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/cryptowallet-free-seed-phrase-scam\/52810\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">discovered crypto wallet<\/a> worth millions.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>problem<\/strong> can also vary \u2014 from a fatal disease to a burning desire to donate everything to charity, and your help is needed.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>solution<\/strong> is always the same: the money needs to be transferred to your account ASAP.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Of course, if you reply with your deepest condolences and bank details, it\u2019s unlikely that the promised millions will materialize. Instead, the scammers will use every tool in the box to get you transfer cash to them. For example, this may take the form of a \u201ctransfer fee\u201d they can\u2019t pay themselves for some reason.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t believe such an email, even if it seems to come from the U.S. president. Riding the wave of the Donald Trump phenomenon, spammers have launched a new-old scam in which they email potential victims pretending to be the White House incumbent, who <em>for some reason<\/em> has decided to give US$15 million to a handful of lucky souls around the world. To claim your millions, you only need to reply to the email, whereupon the fake Donald will ask you to follow a link and enter your bank details, or pay a fee to have the funds transferred to your account.<\/p>\n<h2>Delivery scams<\/h2>\n<p>Spam arrives from spoofed email addresses of delivery services, marketplaces, and online stores. The message is simplicity itself: <em>\u201cDear customer, we are having problems with sending your goods and kindly ask that you pay a surcharge for delivery.\u201d<\/em> You\u2019re asked to pay for delivery by following a link to a web page that asks for your bank details at the very least, and often also your home address. You can find examples of such spam in our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/delivery-payment-scam\/38281\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Delivery payment fraud<\/a> post.<\/p>\n<p>There are more complex variations of this scheme. Just as \u201cphilanthropists\u201d, \u201cinvestors\u201d, and \u201cNigerian princes\u201d spin yarns about their imminent death from covid-19 as a pretext to make contact, delivery scammers also exploit current events. Last year, for instance, ahead of International Women\u2019s Day, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/international-womens-day-scam-2024\/50745\/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CFlowers%20for%20our%20regular%20customers!%E2%80%9D\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">we warned readers of a flower delivery scam<\/a>: cybervillains introduce themselves as flower-shop employees offering free bouquets \u2014 except that delivery charges are covered by the recipient. You guessed it: no one gets any flowers, and the \u201cdelivery fee\u201d (as well as the bank card details) are lost.<\/p>\n<h2>Compensation scams<\/h2>\n<p>If you\u2019ve swallowed the bait once, there\u2019s a high risk you\u2019ll be offered some more \u2014 but under a different guise. Masquerading as a bank, law enforcement agency, or international organization, scammers may offer to pay compensation: allegedly you\u2019ve been the victim of fraud and the targeted institution is reaching out to those affected.<\/p>\n<p>Alternatively, the senders of the fake email may pose as \u201cfellow victims\u201d who are seeking out others in the same boat: if we all chip in, they say, we can hire a merry band of Robin Hood hackers who, for a reward, will get all our money back.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/92\/2025\/02\/05103354\/how-to-protect-against-spam-01.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-52978\" src=\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/92\/2025\/02\/05103354\/how-to-protect-against-spam-01.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1217\" height=\"242\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Spammers can even pose as top managers of large banks. In this case, the email will weave a tale about how ~<em>\u201c\u2026 bad employees tried to steal your money, but we, the good managers, are ready to compensate you for the inconvenience.\u201d<\/em> But of course, there\u2019ll be no compensation at all \u2014 it\u2019s just a pretext for further extortion.<\/p>\n<h2>What to do if spam lands in your inbox<\/h2>\n<p>The first step is to identify it as such. Nowadays, most email clients automatically send unsolicited and suspicious messages to the Spam folder, but if one does sneak into your inbox, you need to identify it yourself. Carefully examine the text of the email for spelling and grammar mistakes, check the sender address, and ask yourself a few questions:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Is it relevant to me?<\/li>\n<li>Why has a millionaire uncle I\u2019ve never heard of suddenly got in touch?<\/li>\n<li>Where did they get my email address?<\/li>\n<li>Why should I pay to receive the money?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>By answering these four questions honestly, you\u2019ll know whether the email in front of you is spam or not. Here are our tips to reduce the amount of spam in your inbox:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t respond.<\/strong> Even if the sender wants to give you a million bucks, buy you a new smartphone, or help you get back something stolen.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t disclose personal information.<\/strong> Threat actors can scrape your name, phone number, and email address from a social network where you\u2019ve kindly provided them yourself.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t follow suspicious links. <\/strong>It\u2019s quite easy to distinguish real links from fake ones: our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/safe-email-login-tips\/52857\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Passwords 101: don\u2019t enter your passwords just anywhere they\u2019re asked for<\/a> post explains how. Easier still is to install reliable protection on all your devices: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/premium?icid=gl_bb2023-kdplacehd_acq_ona_smm__onl_b2c_kdaily_lnk_sm-team___kprem___\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Kaspersky Premium<\/a>\u00a0automatically blocks redirects to malicious sites \u2014 keeping you safe.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t enter your data.<\/strong> If you impulsively followed a link in an email, or responded to the sender in some way, and now you\u2019re having doubts, don\u2019t under any circumstances enter personal or payment information. A request for such data is the same as hanging out a red flag saying \u201cWe are scammers!\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Report fraud. <\/strong>Here are the instructions on <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/messages\/answer\/9061432?hl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">how to report spam in Google Mail<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/support.apple.com\/en-us\/111104\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">how to filter messages on Apple devices<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<input type=\"hidden\" class=\"category_for_banner\" value=\"premium-generic\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It feels as if spam is as old as the internet itself. The post looks at the money-making scams devised over the years, and how to avoid them today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2754,"featured_media":52975,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1788],"tags":[726,240,131],"class_list":{"0":"post-52974","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-privacy","8":"tag-scam","9":"tag-spam","10":"tag-tips"},"hreflang":[{"hreflang":"x-default","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/how-to-protect-against-spam\/52974\/"},{"hreflang":"en-in","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.in\/blog\/how-to-protect-against-spam\/28537\/"},{"hreflang":"en-ae","url":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/how-to-protect-against-spam\/23778\/"},{"hreflang":"en-gb","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/how-to-protect-against-spam\/28651\/"},{"hreflang":"es-mx","url":"https:\/\/latam.kaspersky.com\/blog\/how-to-protect-against-spam\/27942\/"},{"hreflang":"es","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.es\/blog\/how-to-protect-against-spam\/30743\/"},{"hreflang":"ru","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.ru\/blog\/how-to-protect-against-spam\/39010\/"},{"hreflang":"tr","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.tr\/blog\/how-to-protect-against-spam\/13145\/"},{"hreflang":"fr","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.fr\/blog\/how-to-protect-against-spam\/22566\/"},{"hreflang":"pt-br","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.br\/blog\/how-to-protect-against-spam\/23393\/"},{"hreflang":"de","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.de\/blog\/how-to-protect-against-spam\/31932\/"},{"hreflang":"ru-kz","url":"https:\/\/blog.kaspersky.kz\/how-to-protect-against-spam\/28781\/"},{"hreflang":"en-au","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/how-to-protect-against-spam\/34606\/"},{"hreflang":"en-za","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.za\/blog\/how-to-protect-against-spam\/34235\/"}],"acf":[],"banners":"","maintag":{"url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/tag\/spam\/","name":"spam"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2754"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52974"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52979,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52974\/revisions\/52979"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}