SPAM, ITS NOT JUST ANNOYING . . .

Spam emails are often regarded as just annoying or inconvenient, but the consequences of falling victim to them can be quite severe, so they shouldn’t be taken lightly. There is a reason that phishing emails in 2021 are still the #1 method for hackers to bypass modern security measures like firewalls, strong passwords, and 2-factor authentication. It’s much simpler to trick a person than a computer after all.

WHY DO SPAMMERS SPAM?

The motivation behind these attacks are simple: phishing. Bad actors are hoping that you click on links, open files, or engage with them in any way because that means they can get a foot in the door. They are hoping to open a communication line between you and the scammer, but a secondary consequence can simply be painting a target on your website or inbox.

Even opening some emails is enough to let them know you’ve read their message and signal that they should send more spam your way. It is largely speculative as to why scammers engage in this behaviour, but based on the industries they target, we can safely assume it is a mix between financial gain and scanning for potential future victims.

CAPTCHAS ARE BECOMING LESS EFFECTIVE

Companies that have often been relied upon, like Google and their reCaptcha service (which we use), have fallen behind the curve in preventing these clever bots from smashing your inbox. In some cases, these bot prevention technologies may not seem to work at all, but in fact are blocking a lot of spam, just not enough to cope with the massive volume being sent through.

This is why we have employed a number of methods to prevent these scammers from wasting your time, including our own inhouse spam filter which blocks a continually updated list of common spam words and phrases. 

SOCIAL TAP SPAM FILTER

The main protective techniques we use are in addition to Google reCaptcha, and further protects our clients from scammers based on a number of additional factors. Some of these protective methods include:

  • Filtering content from the top 25 scamming Internet Service providers across the world
  • Blocking spam messages based on an evolving smart list of words and phrases
  • Preventing the injection of links from the website to your inbox
  • Analysing overall browsing behaviour and filters bots based on a threat score
  • Firewall assisting with blocking bad traffic in general, so your website is less affected by fake traffic (edited)

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

The current cost is $5 per month per website.