Experts discuss spam emails, texts and calls in this week’s Scam Watch with James Walker from Rightly and Louise Baxter from the National Trading Standards Scams Team.
Scam of the week: Spam scams
Spam! We all get it, via email, texts and calls. Some of it arrives from genuine companies, but increasingly it comes from scammers trying to phish for your data and trick you into their criminal web.
We all get a certain amount of spam, and some people get an awful lot of it. Spam emails, spam phone calls, spam texts, it can all start to feel pretty invasive. Not only is it irritating, but spam emails can also be used to push scams and even deliver malware into phones and computers.
What is spam?
Spam is any type of unwanted communication that’s sent out in bulk. It can refer to unsolicited emails, calls or texts, or any other form of digital junk mail. While spam tends to be from companies, some of it gets sent by scammers. Over 94 percent of malware is sent to computers via spam email.
Some spam messages are sent because legitimate companies are trying to sell you something, like clothes or supplements, or making offers about sales or holidays or a must-have gadget. But, the hackers and scammers are out there every day cooking up new ways to get to you, exposing you to a host of security threats. These include scammers aiming to steal your identity, credit card information, and more.
Every day, Gmail blocks over 100 million phishing emails. But that still means a lot still gets…
