Email threat types: Spam

Spam is unsolicited bulk email messages, also known as junk email. Spammers typically send an email to millions of addresses, with the expectation that only a small number of recipients will respond to the message. Spammers gather email addresses from a variety of sources, including using software to harvest them from address books. The collected email addresses are often also sold to other spammers.

Spam comes in various forms. Some spam emails push scams. Others are used to conduct email fraud. Spam also comes in the form of phishing emails that use brand impersonation to trick users into revealing personal information, such as login credentials and credit card details.

 

 

Spam costs businesses about $20 billion per year in losses. It lowers productivity by flooding inboxes with junk mail and has a negative impact on email server performance. Email security gateways are effective at blocking spam; inline deployment of spam filters helps stop spam before it hits the inbox.

The Barracuda Email Threat Scanner can help you discover spam-related threats that have made it past your defenses. Visit our website here to run a free scan on your Office 365 mailboxes.

Spam is one of the email threat types examined in our free e-book, 13 Email Threat Types to Know About Right Now. Barracuda Total Email Protection offers a complete suite of email protection to help defend your company from these attacks. For more information on how to protect yourself, download the e-book here. 

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